A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:22b-25a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Five people are on the roof of a tall, burning building. Their only way out is to jump across a 25-feet wide alley to a nearby building. One person jumps ten feet. Another jumps four, another 12, another eight. One real athlete even jumps 22 feet. But in the end, there is no difference. All fall short of their goal and die. That, my friends, is a picture of our spiritual life. By nature, we’re all trapped in the dangerous hold of sin, which threatens to take away our life and destroy our soul. None of us can make the great leap from sin to righteousness. Oh, by human standards some may look better tha...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It is fitting for us to be here today. Three of the most important dates in the lives of David and Ardyce DeWitte happened here in Jasper, Minnesota at Trinity Lutheran Church—their baptisms, confirmation, and marriage. They were united in marriage here on October 12, 1948, a joyous occasion, no doubt, the start of a family blessed with six children, five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild, and their spouses. But their connection to one another and Trinity began much earlier. Ardyce Elaine Bauman was baptized here on November 2, 1924. David John DeWitte was baptized here a little over one month later, on December 14, 1924. Both Ardyce and David publicly confessed their faith on May 28, 1939. Psalm 24:4-5 is David’s confirmation verse: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swe...

Depiction of Cyrus the Great by  Jean Fouquet , 1470. Click here to listen to this sermon. “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed” (Isaiah 45:1).      Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Cyrus was the king of Persia, who conquered the great Babylonian empire in 539 BC. It was a surprisingly easy victory considering the reputation the army of Babylon had for ruthlessness. As Cyrus’ army surrounded the city of Babylon, the priests of Marduk surrendered, declared him to be Marduk’s chosen new monarch, and then opened the city gates to allow him to enter peacefully. The Babylonians had been the ones who had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and had deported the Jews from Judah and Jerusalem. The prophets had explained that this devastating work had been the judgme...

"The Wicked Vinedresser" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon. “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit” (Matthew 21:33-34). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Are you familiar with the term “reprise” when it is applied to a song? A song reprise is usually a repeat by the same artist of the same song with some improvements or change in style or music of that song—like “Let It Go” in the soundtrack for the recent Disney film Frozen . Or “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on the Beatles album of the same name. You might call our Gospel text a “reprise.” Jesus essentially draws His parable from the song of the vineyard that God had sung through Isaiah seven centu...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In the events that led up to the sermon text for today, a multitude followed Jesus. Some were true followers, that is, His disciples. Others there were people in desperate need of the Savior’s healing Word. It seems likely there were people in attendance from the previous day’s Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. No doubt there were children whose lips had offered praise. There were also known sinners like tax-collectors and prostitutes. And there were the chief priests and elders who sought to discredit and rid themselves of Jesus by arresting Him. These chief priests and elders were examples of men who were inside the Church but outside the kingdom. They refused to receive the gift of repentance and they were hardening their own hearts. When they questioned Jesus’ authority in the temple, he turned the tables by asking them a question about John the Baptist, a question th...