A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is an adaptation of a sermon written by James Lamb in 2007 when he was the executive director of Lutherans For Life. “The Lord called Me from the womb, from the body of My mother He named My name” (Isaiah 49:1). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Why a womb? If you were God and wanted to bring salvation to the “end of the earth”… if you were God and wanted to defeat sin, death, and Satan… if you were God and wanted to be glorified in all of this… why enter the world through a womb? Why not ride in on a white horse brandishing a sword accompanied by legions of angels and blazing chariots? Why a womb? The Word of God before us today provides answers to this question. God will teach us that the Messiah would be called from the womb to identify with and bring salvation for all humanity. Why a womb? First, it took a womb to properly equip the Messiah for the task of bringing salvation to the “en...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The text for this first Sunday after Christmas is Matthew 2:18: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” So, how was your Christmas?   I dare say, far better than Rachel’s.   Far better than the mothers of Bethlehem who grieve the death of their baby boys.   So, whose idea was it to put this dreadful text into our readings for this Sunday?   Where’s the quiet pastoral scene with adoring shepherds, and lowing cattle, and the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay?   The wise men bearing gifts for the Child?   Where’s the peace on earth, good will toward men?   The tidings of comfort and joy?   Alas, Rachel weeps!   She refuses to be comforted, because her children are no more.   Worse than that, the Rachel here is not ...

Click this link to hear an audio version of this sermon The text for today is our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 62:1-5, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine a prisoner, sitting chained in a dark dungeon for years.   The hopelessness, the loneliness, the desolation, the feeling of being totally forsaken by everyone, including God.   Nothing could be sadder, could it? Actually, it could be sadder.   It is sadder.   Because what this prisoner doesn’t realize is that she is not alone.   The darkness has kept her from seeing that there are many other sisters and brothers right there all around her.   The silence—hers and that of her fellow captives—has kept her from realizing that she is not alone.   Many others are held in the same chains.   And to make matters even worse, the darkness and silence have kept all of them from realizing that the doors to their prison were...

Here is the devotion, adapted from a sermon by Rev. John T. Pless that I will be sharing at the Annual Meeting of Lutherans For Life of SD. The text is Epistle for Epiphany 3 that many of our congregations will be using on Sunday, January 15, 2012: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20: “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes...