A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let this be the Law for Ash Wednesday: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Those are simple words, but powerful ones. They’re surprisingly difficult for me to say while putting ashes on your foreheads. I can’t help but think of the scores of men, women, and children whose bodies I have committed to the ground with similar words. These words were first spoken to Adam to describe the curse and the consequences of sin, the first announcement of death. God made them holy to live forever with Him, but they defied His Word and threw their holiness away. As a result, the Lord said to Adam, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It didn’t happen all at once that day, but Adam eventually crumbled away. You are dust, and to dust you shall return. That’s why hair falls out and skin gets waxy. It’s why arteries clog and valves leak, why eyesight fails and can...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people (Joel 2:12-15). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! We find our identity is very much tied to our family—for better or worse. Healthy families do lots of different things together that bind them as family. Some families work together. Other families play together. But one of the things that binds together families the most is when they gather to share a meal. Hence, those family meals...

"Nathan Rebukes David, as in 2 Samuel 12" by James I. Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A star athlete gets intoxicated, starts a fight, and spends the night in jail. The next afternoon, he holds a press conference: “I’m ashamed of what I did,” he says. “That’s not who I am.” A politician gets caught in an adulterous affair. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’ve embarrassed my family and damaged my reputation. That’s not who I am.” A comedian gets pushback for an offensive tweet. “That comment was inappropriate,” she says. "I’m sorry if I offended anyone. It’s not who I am.” Others take the opposite approach. They refuse to recognize their sin as sin, insisting “This is who I am. God doesn’t make mistakes, so He wouldn’t have made me this way, if it is wrong.” As Lady Gaga preaches acceptance of alterna...

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Click here to listen to this sermon.   The text for today is our Gospel, Matthew 6, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ! The theme for our midweek Lenten and Holy Week services this year is “When You Pray, Say…”   Through readings of the passion narrative, hymns on prayer, and sermons we will focus upon the 3 rd chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism—The Lord’s Prayer. You might be thinking: “The Lord’s Prayer for Lent… that seems strange. What does the Lord’s Prayer have to do with Lent?” Well, historically, Lent has been a time of intense catechesis (teaching the basic doctrines of the Christian faith). Lent is a time of repentance and somber reflection. That makes the focus on the teachings of the Lord’s Prayer from the Catechism especially appropriate. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of repentance. It turns us away from ourselves and toward our heavenly Father. It reminds us of the many things He pr...