A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord (Isaiah 58:4-5). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Imagine a world that is cold and silent toward pain and human suffering. Try to envision a place where everything is driven by self-indulgence and life is all about financial profit, business transactions, and the bottom line. A society where politics and government are more about attaining and maintaining power than serving and protecting the nation and citizens. Countless people are being dehumanized. The sanctity of human life is determined by usefulness, cost-benefit analysis, convenience, and the god of choice. In this world there are no prayers, liturgies, hymns, sermons, or Sacraments. And so, love and compassion are rare commodities. This i...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is Matthew 25:31-46, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It was 3:00 a.m. A piercing scream woke me. I thought it was the fire alarm, until I realized it was my own sweet baby daughter. Through the fog of my interrupted sleep I somehow realized that I was not equipped with the physical ability to nurse the famished little girl, especially at such an ungodly hour. So I nudged Aimee, who never has been as light a sleeper as I am. “She’s awake,” I said. Her response came so quickly I can only imagine that she had been rehearsing it every day while she’d been taking it easy in the hospital. “What’s your point?” Always the patient one, I said calmly and quite rationally: “She’s hungry. I can’t feed her. I don’t have the right equipment.” Again, it was like she had it all planned out. “Well, she probably also has a dirty diaper and the last time I noticed you still h...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In the popular song, the little drummer boy tags along with the Magi to see Baby Jesus. Arriving at His house in Bethlehem, the Magi fall down in worship, offering Him fine gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. But the little drummer boy is sad because he has no gift to bring that’s fit to give the King. So here we are this evening—in His house, bringing gifts for the King. So, what sorts of gifts have you brought Him? Did you, perhaps, dress up in your nicest clothes to honor Him? Dressing up for God’s house is a good and worthy practice, to be sure—a way of remembering whose presence you are entering. But I’m sure the shepherds were just as welcome when they arrived to meet Baby Jesus in their everyday work clothes. How about offerings? Offerings are gifts, too. Offerings of money—that’s what we usually think of, but of course, there are other things. Time is a...

Click here to listen to this sermon? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! And as [Jesus] was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:17-18). This interaction between Jesus and the man reminds me of a line from The Princess Bride . Throughout the movie, the evil Vizzini constantly states that things are “Inconceivable!” Eventually ,  an exasperated Inigo Montoya looks at him and says: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” There are several words the man in our Gospel seems to misunderstand. The first is “good.” “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” In essence, “You keep using that word, ‘good.’ I do not think it means what you t...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Lord Himself speaks in the verses preceding our text from the 58 th chapter of Isaiah: “ Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to My people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of Me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.” Isaiah is to lift up his voice, to shout “like a trumpet” to proclaim the rebellion of God’s people. Notice how this rebellion is described. It’s a passive-aggressive sort of rebellion. It seems as if the people are eager to know the ways of the Lord. They observe the worship regulations, including fasting and observation of the Sabbath, outlined in the Law of Moses. They ask God for righteous judgments and seem to be eager t...

Giotto, Last Judgment, Scrovegni Chapel Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you ready for a pop quiz?   I’m going to read a quote and I want you to determine whether it is a statement of sound doctrine or false teaching.   Don’t worry.   I’m not taking grades.   I’m not even going to ask you to raise your hands.   Just listen and answer in your own mind.   Give yourself bonus points if you can identify the source.   “At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds.   And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.   This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.” So, is it sound doctrine or false teaching?   It’s sound doctrine.   In fact, it’s part of on...