A Famine Not of Bread

"The Miraculous Draught of Fishes" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. Leann, Toby, Shane, family, a...

"John the Baptist in Prison" by Cornelis Galle the Younger Click here to listen to this sermon. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me” (Matthew 11:2-6). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In his weekly radio program, Garrison Keillor would end by saying that in Lake Wobegon all the children are above average. Fictitious or not, there is some truth in this. Every parent’s child has hidden talents waiting to be discovered. Our job as parents and teachers is to recognize their abilities and help them to perfect them. Without a se...

"Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue" by James I Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “[Jesus] went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him. And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him ” (Mark 6:1–3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As usual, St. Mark gets right to business. He tells us that right after healing the woman of a 12-year hemorrhage and raising a little girl from the dead in Capernaum, Jesus returns “to His hometown” (Nazareth) with His disciples. It is not a social call, a chance to renew old acquaintances and catch up with the homefolk...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Three days after He called His first disciples, Jesus arrived with them at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, a small town about nine miles north of Nazareth. Jesus’ mother was also there. We don’t know what connection they had with the wedding except Jesus’ mother was close enough to the bride and groom to be involved with the serving and to assume some authority over the servants. Then the wine ran out. To be sure, it was not a crisis or an emergency, but it was embarrassing, a major first century social faux pas. Why they ran out of wine doesn’t matter. The text does not say, so we leave it alone. What does matter is that the stage was set for the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ mother came to Him. “They have no wine,” she said....

Click this link to listen to an audio version of this message. Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue by James Tissot The text for today is our Gospel, Luke 4:16-30, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We have in our assigned readings for today examples of one of the longest sermons in Scripture and the shortest.  Ezra reads the Book of the Law of Moses “from early morning until mid-day”—a period of about six hours.  Jesus reads two verses of Isaiah and preaches a one sentence sermon.  When Ezra finishes, the people bow their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground.  When the people in the synagogue hear all Jesus has to say, they are filled with wrath, rise up, and drive Him out of town, so that they can throw Him down the cliff. It would seem that in ancient days the longer the sermon, the better it is received by the hearers.  But I somehow suspect that would...