A Famine Not of Bread

Winnewissa Falls, Pipestone National Monument Click here to listen to this sermon. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Today is the Day of Pentecost, which commemorates Christ’s sending of the Holy Spirit to His Church. The Church lives and moves and has her being through the gracious inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Without God’s Spirit, no one could come to Christ or believe in Him. No one would be saved. The fifty-day celebration of Easter ends with this joyous festival. The risen and ascended Savior has sent the Holy Spirit to be our Sanc...

"St. Peter Preaching at Pentecost" by Benjamin West Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you read the bulletin carefully, you may have noted the title of this sermon: The King Was Dead; Long Live the King! It is a slight variation on the traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch to the throne: “The king is dead; long live the king!” This seemingly contradictory phrase is used to simultaneously announce the death of the previous monarch and assure the public of continuity and governmental stability by saluting the new monarch who has immediately assumed the throne at the moment of the predecessor’s death. In this case, I’m using the past tense on the first phrase to emphasize an important point that Peter makes in his Pentecost sermon: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you will also bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Oh, to be there on that day! The Day of Pentecost. A large multitude gathered from every nation under heaven. Rushing wind, tongues of fire, speaking in other languages. So much excitement that some could only imagine they must be drunk. Peter preaching boldly on the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. As we gather here on this Day of Pentecost, we don’t have that, do we? The assembly can hardly be called a crowd, let alone a multitude. And we’re not exactly the poster child for diversity. Only one person born outside the borders of the United States. One who speaks fluent (Portuguese) Spanish, a few who can converse in German, and...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord ’” ( Ezekiel 37:13-14). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It sounds almost like a scene out of one of my favorite movies, “The Sixth Sense.” The young man talks to his counselor, a ghost. “I see dead people.” “In your dreams?” “No.” “While you’re awake.” “Yes.” “Dead people like, in graves? In coffins? “No, they’re in a valley, a valley of dry bones, dead and lifeless bones.” But this is not a Hollywood movie; it is a biblical account. The young man who sees dead people is the thirty-year-old prophet, Ezekiel. And the Counselor with whom he speaks is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Lord, who has brought Elijah t...

The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones Gustave Dore The text for this Day of Pentecost is our Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel 37:1-14, which has already been read. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It sounds almost like a scene out of one of my favorite movies, The Sixth Sense.  The young man talks to his counselor, a ghost. “I see dead people.” “In your dreams?” “No.” “While you’re awake.” “Yes.” “Dead people like, in graves?  In coffins? “No, they’re in a valley, a valley of bones.  Dry bones.  Long dead and completely lifeless bones.” But this is not a Hollywood movie; it is a biblical account.  The young man who sees dead people is the thirty-year-old prophet, Elijah.  And the Counselor with whom he speaks is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Lord, who has brought Elijah to this valley.  And the “dead people,” “the dry bones,” that Elijah sees are the Israelit...

            The text for today is Acts 2:1-21, which has already been read.   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Moses’ patience was at its breaking point.   God had delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt and was on the verge of bringing them into the Promised Land.   But it didn’t take long and the grumbling had started.   It seemed like nothing was good enough for them and Moses was taking the brunt of their criticism.   They wanted meat to eat and were tired of following Moses.   Frustrated, Moses cried out to the Lord.   His murmuring and weeping resembled Israel ’s, but it was different in an important way.   Moses turned to the Lord in his feelings of insufficiency and frustration, so his complaint did not degenerate into rebellion. The Lord came to the aid of His weak and distraught servant: He provided a steady supply of me...