A Famine Not of Bread

"Jesus Blessing the Children" by Gustave Dore Click here to listen to this sermon. Pharisees came up and in order to test [Jesus] asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And in the house the disciples asked Him again about this matter. And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And they were bringing children to Him that He might...

"Jesus Chasing the Merchants from the Temple" by Quentin Matsys Click here to listen to this sermon. So the Jews said to Him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:18-19). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When I was in high school, Hal Lindsey and his best-selling book, The Late, Great Planet Earth , were causing quite a stir. Using a method of biblical interpretation that compares supposed end time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events, Lindsey attempted to predict future scenarios resulting in the rapture of believers before the tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ. Although Lindsey did not claim to know the dates of future events with any certainty, he suggested that Matthew 24:32-34 indicates that Jesus’ return might be within “one generation,” or forty years, of the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 19...

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said:] “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).    We live in a day in which rote memorization is generally seen as unnecessary for academic pursuits. It is considered dry and stale, a time filler (or killer) that distracts from more valuable learning activities. But I thank God for a pastor who insisted that his catechumens memorize all six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism, because if I was pressed to point to the specific time and place I first had the peace of knowing I am saved by grace alone through faith alone, I would have to say that it was in the basement of Grace Lutheran Church, in Nunda, South Dakota, the day I memorized the explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel...

"The Pharisees' Question" by James Tissott To listen to this sermon click here. Or here. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 21:23-27. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Let’s set the context first: The Lord Jesus, with Palm Sunday praises still echoing in His ears, has entered the temple and toppled the tables of the moneychangers, driving out the droves of buyers and sellers. After lodging overnight in Bethany, He returns to Jerusalem, curses a fruitless fig tree, and begins teaching again in the temple. It’s no wonder that the leaders of the Jews come and challenge Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus either has an ironic sense of timing or He doesn’t have a clue. With all the pilgrims in town for Passover, this would normally be a busy and profitable week for the moneychangers and the merchants. Disrupting business at the temple would be something akin to shutting down a Walmart Super...

Click here for an audio version of this sermon. "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Bartolo Esteban Murillo The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Luke 15:11-32, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The traditional title for this parable, “The Prodigal Son,” is found in 16 th -century English Bibles and goes all the way back to the Latin Vulgate.   The NIV translation calls it “The Parable of the Lost Son.”   Yet the central figure in this parable is not the son but the father.   It is the father who reaches out with love to both of his wayward sons, just as Christ reaches out to each of us and calls us to repentance and faith.   So today, we will hear this story from the Father’s viewpoint under the theme “Letters from a Loving Father.” The first letter goes like this: My dear son, I pray that you will return to me soon so that I may share these words with you in person.   But i...