A Famine Not of Bread

"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. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others” (Luke 20:13-15). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Do you remember last week when I told you the key to understanding any of the parables is to look for the point where it departs from everyday life? Well, good luck with this one! No one behaves in the way that we would normally expect them to behave. I mean, what landowner would keep sending his servants to collect the rent when they’re being so mistreated. Couldn’t he send a couple of big guys with swords? Maybe the sheriff? Or the mili

"Isaiah under Divine Inspiration" by Marc Chagall Click here to listen to this sermon. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In the events that led up to the sermon text for today, a multitude followed Jesus. Some were true followers, that is, His disciples. Others there were people in desperate need of the Savior’s healing Word. It seems likely there were people in attendance from the previous day’s Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. No doubt there were children whose lips had offered praise. There were also known sinners like tax-collectors and prostitutes. And there were the chief priests and elders who sought to discredit and rid themselves of Jesus by arresting Him. These chief priests and elders were examples of men who were inside the Church but outside the kingdom. They refused to receive the gift of repentance and they were hardening their own hearts. When they questioned Jesus’ authority in the temple, he turned the tables by asking them a question about John the Baptist, a question th

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ! Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord unites with me” ( LSB #594, v. 3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Jordan River water slowly trickles off Jesus’ wet head. The hot sand glues itself to His damp feet. Behind Him the famous river snakes along; before Him the ancient serpent lays in wait. Still drenched with baptismal water, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Heaven and hell are about to exchange blows. And in the celestial realm, you can hear a pin drop. You may be tempted to view the fight as a spectator, to cheer for your Big Brother who is about to blacken the eye of the bully from below. But you are not just a fan in the stands. No, you are in Christ . In Jesus, all hum

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Then [Jesus] came up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:14-15). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Our readings for today are full of miracles. We begin in the little town of Zarephath, where the prophet Elijah dwells with a widow and her son. This is Old Testament time, famine and all, where mortality rates are terribly high and death is all too common. In this case, the widow’s son becomes sick and dies. He was all that she had left—both for family and for her livelihood. Now, he’s gone. So the widow cries out to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” (1 Kings 17:18). The widow’s anger is understandable. She has just lost her only son! She instinctively lashes out at someone