A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said]: “ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that the...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “The fate of all mankind hung in the balance.” It is a statement so melodramatic and overused as to be cliché. But there, that day in the garden, it was never more true. Eden was truly a paradise, heaven on earth. There was no sin, therefore no pain or suffering or injury or tears. And more to the point, there was no death. It was all very good. Perfect in fact. In that garden, dwelt all mankind—the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve. And the Lord had provided for them all sorts of good things to eat. There was a large variety of trees with good fruit, including the tree of life, from which they mig...

Click here to listen to this sermon.   The text for today is our Gospel, Matthew 6, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ! The theme for our midweek Lenten and Holy Week services this year is “When You Pray, Say…”   Through readings of the passion narrative, hymns on prayer, and sermons we will focus upon the 3 rd chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism—The Lord’s Prayer. You might be thinking: “The Lord’s Prayer for Lent… that seems strange. What does the Lord’s Prayer have to do with Lent?” Well, historically, Lent has been a time of intense catechesis (teaching the basic doctrines of the Christian faith). Lent is a time of repentance and somber reflection. That makes the focus on the teachings of the Lord’s Prayer from the Catechism especially appropriate. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of repentance. It turns us away from ourselves and toward our heavenly Father. It reminds us of the many things He pr...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Mp3 files are available upon request. “W e ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” ( 2 Peter 1:18-19). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!   How many times have you had to make an important decision and wished that God would speak to you and tell you what to do? How many times have you wished that God would give you some sort of sign about what you should do? How many times has He? I can think of at least a couple of occasions where I thought God was speaking to me, but as things turned out, it was not His voice at all. But on this day on the Mount of Transfiguration, it was most definitely the voice of God the Father. He says, “This is My beloved Son,...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The text for today is Matthew 5:48: [Jesus said]: “Therefore, you shall be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Notice the subtle change? The ESV translation we just heard for our Gospel has “Therefore, you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” I just said, “Therefore, you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So which is it? Must or shall? Either is grammatically correct. The Greek verb may carry with it two senses: an imperative or a description of a future condition. It could either be a command or a promise. Or, to express it in terms we Lutherans are more inclined to speak: Law or Gospel. The first way of translating it is Law. You must be perfect. You must be as perfectly righteous and holy as your Father in heaven is perfectly righteous and holy. God doesn’t grade on a curve. His standard is perfection. Don’t settle fo...