Posts from the “Sermons” Category

Sermo Dei: Pentecost 2013 [Confirmation]

Posted on May 19th, 2013

At our last Catechesis session, we had a terrific discussion about who runs the verbs, who is the subject of the verbs in the Divine Service, and who is the object. Of first importance, God is the subject, we the object. So we don’t come to church to worship. The sentence “Carter worships God” sounds pious, and correct at first hearing. But it makes Carter the actor, Carter the doer, not God. If you want to understand the Bible, remember that God is the first subject, not you. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God makes man. God gives gifts to man. Jesus dies for sins. The Holy Spirit rebirths us, the Holy Spirit regenerates us. God runs the verbs.…

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Sermo Dei: The Vigil of Pentecost 2013

Posted on May 17th, 2013

Your birth from below says that you are a child of Adam, therefore a child of wrath, a child of hell. Your birth from above says that you you are a child of God. For “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Your conscience says that you have not lived as you should, and therefore your childhood is renounced. The Spirit, however, witnesses to you not about your works but Christ’s work. The Spirit is called the Helper because you are helpless. It’s okay to feel your helplessness, to acknowledge your helplessness, even to embrace your helplessness. For then the Helper can give His help. And that help is in teaching you that you can say Abba!…

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Sermo Dei: Exaudi

Posted on May 12th, 2013

How much of your life is spent in fear? We know people with phobias, sometimes crippling. Perhaps you have one that you’ve had to battle – or maybe never conquered. Fear of insects, spiders or wasps; fear of snakes; fear of flying, fear of heights, fear of crowds, fear of being alone. I know you fear for your kids and your country, our church, your future. Societal fears reflect man’s primal fear – anxiety over death. Fear of nuclear holocaust has been supplanted by fear of ecological devastation – yet both paint a picture of a world coming undone. Holy Scripture reveals the source of all such fears: a Genesis 3 world, a cosmos created good but fractured, an earth seeped in blood as…

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Sermo Dei: The Ascension of Our Lord

Posted on May 11th, 2013

Many ages ago, five kings joined forces together: the kings of Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboiim, and Bela; they rode out to the Valley of Siddim and clashed with the armies of four kings: the kings of Elam, and Goiim, and Shinar, and Ellasar. The armies of the five kings were routed; some fell into pits of tar, and others fled to the hills. And the four kings took captives – including Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Abraham, who himself was a man of great power, heard the news; and when he learned of Lot’s capture, Abraham went forth with 318 of his household warriors. They rode hard all day, and when night fell, near Damascus, they crept upon the conquering army…

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[Sermo Dei] The Installation of Charles Louis McClean (John 20:19-23)

Posted on May 6th, 2013

The Words of our Savior to the ministers He appointed to care for His Church: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Charles McClean is my friend. He has been a great help to me, laboring at my side at Immanuel these past years. He has great knowledge of our church’s doctrine, history, and liturgy. But there’s one thing that you need to know about him: Charles McClean is a great sinner. He will not save this church. But through the unmerited gift of God, Our Saviour Lutheran Church already received a Savior long ago. Charles McClean is a great sinner. He will not save this church. But he will…

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[Sermo Dei] Rogate: Praying with Jesus (John 16:23-33)

Posted on May 5th, 2013

“In the world you will have tribulation.” Hardly surprising information to anyone who has lived a little while in this broken, fallen world. Yet there is comfort in acknowledging it: “In the world you will have tribulation.” If Jesus says this to His holy Apostles, should we expect things for us to be smooth sailing, success and perfection? In the world you will have tribulation – and thus we find tribulation, trouble and turmoil, everywhere we turn. And wherever the Gospel of Jesus is preached, there especially will be tribulation. The longer we follow Jesus as a disciple, the closer we draw near to Him, the greater the tribulation in our own heart, in our own mind, in our own flesh, in our own…

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Sermo Dei: The Annunciation of Our Lord

Posted on April 10th, 2013

Delivered at the LCMS Evening Prayer service at the Lutheran Service Association conference in Washington, D.C., April 10. The theme of the conference was Service Speaks.   Dear Christian friends, your theme for this conference is Service Speaks. It’s a good one – so long as we get the order right. In the beginning, God speaks. He speaks creation into being: “Let there be light”; “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”; “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together”; and on and on. God speaks. And the entire purpose of His speaking was love. God created the world from nothing in order to bestow His gifts, His love, His life upon the man. The entire world was given…

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Sermo Dei: Easter Monday (observed), Luke 24:13-35

Posted on April 3rd, 2013

“I don’t know what to do next.” That is how the disciples felt on the long walk to Emmaus. The crucifixion of Jesus had changed everything for them; for they thought He was going to redeem Israel. Their hopes were dashed by His crucifixion, which was the means of the redemption they were anticipating. We could easily succumb to rebuking them right along with Jesus: Oh you foolish men, slow to believe what the prophets said! But does it change things that He is risen? There is for us a kind of letdown after Easter that shows the same kind of glory-seeking as those Emmaus disciples. If Jesus is the Redeemer, why is my life still so lousy? After the joy of Easter, the…

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Sermo Dei: The Resurrection of Our Lord

Posted on April 1st, 2013

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!   The dirt was still wet with blood as a mother wept. How had everything gone so wrong? Not many decades earlier, the world was innocent. Not the way we look back on earlier times and think, “Things were simpler then.” No, the world once truly was innocent, and this mother remembered it. It seemed like a dream now, or rather her life had become a nightmare. She had met her husband while still a little girl. Now, as she sobbed, she leaned against that husband for support. When she had first seen him, those many years ago, it was love at first sight. He was perfect for her, the only man in the world.…

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Sermo Dei: Good Friday Passion Vespers

Posted on March 29th, 2013

God made the world out of love. God gave the world  to man as a gift of love. God loved man, and wanted to bestow everything delicious, everything delightful, everything filled with joy and wonder and beauty on the first man and his beloved wife. One thing alone He didn’t want man to have, one thing alone He didn’t want man to know: evil. Still as little children, the first man and woman reached up to a tree and in so doing slapped God in the face. Our first parents weren’t merely taking fruit, they were spitting on God, declaring they knew better. Have you ever not listened to your parents, because you thought you knew better, thought that your way would make you…

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