Anfechtung

Comfort for those who are suffering

February 6, 2010

From tomorrow’s (Sexagesima) Epistle, 2 Cor. 11:19—12:9 A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made [...]

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Psalm 31

September 10, 2009

The actual sermon preached on Ps. 31 ended up being quite a bit different from this, but here was my manuscript for the sermon at last night’s Evening Prayer: The center of tonight’s Psalm is found in the words, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit.” In Luke’s Gospel, these are the final words of [...]

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After my skin is destroyed

February 24, 2009

We are slowly working our way through the book of Job in Immanuel’s Sunday morning Scripture Study, but it has also been appointed for daily reading in the Treasury of Daily Prayer recently. Today’s passage was from Job 19, and I was struck in a different way by Job’s well-known words, “I know that my [...]

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If you were Job

January 21, 2009

I gave my 7/8 grade Christian Faith class in our parochial school an assignment recently to read the first two chapters of Job and analyze it. The last part of the assignment was to answer this question: “Describe how you might respond in a similar situation [as Job's].” Most of the responses were probably what [...]

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Mystery in the little martyrs of Bethlehem

December 27, 2008

I’m struggling writing my sermon for tomorrow, Holy Innocents (Mt. 2.13-18), because I simply don’t know what to make of those little children who were killed. My mind keeps going to the still-born baby I buried a couple of years ago, the time I visited the hospital to pray with a woman about to have [...]

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The God who hides Himself in times of trouble: Meditation on Psalm 10

September 3, 2008

We are working through the Psalms at our midweek services of Evening Prayer. Tonight was Psalm 10. Some of the material below is from the Heidelberg Disputation (AE vol. 31). I have long been indebted to Dr. Richard Stuckwisch for a lecture he gave on Deus absconditus in 1994, as well as Kantor Resch for [...]

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Sermon for Jubilate: John 16.16-22

April 14, 2008

St. John Chrysostom said, “A mother to become a mother passes through pain.” So has God ordained the Christian life – joy is on the other side of pain, and the joy cannot come except through pain. In explaining His coming crucifixion, our Lord uses the example of a mother’s pain in childbearing to show the necessity [...]

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Judica sermon: Genesis 22; John 8

March 10, 2008

Last Sunday we heard in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians about Hagar the bondwoman, and Sarah the free woman. We learned that these two were allegories for the Law and the Promises, and that Isaac was the son of the promise. Abraham and Sarah had been given a word from God that through Abraham’s [...]

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Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him

August 28, 2007

I am often surprised how the daily and weekly lectionaries present precisely the right portion of God’s Word when it is needed. This morning’s appointed Psalm in the chart I follow was Psalm 42, wherein the Psalmist is deeply distraught, as the mocking accusation comes, “Where is your God?” His longing is to return to [...]

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Sadness

August 27, 2007

Why does God allow His children to suffer? I know the theological, Biblical answers to that question. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens; every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it might bear more fruit; and surely we deserve nothing but punishment. Shall we receive good things from the LORD, and not evil? But [...]

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