Posts tagged “Jerusalem Temple”

[Sermo Dei] First Sunday after Christmas: “A House for God’s Name”

Posted on December 30th, 2012

David, the King, feels guilty. The time of war is largely ended, and the children of Israel are finally at peace in the land promised long ago to Abraham. Resting in his brand new luxurious palace, David looks out and realizes that the ark of God has no such palace. “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” So David proposes to build a cathedral. He would erect Notre Dame, St. Peter’s Basilica, Hagia Sophia, a grand church for Israel’s victorious God. But God refuses. Why? We can read in the rejection notice delivered by the prophet Nathan in today’s first reading two main items: 1) The LORD builds a house for David, not…

Categories: Sermons

Tagged: Ark of the Covenant, Christmas I, Cleansing of the Temple, David, Incarnation, Jerusalem Temple, Lord's Supper, Luther, Simeon

The Temple, source of life

Posted on December 21st, 2012

From Matthew Levering’s book Jesus and the Demise of Death: Resurrection, Afterlife, and the Fate of the Christian: Israel’s Temple [is like] as a new Eden. [Jon] Levenson observes that “death is as alien to the Temple, indeed, as repugnant to the Temple, as it is to Eden.” This is so because of the opposition between holiness and death. God’s activity in and through the Temple is life-giving, not death-dealing. If this is so of the Jerusalem Temple, how much more its antitype, the Temple which is the body of our Lord JESUS Christ?

Categories: Theology

Tagged: death, Eden, Holiness, Jerusalem Temple, Jon Levenson, Matthew Levering

Sermo Dei: Trinity 10

Posted on August 13th, 2012

“From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” Thus the Apostles’ Creed summarizes the teaching of God’s Word on the end of days, the end of the world, the Day of Judgment. Be not deceived: The judgment of Jesus is coming. On that day, your deeds will be judged. The things done in darkness will be brought to light; there is nothing secret that will not be exposed. In today’s Gospel, as He approaches Jerusalem, Jesus anticipates the coming judgment on that city. In less than four decades, the city would be burned, the stones toppled, the temple looted and razed, blood running through the streets as water. Jesus’ prophecy came to pass in the year 70 when Titus conquered…

Categories: Sermons

Tagged: Apostles' Creed, Atheism, Baptism, Cleansing of the Temple, Jerusalem, Jerusalem Temple, Judgment, Judgment Day, Mitt Romney, Obama, Time, Trinity 10

Sermo Dei: Psalm 69

Posted on July 18th, 2012

The Psalmist is in despair. He is in emotional, psychological, spiritual trouble. He is also quite literally threatened by enemies. His trouble he describes as flood-waters. Today we use the term “overwhelmed.” Crying out to God, he says, “The waters have come up to my neck.” He is also trapped, as in quicksand: “I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.” He has worn himself out crying his prayers, and wailed such that he has a sore throat; he has spent sleepless nights, but has found no answer. “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” A physician or psychologist would certainly diagnose the Psalmist as depressed. To what extent…

Categories: Sermons

Tagged: David, depression, Jerusalem Temple, Judas, Psalm 69, St. John, St. Luke the Evangelist

Thanksgiving Divine Service sermon

Posted on November 26th, 2009

Text: St. Luke 17:11-19 When St. Paul describes why God is full of wrath toward mankind, he gives this reason: “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom. 1.21). The failure of mankind to give thanks to the Creator is no mere breach of etiquette, no mere failure to send a cosmic thank-you note. At the heart of man’s ingratitude is hubris, the attempt to seize the things of God’s creation as though they belonged to us by right. When our first father grasped what was not given to him, God evicted him from his home in Eden. Man became a wanderer, a sojourner. He became homeless, and the whole human race has been homeless…

Categories: Sermons

Tagged: Abraham, Booths, depression, Eucharist, Firstfruits, Jerusalem Temple, Pentecost, Pilgrimage, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving

Trinity 14

Posted on September 14th, 2009

Gospel: Luke 17.11-17 “He shall dwell alone; his habitation shall be outside the camp.” Thus it was written in the Law of Moses concerning the leper. He was cast out. Ostracized. Condemned to a life of solitude, as his flesh rotted away. “He shall dwell alone.” The leper is not alone in being alone. God created us for the purpose of loving us; and being made in the image of God, we were created to be like God, to live sharing in His love. God made our first father to be in communion with Him and in community with his wife.

Categories: Liturgy, Sermons

Tagged: Formula of Concord, Jerusalem Temple, Large Catechism, Leprosy, Trinity 14, Worship

Psalm 29

Posted on August 31st, 2009

Tonight’s psalm exhorts us to “Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” “Splendor” by itself in the Bible means “beauty.” It can refer to radiant things seen in nature, a handsome man, or the luxuries of wealthy people. Proverbs 31 uses it to describe the ideal wife. It often describes the majesty of the king, and is used as a verb to describe beautiful clothing. This diversity of applications has led to two traditions in English Bible translations of the phrase in Ps. 29.2, “Splendor of holiness.” That phrase occurs four times in the OT. KJV: “Beauty of holiness”; RSV: “Holy array,” a reference to the sacred vestments worn by the priests. Recent research in ancient texts [source: TWOT], however, suggests a third…

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Holiness, Jerusalem Temple, Psalm 29, Psalms, Worship

Blood and Wine

Posted on August 14th, 2009

I took an outstanding intensive class earlier this week taught by Dr. Daniel Brege on his book Eating God’s Sacrifice: The Lord’s Supper Portrayed in Old Testament Sacrifice. Over the next few days/weeks I’ll be posting some of the thoughts I gleaned from the class, in no particular order. The first one regards the association of Blood and Wine: In the Jerusalem Temple, there were two channels at the base of the altar. Into one, the blood of the sacrifices was poured, along with the wine from the grain offerings. Into the other, water was poured (during the water ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles). Both flowed to the Kidron. The significance to this is the mixture of the blood with the wine. When…

Categories: Theology

Tagged: Blood, Daniel Brege, Feast of Tabernacles, Grain Offerings, Jerusalem Temple, Lord's Supper, Water, Wine