Pentecost

Pentecost sermon

May 25, 2010

Employing technology is not morally or spiritually neutral. Scientific advancements bring new problems, as the tools we use end up using us, changing us. The invention of the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, and now mobile technologies have changed how and where people live, how we see the world and interact with each other. You’ve [...]

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Litany of the Holy Ghost

May 19, 2010

We’re observing the Vigil of Pentecost a few days early at Immanuel, since we have a regular Wednesday evening service (usually Vespers or Evening Prayer). The following is the Litany that we will pray tonight. I don’t know its original source, but I found it in Daniel Reuning’s Historic Lectionary Resources. P Lord, have mercy [...]

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All Christians Are Members of a Holy Order

May 17, 2010

Luther on John 14: A Christian, however, can glory truthfully and with good reason, and he can say: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, who makes me and all believers holy. Therefore I am a member of a holy order, not that of St. Francis but that of Christ, who makes me holy through His [...]

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Thanksgiving Divine Service sermon

November 26, 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 [...]

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Thanksgiving Matins sermon

November 26, 2009

God made man from the earth. Our very first father, Adam, was made from the clay, but he came alive when God breathed into Adam the breath of life. And not only was Adam made from the earth, he depended on the earth for his life. The food that he had to eat came from [...]

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Pentecost

May 31, 2009

Note: Linden Katherine Hemingway was baptized during the Divine Service at which this sermon was preached. Spirit – it seems impossible to grab hold of what that really is. Spirit is something shapeless and ephemeral, usually synonymous with enthusiasm or excitement: like team spirit or school spirit. Precisely because you can’t nail “spirit” down, it’s [...]

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"My Father is greater than I"

May 29, 2009

I’ve been struggling to fully understand the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday, Pentecost (John 14:23-31), particularly these words of Jesus: “My Father is greater than I.” Francis Pieper, in his Christian Dogmatics (II:62), says the following: The statement of John 14:28: “My Father is greater than I,” describes Christ according to His human nature [...]

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