Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 2022

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There are two men in today’s parable. Both believe in God. One is saved; the other is damned. Why? Because one is a better person? Not so! In today’s parable, the condemned man is honest and fair; he is faithful to his wife; he tithes (i.e., he gives 10%) to the church; he prays to the one true God. Yet despite all his good works, and his belief in God, Jesus says that this man was not justified.

Justification is the central doctrine of Christianity. Justification is the article by which the Church stands or falls. Justification was the number one issue in the Reformation. More than indulgences, or the papacy, or monks howling masses for money, justification was the central issue. Take away the Bible’s teaching of justification, and you end up with an entirely different religion….

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Tenth Sunday after Trinity 2022

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Our church stands in the line of the church catholic of the West. As the power of the papacy became tyrannical and heretical, and scholastic theology drifted further and further from Holy Scripture, a reformation was necessary. The temple needed to be cleansed. We are heirs of that reformation.

One of the major issues needing reform in the sixteenth century was the idea that Mass—what we call Divine Service—was a sacrifice. Go to any local Roman church and you will hear the priest invite the people to pray “that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.” This idea—that the mass is our sacrifice to and for God—is the heart of why we still must remain separated from our friends in the Roman church….

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Rogate 2022

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Sometimes you’ll hear folks slander Luther by saying things like, “He took James out of the Bible.” That’s nonsense. He included James, and the entire apocrypha, in his German translation of the Bible. But even if he had removed a book from the Bible, one of the great things about being Lutheran is we don’t have to regard him, or any man, as infallible. But did Luther in his later years keep saying the same things about James? …

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Invocation for the Investiture of the Honorable Liam P. Hardy

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The honorable Liam Hardy is indeed an honorable man. A devoted husband and father, he is also deeply devoted to the mission of this court to balance the needs of the military with an impartial application of constitutional protections to those who appear before this bench. He gave me a certain liberty to give a few remarks prior to our prayer of invocation. As a Lutheran, I’d like to very briefly reflect on the nature and source of law through the lens of a Reformation controversy….

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New Jersey District Convention Sermon

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“Repent!” That’s the first word John the Baptist preaches. It is also the first word when our Lord Jesus begins to preach. So it is to be with our own preaching.

But before we can preach, we must hear that word spoken to us. Repent!

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Reformation Sermon

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Lady Gaga tweeted on Friday, “Fame is prison.” I believe her.

“We … have never been enslaved” said the Jews to Jesus. I don’t believe them.

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons.

Perhaps you’ve struggled with an addiction. Alcohol. Video games. Porn. Social media. Gazing into the electronic abyss, fondling your phone.

Maybe you’re mired in what seems an inescapable situation. A job; a marriage; a mental construct that tyrannizes your mind and desolates your soul.

For Luther, he saw he was imprisoned by his sin. He knew God demanded righteousness. And Luther knew he was not good, no matter how hard he tried…

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Reformation Sunday 2018

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Justification happened on the cross. But justification is never past event but always present reality. Baptism delivers to us justification, and the entire Christian life is the living out of that justification. The name “Luther” is not important. The Bible that Luther gave to people in their own language is. The Bible teaching of justification, the free forgiveness of sins, that’s what is important. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

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