Author: Bethlehem Lutheran
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Maundy Thursday (Matthew 26:17-30)
Normally, Maundy Thursday is a night I look forward to as a pastor—imagine that, a holiday in the Church year dedicated to the Lord’s Supper! I love the hymn, “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness.” It brings me to tears as we sing, “Jesus, bread of life, I pray You, Let me gladly here obey You.…
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Palm Sunday (Passion According to St. Matthew)
Matthew 26:1-35 Jesus is surrounded by failures. The woman who anoints him does a beautiful work, Judas who betrays him, the eleven other disciples who claim to be faithful but later abandon him. And this is nothing unique to this moment in time. Among people, we are a mixed bag. We have good intentions at…
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Fifth Sunday in Lent (John 11:1-45)
The Lord had an existing relationship with the family. He loved them. He cared about Lazarus in his illness, the suffering he was enduring. (v. 5) We should keep this in mind, first of all, as we see what He does. Because of this love, he stayed two days longer, to the point at which…
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Fourth Sunday in Lent (John 9:1-41)
Times of disaster often bring out the theologian in people. We want to know why bad things happen. This is called “theodicy.” It comes from the Greek words for God and justify, and it cuts two ways. First, it serves to justify God’s right to send suffering, and this is what happens when we try…
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Third Sunday in Lent (Text: John 4:5-26)
Ignorance about God is a serious problem. Now, very few people would actually say they don’t know much about God. More common is the idea that we know enough about God to get by. You know, as much as country music songs teach us about God and Jesus and the importance of saying prayers. But…
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Second Sunday in Lent (John 3:1-17)
This Lent, we have the privilege to walk through several stories in the Gospel of John, which demonstrate to us the power of God for salvation to all who believe. We’ll stop in John 3 today, where we meet Nicodemus who learns the grace of the Kingdom of God. Next Sunday, we’ll hear about how…
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Lent 1 – Midweek Series “Denying Eyes” (Mark 14:26-31; 66-72)
He was so sure that he would succeed where others failed. He could feel the zeal welling up within him. “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” Lord, how could you say that we will all fall away? What an awful thing to happen! “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the…
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First Sunday in Lent (Matthew 4:1-11)
Jesus’ ministry begins not in a lush garden in the presence of God as it was in the beginning, but in the wilderness of a world that is under the curse of sin and death. His ministry after being baptized in the Jordan and declared to be the Son of God, goes immediately into the…
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Ash Wednesday (Mark 14:1-9)
Passion Reading: Mark 14:1–9 1It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” 3And while he was…
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The Transfiguration of Our Lord (2 Peter 1:16-21)
“While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. “He had on a…