Author: Pastor Michael Miller
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Eighth Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Jeremiah 23:16-29 | Acts 20:27-38 | Matthew 7:15-23 Text: Matthew 7:15-23 You can tell a garden that is kept and tended from a garden that has been neglected. The tended garden shows careful attention, addresses weeds before they get out of hand and hurt the good plants preventing them from bearing fruit. The Lord…
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Fifth Sunday after Trinity
Readings: 1 Kings 19:11-21 | 1 Peter 3:8-17 | Luke 5:1-11 Text: Psalm 16 “I teach you how to shun and flee What harms your soul’s salvation,Your heart from ev’ry guile to free, From sin and its temptation.I am the refuge of the soulAnd lead you to your heav’nly goal.” (LSB 688:4) Psalm 16 is a wisdom…
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Fourth Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Genesis 50:15-21 | Romans 8:18-23 | Luke 6:36-42 Text: Luke 6:36-42 C.S. Lewis’ radio addresses during World War II, which eventually came to be the book, Mere Christianity, begins this way: Everyone has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can…
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Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Isaiah 29:17-24 | 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 | Mark 7:31-37 Text: Mark 7:31-37 Were you there? Have you heard? Do you know the miracle that happened right here in the Decapolis today? Call your friends! Call your neighbors! You might even call your in-laws—this is so big! Breaking news! Jesus of Nazareth has opened the…
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Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Genesis 4:1-15 | Ephesians 2:1-10 | Luke 18:9-14 Text: Ephesians 2:1-10 Consider the two ways of man in Genesis 4, exemplified by Abel and Cain: Man as creature—dependent and sinful, living alone by God’s merciful hand—versus man acting as judge of God and trying to cover up his misdeeds. How does God, our Creator,…
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Ninth Sunday after Trinity Confirmation in the Christian faith of Greta E. Gramzow and Ian A. Miller Readings: 2 Samuel 22:26–34 | 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 | Luke 16:1-13 Text: 2 Samuel 22:26–34 “Knowing God vs. Not Knowing Him” Those who don’t know Him see him as: But those to whom the Holy Spirit has made Him known see Him…
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St. Mary Magdalene (observed)
Readings: Proverbs 31:10-31 | Acts 13:26-31 | John 20:1-2, 10-18 Text: Proverbs 31:10-31 Many admonishments in Scripture speak to human sins that are more commonly male: sexual immorality, guarding the tongue, fits of anger, etc. Yet, sin corrupts both men and women alike. The man who was possessed by a legion of demons in Mark…
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Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Genesis 2:7-17 | Romans 6:19-23 | Mark 8:1-10 Text: Mark 8:1-10 “How can one [man] satisfy these people with bread in this desolate place?” (v. 4) Exacerbated by evolutionary assumptions, the biggest common factor is that there is no God. What are the odds of the first? True, it’s now the dominant view which contributes…
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Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Readings: Exodus 20:1-17 | Romans 6:1-11 | Matthew 5:17-26 Text: Matthew 5:20-26 For centuries, the first thing those learning the Christian faith encountered has been the Ten Commandments. We think they are elementary, and therefore easy to do. After all, they sound so simple: We would like the Commandments to be tame, manageable. As easy as following the…
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Growing in Faith
The Feast of St. Andrew Text: John 1:35-42a Who was Andrew? How is he remembered? Andrew was the brother of Peter, first a disciple of John and moved by the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Although he was the first to believe, he wasn’t as impetuous as his brother. The two of them were…