Category: Sermons
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First Sunday in Advent (Series B)
Text: Isaiah 64:1-8 “Enough is enough!” When things get so bad, you’ve tried again and again, yet you can’t see any way through, you might throw up your hands and say, “Enough is enough!” Maybe you’ve been feeling that way lately? It could be the many maddening topics in the news—election fallout, coronavirus scare and…
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Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27A)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR Text: Matthew 25:1-13 What a mess the world is. Thank God that we have the Church. Thank God that we can confess, “I believe…in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” Thank God for that…
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Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist
“The winged bull (or ox), recognized as the animal of sacrifice, was applied to St. Luke because his Gospel emphasizes the atonement made by Christ’s sacrifice of himself on the Cross. The bull (ox) is also synonymous with service and strength, which reminds us as Christians that we should be prepared to sacrifice ourselves in…
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Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Reading – Matthew 22:1-14 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants,…
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Feast of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 28:16-20)
It is impossible to fully comprehend the mystery of the Trinity. It isn’t a math problem to be solved—three in one and one in three, or a puzzle to be unlocked. It’s an article of faith—something we believe because that’s what God has told us in His Word. In the first several centuries of the…
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Sunday after Ascension (Psalm 68:1–10)
We long for the end, for God to display His victory over His enemies. The Psalm we spoke earlier brings to mind pictures of God triumphantly establishing His Kingdom, driving out the Devil more and more, and bringing the righteous to shine and become stronger each day. 1 God shall arise, his enemies shall be…
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The Ascension of Our Lord (Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:1-11)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Times of uncertainty, fear, and disappointment leave us grasping for something sure. Dr. Bruce Hartung highlighted this at a pastor’s meeting on Tuesday where he was addressing the effects of the pandemic on mental health. These kinds of situations leave people vulnerable to clinging to any confident sounding…
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Sixth Sunday of Easter (Acts 17:16-31)
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Paul had entered a context in Athens that was not entirely foreign to us today. It was a very diverse city, with metropolitan people of diverse opinions and philosophies. Athens had a reputation as being the seat of many great thinkers: Socrates and Antisthenes, Plato and Epicurus. These were…
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Fifth Sunday of Easter (John 14:1-14)
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen. Jesus says, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (vv. 1-5). Let’s test…
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Fourth Sunday of Easter (John 10:1-10)
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen. Jesus says, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (vv. 1-5). Let’s test…