16 June 2024 Text: Luke 15:11-32 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. In Luke 15, our Lord tells three parables in a row.  It all started with a grumbling Pharisee who was complaining about Jesus because He “receives sinners and eats with them.”  So Jesus tells the same story in three ways.  The first two parables are the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.  They are short and to the point.  A shepherd loses one of his hundred sheep, and then he finds it.  He rejoices, and asks everyone to rejoice with him.  A woman loses one of her ten coins, and then she f ..read more

21 May 2024 Text: Luke 22:24-46 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. As our Lord is only hours away from the beginning of His passion, He is now surrounded with only the eleven who will be ordained to spread the Good News to the world.  Instead of being a time of beautiful goodbyes to His faithful disciples who will indeed go on to preach the gospel and change the world, we see them at their very worst. Even as our Lord knows what is about to happen over the next few hours, the disciples are bickering like children over “which of them is to be regarded as the greatest.”  And even at ..read more

19 May 2024 John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 (Ezek 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-21 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Pentecost was an Old Testament feast, fifty days after the Passover.  It was an early harvest: the first-fruits of the season.  It was a celebration of the Lord’s goodness, as seeds that were sown ripened into fullness.  But it was also a celebration that many more crops were yet to come by God’s grace. Jesus compared Himself to a seed: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  Our Lord died and was buried ..read more

19 May 2024 John 14:23-31 (Gen 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21) In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Pentecost was a day of miraculous signs that accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you.”  While we focus on the extraordinary and supernatural things that happened on that first Christian Pentecost Day: the sound of the wind from heaven, the flames coming to r ..read more

14 May 2024 Text: Luke 19:11-28 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! Our Lord’s Parable of the Minas is provocative.  Like many of Jesus’ teachings, it angered His opponents, who rightfully perceived that it was spoken against them.  We live in strange times, dear friends.  Unbelievers scold us and tell us to be more like Jesus, and then they provide a litany of things Jesus never said, taught, or did, that they expect us to do.  They have created a “nice” Jesus who never existed.  The real Jesus made people an ..read more

7 May 2024 Text: Luke 16:1-18 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money,” heard our Lord’s parables, “and they ridiculed Him.”  This mockery of Jesus came on the heels of His remarkable story, “The Dishonest Manager.”  Jesus was using a tale about a “lover of money” – just like them – to teach about God’s kingdom and the forgiveness of sins.  They missed the entire point.  And this is exactly how it is that skeptics claim that they don’t understand Christianity, or that Jesus talk ..read more

5 May 2024 Text: John 16:23-33 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  For three years, Jesus has been the teacher of His disciples, and of the entire world.  He has come to teach us about the kingdom of God, about who we really are, who God really is, and how the messiness of fallen creation is going to be sorted out in eternity.  And like any good teacher, Jesus doesn’t just talk while everyone sits and takes notes.  It is better if a student is able to figure things out on his own, based on the wise guidance of his ..read more

30 Apr 2024 Text: Luke 12:13-34 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! There is a difference between wisely saving for the future as opposed to hoarding in fear.  For God has promised to provide for us, as our Lord comforts us: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”  Jesus refers us to the birds: “God feeds them” day by day without need for barns and storage facilities and banks.  When we trust in ..read more

25 Apr 2024 Text: Luke 10:23-42 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! St. Luke places the Parable of the Good Samaritan right before the lesson of Mary and Martha.  It’s an interesting contrast.  In response to a question from a lawyer about salvation and works, Jesus composed a story called the Good Samaritan.  In this parable, the priest and the Levite have the opportunity to serve their neighbor by acting, but they don’t – and they are the villains of the story.  And of course, the Samaritan who takes action in ..read more

24 Apr 2024 Text: Lev 16:1-24 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! The Old Testament rituals and feasts were put in place to atone for the sins of Old Testament Israel.  The Word of God was clear and exacting – and to unbelievers, they sound either ridiculous and superstitious, or they just make God seem arbitrary.  And so we read about the Day of Atonement – and the entry of the priest into the Most Holy Place beyond the veil, before the mercy seat.  Aaron is vested and bearing a sacrifice.  There is also a ritual ..read more