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Sermon - Reformation Day 2025 - Matthew 11:12-19

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Luther Before the Diet of Worms , Anton von Werner, 1877 Be wise before this generation The Reformation is about the bravery to confess the Gospel before this violent generation The issue of the Reformation was Justification The issues today are our own, but we must wisely be brave to confess the Gospel before this violent generation A blessed feast of the Reformation to you, dear christians! Properly understood, this can be a phenomenal holiday, delightfully encouraging and immensely insightful for our modern era. To some Reformation Day is merely a celebration in German culture like a Luther Oktoberfest, which is fine, I love German stuff, my ancestry is mostly German, but that misses the point of this holiday. It’s fine to drink beer, wear lederhosen, and eat bratwurst and sauerkraut, in fact it’s good fun and I think it’d very pleasant if we did that kind of thing more. But Reformation Day is not just a German thing, rather it’s more broadly a Christian thing. The Reformation is ab...
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Sermon - Proper 22, Year C, 2025 - 2 Timothy 1:1-14

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St Paul Preaching at Athens , Raphael, 1515 Do Not Be Ashamed Intro: We commonly keep our faith private because we’re afraid of the world’s ridicule.  Of the Word of God Therefore, follow the pattern of sound words and guard the good deposit entrusted to you Nor of other christians “ I remind you to rekindle the gift of God… for God gave us a Spirit not of timidity [or cowardice] but of power and love and self-control. ” I notice a lot of timidity among Christians. We tend to treat our faith as something which is private, tucked away in our lives like a secret embarrassing hobby we’d rather others not know about. Perhaps we try not to let others know some of the details of our church, for example that our church doesn’t have women pastors or gay marriage, or that we believe all life is sacred even before birth, because we don’t want to be seen as haters, and we’d rather not face that kind of ridicule from the world. Sometimes we go so far as to even criticize fellow Christians for ...
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Sermon - St. Matthew 2025 - Matthew 9:9-13

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The Calling of Saint Matthew , Caravaggio, 1609 Filled with the Word Empty yourself of worthless wealth Be filled with God’s Word Follow Jesus despite the world’s enmity A blessed feast of St. Matthew to you my brothers and sisters! Today we give thanks to God for the apostle and evangelist Matthew. Through his local ministry in Ethiopia he proclaimed the Gospel to many, and through his book of the Bible he proclaimed the Gospel to many more millions and millions of people. According to tradition, he was martyred in Ethiopia during the Divine Service by a soldier sent from the king, since Matthew had rebuked the king for his sins. So Matthew fulfilled Christ’s command, and rose and followed Jesus through life and death, and one day shall follow Him to rise from the grave. Indeed, as we heard Matthew write of himself: “ As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. ” Our Lord Jesus call...
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Sermon - Holy Cross Day 2025 - John 12:20-33

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Christ on the Cross , Andrea Solari, 1503 Let Us See Jesus Upon the Cross The cross looks like foolishness to the world But therein is wisdom The cross looks depressing to Christians But therein is hope and life A blessed feast of the Holy Cross to you dear brothers and sisters in Christ! This feast, Holy Cross Day, is perhaps one of the more controversial feast days among us Lutherans. Holy Cross Day is named after the discovery of the cross Jesus was crucified upon, by Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was then constructed on the site where it was discovered, and the cross was exposed for the public to see on September 14th, 335.  The controversial part of this is that as time progressed the relic trade became very popular, and pieces of the “true cross” were “discovered” all over the world and superstitiously venerated by the faithful. Instead of focusing upon Jesus who was crucified upon the cross, the focus became t...
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