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Sermon - Advent Midweek 2, 2025 - LSB 334:3,4

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The Last Judgment , Unknown Artist, 1549 Rejoice, then, ye sad-hearted, who sit in deepest gloom Intro: Explain 10 stanzas originally written Through sin we sit in gloom and are covered in shame Christ descended into our deepest gloom through His love for us Through His incarnation He frees us from sin and brings us into His kingdom Last week pastor Matheny gave you a great rundown on some of the important details of the author of our Advent hymn we’re meditating on this year: Paul Gerhardt. Gerhardt wrote some of the greatest hymns ever penned likely as a result of the many sorrows which framed his life. Last week you heard he was born in 1607, but by 1618 the Thirty Years’ War began. This war would raze his home village, Gräfenhainchen, to the ground. Thankfully before the village was sacked he had been sent to school at Grimma where he studied Latin classical poetry, awakening in him his poetic skills. It was in the midst of that tumult that he wrote the hymn O Lord, How Shall I Mee...
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Sermon - Populus Zion 2025 - Romans 15:4-13 & Luke 21:25-36

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Last Judgment , Jan Mandyn, 1550 Hope or Foreboding Jesus is going to return with certainty The world faces Jesus’ return with dread The Christian faces it with hope because our redemption is drawing near Therefore, watch yourselves, for that day will suddenly come, and either it will fill you with hope or foreboding. When most Americans talk about hope, we don’t usually think anything is going to actually happen, and we use the term more along the lines of a wish, a desire for something unlikely to happen. I grew up among Vikings fans, so when we say “I hope the purple people eaters win the superbowl this year,” we don’t actually expect them to win, it’s just wishful thinking. But when the scriptures speak of hope it’s not a matter of wishful thinking, but it’s a certainty, a joyful and certain expectation of what is going to happen. So when St. Paul writes in Romans: “ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the enco...
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Sermon - Thanksgiving 2025 - Luke 12:13-21

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First Thanksgiving at Plymouth , Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1925 Thanksgiving is not about the abundance of possessions Early American Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is not just about a feeling of thankfulness but is about giving thanks to God While we give thanks to God for all of our possessions He’s blessed us with, Thanksgiving moves us beyond the possessions and towards faith in God A blessed Thanksgiving to you dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Thanksgiving is a civic holiday, but a very wholesome one, and I think it appropriate to remember its origins in our country. Days of thanksgiving are historically normal, while we perhaps think of the Plymouth colony pilgrims celebrating Thanksgiving in 1621, a great many of the early settlers to this land also celebrated a yearly day of thanksgiving. In 1789 president George Washington proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving, saying: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, ...
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