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Showing posts from July, 2018

Sermon - Trinity XVII, 2026 - Luke 14:1-11

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The Peasant Wedding , Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567 Honor in the Kingdom of Heaven The exalted ones are humbled The humbled ones are exalted “ When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ” Jesus isn’t just talking about party etiquette. Sometimes Jesus uses ridiculous parables to teach a heavenly truth, other times He uses ordinary and relatable and uniformly understood parables to teach a heavenly truth. Today Jesus uses a well understood and practiced social custom about seating at wedding feasts. Everyone knows, regardless of you...
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Sermon - Trinity IX - Luke 16:1-13

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“ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light… One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ” This parable can be a very difficult parable to understand, especially if our understanding of parables is overly simplistic. I’ve heard it said before that a parable is an earthly example of a spiritual truth, and that’s not a very good way to explain parables. Jesus said that “ This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ” Jesus didn’t speak parables in order to make things clearer, like an illustration or a story, but in order to confuse and conceal. Which means that we can’t read parables like we do Aesop’s fables. There aren’t one to one comparisons to get from them.  So when Jesus presents t...
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Sermon - Trinity VII - Mark 8:1-9

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In whom do you place your hope and your trust to care for you in your bodily needs? If things were to turn sour in your life, and the money dried up and you needed help, who do you go to first? I suppose firstly you trust in yourself and your own hardworking intuition, maybe you trust in a retirement account or a Social security check or a pension, something that you worked for and have now earned. But secondly, you trust in your government, after yourself the next place you turn is to see if the government has some money to give you. Then, third, if you can’t do it, if the government can’t help, then you finally give a last ditch effort and pray to God.  But we have that order a little mixed up, because it’s Jesus who has compassion on us in both our spiritual and bodily needs. “ In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now t...
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Sermon - Trinity VI - Matthew 5:17-26

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA, the largest so-called Lutheran church body in the US held their national youth gathering the other week. As pictures and summaries were posted on the internet, it was a weeklong celebration of the LGBT agenda, which included a confused “transgender” boy, dressed like a girl, speaking in front of the assembly and promoting transgenderism to other children. While I hope that you recognize this as a disturbing thing to teach children to embrace LGBT behaviors as good and God-pleasing, do know that it’s not entirely impossible for us to follow down the same or a similar road. In fact, this road is paved by not believing that sin is sin and that the law matters for our daily living. That is a temptation all too easy for Christians, and especially us Lutherans. Therefore today, our Lord reminds us that we have been baptized into Christ’s righteousness, so that just as we’ve been raised from the dead with Christ, so must we walk in newn...
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Sermon - Trinity V - Luke 5:1-11

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“ Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” ” Do you ever feel like that? At the end of the day, the month, the year, you’ve grown weary from working, you’ve toiled all the long day, and you’ve taken nothing, you’re no more ahead than you were before. In fact, it feels like all you’ve done is waste your time and effort.  If you look back over the years and reflect on your accomplishments, I suppose to some extent you can say you’ve really got a lot done, but in another sense, you did a lot, but really without a whole lot of gain. Upon your death, what happens with all of your wealth you’ve amassed? Eventually it’ll all rot and be sold off for a few dollars. What of your treasure will you bring to heaven with you? Not a dime. A couple generations from now, who’s going to remember you? Probably no one, you’ll be forgotten just like me and most everyone else who has ever lived...
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