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Showing posts from January, 2025

Sermon - Proper 6, Series A, Pentecost 3, 2026 - Matthew 9:35–10:20

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The Wolf and the Lamb , Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 18th century Being Faithful in the Midst of Wolves The harvest is plentiful; there are many unbelievers who need to hear Yet there are also those who hate the Lord, and will persecute us Therefore, we must faithfully bear witness to Christ As secularism increases in our nation and church attendance declines, we faithful Christians can be prone to despair and despondency about the future of the church and our nation. I understand, especially if you’re older than me, because if you’re older than me you remember a time when the church was growing and very different than it is today. So it can be disheartening to see the church across America in decline for the past 40 years.  But there’s another way to look at our current situation. Jesus says: “ The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. ” The harvest is plentiful! We are surrounded by many ...
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Sermon - Epiphany 2, Year C, 2024 - John 2:1-11

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The Wedding at Cana,  Paolo Veronese, 1562 Jesus Manifests His Glory in Marriage Jesus manifested His glory at the wedding at Cana His hour hadn’t yet come; the ultimate wedding feast is yet to come Our abuse of marriage dishonors Christ  Our honoring of marriage points us to the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom to His bride the church. When you think of all of the things which have changed over the past century, from vehicles to entertainment to careers to clothing, many things have changed dramatically. But perhaps one of the most dramatic changes in the past century has been something far simpler: the household. Marriage is one of those areas of life that has seen dramatic change. A century ago nearly 80% of US households included a married couple, today it’s closer to 45%. Of those married couples today, the majority have no children compared to a century ago when the majority did have children.  I mention these statistics, however we know this already without...
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Sermon - Christmas II, Year C, 2025 - Luke 2:40-52

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Child Jesus in the Temple , Jan Steen,1659 The Comfort of Predestination Distinction between foreknowledge and predestination We are predestined through Christ and His work of redemption We are predestined through the hearing of His Word “ In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” The topic of predestination often reveals the confusion people have regarding who is going to be saved. For example, there are some groups of Christians who believe in what is called double-predestination, whereby God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. Or on the other side of this many conclude that none are predestined to hell, but that all people are predestined to heaven. In which case they missapply predestination to mean that it doesn’t really matter what they believe or do in life, since if they’re predestined to heaven they will be saved regardless. It’s this latter misapplication I mention which is I think most prev...
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