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Showing posts from July, 2025

Sermon - Trinity III, 2026 - Luke 15

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The Return of the Prodigal Son , Pompeo Batoni, 1773 The Joy of God to Save the Sinner In compassion God atones for sinful man Yet God desires children who love Him, not servants, so He gives us freedom to get lost God’s compassion brings back the sinner crushed by sin God, the angels, and the church rejoices over every sinner saved We have no need of jealousy, for the sinner saved only receives what we have already also received by grace When the father saw his prodigal son returning, seeing his pitiable state, he had compassion for his child. Such is the compassion of God to seek and save sinful mankind. “ As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. ” St. Paul writes: “ God our Savior, desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. ” Indeed, Jesus...
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Sermon - Proper 11, Year C, 2025 - Luke 10:38-42

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Christ with Martha and Mary , Joos Goemare, circa 1600 Receiving God’s Service God serves His people first Our service must respond to, but not distract from, God’s service Listening to Jesus is the one thing needful What’s the point of going to church? Why should people come here? Obviously I don’t need to convince you into coming to church, since you’re already here. But when you’re having a conversation with someone, and you tell them they should come to church, and they ask you why, you need to have an answer, and you need to have the right answer. The simple answer is: we go to church to be served by God. We go to church to be like Mary, “ who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching. ” This question of why you should go to church has been a major disagreement among Christians on this continent for the past few hundred years. In the 18th and 19th centuries Christian Revivalism and the First and Second Great Awakenings were huge movements in Christianity, attempting to r...
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Sermon - Proper 10, Year C, 2024 - Luke 10:25-37

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The Good Samaritan,  Rembrandt, late 17th century Love your neighbor To love is to devote yourself to another My neighbor is whomever God has placed near to me The Lord Jesus selflessly devotes Himself to us and our salvation We must devote ourselves to our neighbors How do you receive eternal life? That’s not a difficult question posed to Jesus, and in fact it’s a question any average Israelite would’ve been able to answer. The lawyer simply recites the Shema from Deuteronomy: “ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ” The reason any Israelite could’ve recited this is because the Shema continues: “ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your ...
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