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Showing posts with the label Epiphany III

Sermon - Reformation Day 2026 - John 8:31-36

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The Mond Crucifixion , Raphael, 1503 True Indulgences are found in Christ Indulgences in the papacy were received as a result of human merit True indulgences are found in Christ alone Christ sets us free through His merits  A blessed feast of the Reformation to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today the Lutheran Church celebrates the festival of the Reformation by which we have been released from slavery to sin and death and set free through the blood of Jesus Christ; we celebrate the truth and the clarity of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus our Lord. Also greetings to you from the saints, your brothers and sisters in the true faith, at Our Savior in Mankato, Minnesota. It is my privilege to be among you today to celebrate the grace given to Seraphina in Holy Baptism and to rejoice in our Gospel freedom restored during the Reformation. We mark October 31st, 1517 as the beginning of the Reformation. On that day Martin Luther published the 95 ...
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Sermon - Epiphany III 2023 - Matthew 8:1-13

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  Christ and the Centurion,  Paolo Veronese, 1571                                    Faith in Jesus Faith is humble Faith is confident Faith looks forward to eternity Imagine if the interactions between Jesus and the leper and the centurion  took a different turn, maybe something more similar to our experiences. The leper prays at Jesus’ feet, “ Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. ” But what if Jesus responds, “I don’t will it; be strong in your faith, endure this illness, and I will bring you to heaven with me soon.” We wouldn’t expect Jesus to answer that way in the Bible, yet He answers us that way all the time in our lives. That’s okay, because our faith isn’t in miraculous healings, rather our faith is in Jesus. So like we learn in our readings our faith is to be humble, submitting to the will of Jesus. Our faith is to be confident, trusting that Jesus’ will...
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Sermon - Epiphany III 2022 - Matthew 8:1-13

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Christ and Leper , Mosaic in Monreale How far away is God from us? I know it’s easy to at times believe that God is far away from us, and that He doesn’t care for us; that He’s way up in heaven, and we’re left to our own devices here on earth below. But that couldn't be further from the truth! Today’s Bible lessons teach us that God is in fact near to us. Jesus has come down from heaven to have mercy upon us poor sinners. Prior to our Gospel reading, Jesus was preaching His great sermon on the mount. In that sermon He taught us so much about faith, God’s law, and righteous living. But Jesus didn’t just spend His entire ministry sitting on the mountain, or going to wedding parties and fancy dinners, rather He spent His time among the poor suffering people whom He came to redeem. “ When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand...
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Sermon - Epiphany III - Matthew 8:1-13

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Why do you go to church? Why are you here? What’s the point of it? What value is there in regularly attending church? Why would it be a bad thing to miss church, even occasionally? What’s so important about this? Those are legitimate questions, right? Those are questions people are asking today and realizing that they don’t know the answer to, and so they’re leaving the church because they can’t figure out why they were ever going there to begin with. I can’t blame them, because if you don’t know why you’re doing something, then why would you bother going to the work of doing it? So the question of why we go to church can be answered in one of two ways. Either: we’re going to church in order to offer up something to God so that we may earn something in return; OR, we’re going to church in order to receive something from God, and in response we give thanks.  For most people and most religions around the world, it’s all about the first. For most religions it’s about offering s...
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Sermon - Epiphany III 2019 - Matthew 8:1-13

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“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Everybody knows that pithy little saying is a joke, it’s a farce. Sure sticks and stones may break bones, but words actually have the power to hurt to a far more disastrous extent.  As a child if you break your arm or leg or a rib, these things heal, probably you’ll grow up and it’ll be just fine. But as a child if your parents constantly berate you and mistreat you, abuse you with words, you may never recover from that. A bully can beat a kid up with his fists or the bully can torture the kid with words, driving the child to suicide.  As adults, the stakes are even higher! We have a serious 8th commandment issue going on today, where anybody and everybody is encouraged to give false testimony against their neighbor, speak lies against them, betray them, slander them, hurt their reputation, and explain everything in the harshest way. The media will publish rumors and outright lies about people, ruinin...
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