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Sermon - Trinity IX, 2026 - Luke 16:1-13

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The Parable of the Unjust Steward , Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1540 Christian Wisdom Seeks Eternal Dwellings Wisdom is forward thinking and focused on the goal Christian wisdom employs every treasure, heavenly and worldly, for the sake of reaching the goal If there is a hardest parable, it might be this one; throws people off every time. The parable presents a rich man with a steward who was found wasting the rich man’s possessions. The job of a steward is to be faithful with someone else’s possessions, and this guy wasn’t cutting it. So obviously, he got fired. What’s crazy is the rich man lets the steward hand in the books, and he doesn’t hunt them down and take them from him immediately. The steward does exactly what you don’t want the steward to do, which is why normally the books get taken from the steward: the steward cooks the books. He meets some of the rich man’s debtors, probably tenant farmers, and in order to ingratiate himself with the debtors he adjusts how much they owe, ...
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Sermon - Ash Wednesday 2019 - Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

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Just minutes ago, ashes were placed upon our foreheads, reminding us that we, like our first parents have been formed from the dust of the earth and will one day die and our bodies will be returned to dust. The ashes are an external reminder of a reality which is to be known and felt by our hearts. As such, immediately after receiving ashes upon our foreheads, we confessed our very real and personal sins which each of us have committed. Thus, while the ashes are a fine practice and reminder of sin, they’re not nearly as significant as what takes place in the heart, when we recognize and know our sins and repent of them. Therefore, today we are reminded that we are to rend our hearts and not our garments, through almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, because our treasures are not on earth, but in heaven. It’s a difficult thing to grasp the relationship between living spiritually in a physical world. On the one hand, it’s tempting to ignore the inner transformation of the Christian, and ...
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Sermon - Quinquagesima 2019 - Luke 18:31-43

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When God commanded Samuel to anoint the king of Israel who would replace Saul, Samuel did so reluctantly, fearing the wrath of that powerfully wicked king. The sons of Jesse stood before him, of those sons his first pick was the strongest, yet that wasn’t the Lord’s choice. Instead, the Lord told Samuel “ Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. ”  So instead of the oldest and the strongest, the Lord chose the youngest shepherd boy out tending the flocks. In walked David, “ ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. ” In walked a kid, with tender skin rosy red from the harsh winds, a pretty boy, not a manly man, gruff and hairy and covered in scars and ready to go to war, but a tender youth. David didn’t look like a king able to take the throne back from king Saul, not like a warrior ready to lead an army into a grisly ba...
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Sermon - Sexagesima 2019 - Luke 8:4-15

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The earliest Christians after the resurrection and ascension of the Christ were often relegated to meet in their homes, in caves, or at cemetaries since they weren’t permitted to build church buildings by the government. Once Christianity became legal in many places and they were allowed to build churches, many Christians were burned alive inside of their churches as pagans sought to kill them.  In fact, this sort of thing still happens to this day, a cursory glance at a google search of Christian churches being burned down will bring up a plethora of results. For instance, just last October in Nigeria, Muslims attacked a crowded marketplace where many Christians gathered in order to kill them or burn them alive. At least 55 were killed that day, some of whom were burned beyond recognition. The next month, in the Congo of Africa, more than 40 Christians were massacred by Muslims while worshipping in their church. The doors were locked and all were burned to ashes. These weren’...
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Sermon - Septuagesima 2019 - Matthew 20:1-16

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Among American Christians predestination is one of the more controversial topics. The teaching of God’s eternal foreknowledge, election, and predestination is a narrow road to trod and it’s quite easy to fall off the path and land on either side in the ditch. On the one side, there are those who rightly recognize that we don’t earn our own salvation, instead God chooses us. But they thus reason that if God chooses to save us, then He must also choose to condemn some of us.  On the other side in the other ditch, there are those who correctly understand that some go to hell by their own rejection of God’s gifts. But they further reason that if we go to hell by our own power, then we must also go to heaven by our own decisions. There are many American Christians who fall off on either side of this narrow road, they start off with good intentions, but quickly err and are deceived. What gets them on either side is that they depend on their powers of reasoning, instead of the pure Wor...
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Sermon - Transfiguration 2019 - Matthew 17:1-9

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“ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. ” “ The disciples fell on their faces and were terrified. ” Upon hearing the voice of God their heavenly Father, these people fell down and hid their faces, cowering in terror. That probably seems like an unusual reaction to you, doesn’t it? Why would anyone want to hide from God? Shouldn’t they have been overjoyed that God spoke to them directly? Shouldn’t they have begun dancing with delight and singing God’s praises? Why were they sore afraid when they heard God?  Well, their reaction to the sound of God’s presence is nothing unusual in the Bible, these aren’t isolated instances. After Adam and Eve fell into sin, they hid from God because they were afraid of Him when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. When God spoke to Abraham, the first words God had to say to him were “Fear not!” When the angels appeared to the shepherds after the birth of Christ, the shepherds were filled with great fear....
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Sermon - Epiphany IV - Matthew 8:21-27

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You and I, we’ve boarded a ship and have embarked upon the greatest voyage of our lives. On the day you were baptized, you were brought aboard the magnificent ship of Christ’s Christian church. Like a ship, the church sails from country to country. Christ is our captain. The pastors are the helmsmen, who steer the ship at Christ’s command. The gangplank which brought us aboard is faith founded in baptism. Hope is our anchor that keeps us from drifting. The cross is our mast upon which carries the sails of God’s Word. At the top of the mast, flies the flag of the creed, which identifies us to all the world as Christians. Our little ship is pushed along by wind, that is, God’s breath, the Holy Spirit. The Christians are the crew, each with a vitally important job. The harbor towards which our ship sails is heaven.  As the ship set sail, the waters were calm, the skies were blue, the sun shined brightly in the east. At times the voyage is nothing but smooth sailing. The waters are ...
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