Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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We get a sense of the kind of attention that Jesus was getting, from St. Luke’s report of “one occasion” when He was standing by the “lake of Gennesaret.” Luke reports, the “crowds were pressing in upon Him to hear the Word of God.”

They had it right. If you want to hear the Word of God, you’ve got to get close to Jesus. Not the stars or the psychics or the god of your choice. You hear the Word of God from Jesus. He is, after all, “the Word of God made flesh.” (John 1:1). “This is my Son, My chosen One. Listen to Him!” (Luke 9:36). The writer to the Hebrews puts it like this, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and various ways. But now in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1).

So, “the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” That’s a pretty good picture of the Church right there.

It would have been nice to hear the sermon he preached on this “one occasion” but Luke doesn’t tell us. If what follows however is connected at all to what He had just said, then maybe He had spoken to the crowd about the way God rules over His creation, from all the birds in the air to all the fish in the sea. In the beginning, God gave Adam ‘dominion’ over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. But after he sinned, Adam had a hard time convincing the fish to swim into the net. But now, Jesus is about to present the 2nd Adam, Himself, who has dominion over creation, even the fish in the sea. God is making everything right again through Jesus Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

The children have given us a marvelous lesson within a lesson this morning by presenting the Christmas story during the season of Epiphany.

The season of Christmas tells us that Jesus Christ is fully man, like us in every way, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, born of a woman. And He is dwelling among us.

The season of Epiphany tells us that Jesus Christ is fully divine, unlike us in every way, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, unchangeable, almighty, just, good, merciful, gracious. He is God and God is love. And He is dwelling among us men and women.

The seasons of Christmas and Epiphany come as a package deal. One without the one the other will do you no good. We’ve got to have both to get the complete picture of Jesus. And only then are you ready to enter the season of Lent, which tells us that the fully human, fully divine God / Man, is crucified on the cross. You see, without Christmas or without Epiphany, His death on the cross is either not “for us men” or not “for our salvation.” Read the rest of this entry »

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If you’ve moved here from a big city like Boston or New York, you know that life is different here than in the big city. But even life in a small town like Waterville is much different than life in a village, like Cana. In Waterville, it’s not uncommon to see people you know at the grocery store or the post office. But in a village, everyone knows everyone and everyone’s life is connected to everyone else’s life. When a baby is born, the whole village celebrates. When someone dies, the whole village mourns. When there’s a wedding, the whole village attends.

A typical Middle Eastern village wedding would take place in the cool of the evening. The bride and groom would wear crowns on their heads. After the ceremony, the couple would be led through the streets of the village with a canopy held over their heads, torches blazing, music playing and lots of singing and dancing. The parade would wind through every street in the village to bear witness to the whole community that the bride had a new name and out of two families, one new family had been created. The whole village looked forward to a wedding because it was a time of great celebration and joy for everyone.

It might have been just such a village wedding that the prophet Isaiah had in mind in our Old Testament reading for this morning. “For Zion’s sake I WILL NOT KEEP SILENT, and for Jerusalem’s sake I WILL NOT BE QUITE, until her righteousness goes forth AS BRIGHTNESS, and her salvation as a BURNING TORCH. The nations shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory, and YOU SHALL BE CALLED BY A NEW NAME that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be A CROWN OF BEAUTY in the hand of the Lord, and a ROYAL DIADEM in the hand of your God.” It sure sounds like Isaiah is describing a typical village wedding where the Lord God is celebrating the joyous new life of a very special bride and groom. Read the rest of this entry »

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If I were to ask you to list the most significant events in the life of Jesus, you would probably list Christmas, Easter, Good Friday and His Ascension. You would probably not include His baptism on that list. But the Baptism of Jesus is an event in the life of Christ that deserves the same kind of attention and consideration as his birth, death, resurrection and ascension does. We really ought to celebrate Christ’s baptism more than we do. And here’s why.

On Christmas morning, when was born, He came into the world. On Good Friday, when He was crucified on the cross, He died for the sins of THE WORLD. On Easter Sunday, when He rose from the dead, He reconciled God to THE WORLD. Forty days after Easter, He ascended into heaven to intercede with the Father for the life of THE WORLD. You notice that in all of this, we haven’t once said, “FOR YOU.” It’s all very general and non-specific. And so we rightly wonder, ‘how does this apply TO ME?’ How does this connect TO ME? How is all that Jesus Christ has done, FOR ME? Read the rest of this entry »

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All babies are special, but the most special baby ever born was born on Christmas day. Never has there been a birth that was more anticipated and awaited than this one. Every generation beginning with Adam and Eve, spoke about His birth to the next generation. Each generation described the child to be born in the most incredible terms. They said He would be savior, redeemer, ruler, Prince of peace, Lord of lords, and King of kings. As time went by, anticipation grew, expectations increased. Men and women who had been told, and who believed what they had been told, were all anxiously “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”

And then one day, a baby was born. Or rather, THE baby was born. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7). Read the rest of this entry »

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If you’ve come here this morning expecting to hear about Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, you’re going to be disappointed. Last night, we heard the Lukan version of the Christmas story which is full of the things that make Christmas so Christmasee. Both Matthew and Luke give us the Christmas story from the earthly perspective - the way Mary and Joseph and the shepherds in their fields saw things. Grant it, human minds could barely comprehend what they were seeing, but Paul and Peter would explain it all later.

This morning we get the Johanine version of the Christmas story. John gives us the Christmas story, not from the earthly perspective but from the heavenly perspective, as only the eyes of faith can see it. This is the way that angels and the archangels and all the company would have told the Christmas story if John hadn’t been the one commissioned to do so. John wants us to see what human eyes could never have seen apart from divine revelation.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1-2,14). Read the rest of this entry »

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Every once in awhile there will be a story in the news about a woman who wakes up in the middle of the night, or who goes home from work in the middle of the day with terrible indigestion or stomach pains. She doesn’t know the cause for her problems but as the pains increase and begin to come in noticeable intervals, she goes to the doctor and low and behold, the doctor determines the reason for her pain. She’s pregnant. In fact, she’s in labor. And before the day is over, she’s a mother. And somehow, this is all a real surprise to her.

One day, a young woman in her late teens was surprised by the news that she was pregnant. Surprised, because she really had never known a man. Surprised because she got the news from an angel of the Lord. Surprised because the angel informed her that the child conceived in her “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33).

How did Mary respond to this incredible news? How would you respond if you were in Mary’s shoes? This morning, we want to explore two questions. First, how did Mary receive this startling news from the angel? Belief or disbelief? Does she ignore it or embrace it? And second, how did Mary understand this? How did she interpret this? This morning, we’re going to make an example out of Mary. This is what the Saints are, they’re examples to us of how the life of faith works and what it looks like. Read the rest of this entry »

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Eavesdropping on other people’s conversations is not a very polite thing to do. It’s liable to get you a reprimand like, “mind your own business.” Reading other people’s mail is even worse. It’s more than just eavesdropping. You didn’t “just happen to overhear” what Sally said to Sam. You “pried” into someone else’s conversation.

That being said, there are exceptions to the rule. In fact, every conversation between two parties that’s written in the Scriptures is meant for our ears to overhear and our eyes to pry into. When it comes to the Bible, eavesdropping is the thing to do. Every letter is to be pried into by people it’s not addressed to. We’re supposed to read other people’s mail. And, as strange as this may sound, we’re supposed to gossip it around to others. “Hey Sally, guess what? I saw a letter that Paul sent to the Romans and I read it. Wait ’til you hear what he said.” “Hey Sam, I’ve got a letter from a fellow named Paul that’s addressed to a fellow named Timothy. Let’s open it and read it and see what it says. What do you say?”

There is a time for everything under heaven, even eavesdropping and reading other people’s mail. Isn’t that just what we’ve come here for this morning? And isn’t that just what we’ve done. There was a conversation that took place between John the Baptist and Jesus, and we listened in on it. And when the conversation was concluded, no one said, “mind your own business.” They said, “This is the gospel of the Lord.” And you said, “Thank God we eavesdropped.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Some time ago, there was the story in the news about a cinematographer who wanted to film skydivers during their decent. Like a lot of others who have do the same thing, he jumped with a group of skydivers and filmed them as they descended to earth. The film he made was aired on most of the major networks, but he never saw it. It showed the skydivers floating through the air in various patterns and formations. And then it showed them opening their shoots and gliding this way and that. And then, after the last shoot was opened, the picture suddenly went berserk and everything was chaotic movement, and then it just stopped. Turns out, the cinematographer forgot to put on his parachute and it wasn’t until he reached for the ripcord that he realized that he was freefalling to his death.

We can only hope that he was better prepared to meet his maker than he was to jump from the plane.

It makes you wonder, how may people are just freefalling through life to their death. How many people move from day to day and year to year, never even thinking about how they’re going to land, never thinking about meeting their maker?

And what about you? Are you prepared to meet your maker? Now there’s a question that’ll get your heart beating. It might sound pretty esoteric and theoretical while we’re all sitting upright in a cushioned pew. But it sounds much different if you’re lying flat on your back in a hospital bed or trapped in a burning building or under a hummvee that just met a roadside bomb. ‘Are you prepared to meet your maker?’ There’s nothing hypothetical about it. Read the rest of this entry »

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I. The Season of Advent As we begin a new year on the Church’s calendar, it might do us well to briefly survey the lay of the land that lies ahead. What is this four-week season all about? What’s its purpose? Where is it leading us?

The season of Advent leads us right to Jesus. So, in that sense, it’s no different than every other season of the Church year. The purpose for all six seasons and all 52 weeks in the Church year is to lead us to Jesus. Every year, year after year, from the 1st Sunday in Advent to the Last Sunday of the Church Year, the appointed readings for each Sunday carefully guide us along the way that follows Jesus from His eternal existence before the beginning to His coming again in great power and glory. Every year we move through the life cycle of Jesus’ life. And each season of the Church year has its individual purpose and goal of leading and guiding us through a particular part of the life of Christ. Read the rest of this entry »