Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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A driver was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the traffic light turned yellow just in front of him. The man did the right thing stopping at the crosswalk. The tailgating woman hit the roof - and the horn - screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands in the air. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her things. He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ and the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper stickers, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Like it or not, there’s a connection between faith and life. And even if you’re not going to make it, you can be sure someone else is. And this morning, that someone else is James. (more…)

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I’ve had an uneasy feeling all week about this text. I’ve been afraid that the children might get the idea from this text that Jesus isn’t happy with anyone who washes their hands before they eat. I’ve had this disturbing picture in my mind that, at this evening’s dinner table, one of our dutiful parents would ask that question that no meal can begin without, “Did you wash your hands?” To which one our precious little children would reply, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites as it is written, ‘you people honor me with your lips but your heart is far from me.” I only hope my fears are unfounded. (more…)

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The first 70 words of the marriage rite from the Lutheran Worship Agenda have more to say about marriage and how marriage works than all the words of Ann Landers, Dr. Phil, and Oprah put together. It reads, “[Marriage] is an honorable estate, which God himself has instituted and blessed, and by which he gives us a picture of the very communion of Christ and his bride, the Church. God has both established and sanctified marriage and has promised to bless therein all who love and trust in him and who seek to give him their faithful worship and service, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is both the best explanation of what marrage is and the best marriage counseling you’re ever going to get. It simply echos what the Scriptures say about marriage. (more…)

Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon. To download the mp3 file, right click the image below and “save as.”

As we have done over the last several years now, we will use the occasion of the national holiday of Labor Day to remind ourselves of what the Scriptures have to say regarding our work. The Christian doctrine of Vocation may well be the most practical application of the Christian life that there is. If you want to know specifically how Sunday connects to Monday through Saturday, the answer is, in your vocation. On Monday through Saturday, vocations are where the faith we have been fed on Sunday gets digested and put into practice.

If that doesn’t sound spiritual enough for you, then maybe you have the wrong idea of real spirituality. Real spiritual is rarely some transcendent experience of being carried away in the spirit, far removed from day to day life in the real world. Real spirituality is sweaty and dirty. It’s hard work and tiring. In can often times be tedious and boring.

Can you identify with that? You’re saying, “welcome to my world.” (more…)