Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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God’s people were groaning in Egypt. The book of Exodus opens with this disturbing statement, “Now there arose a Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph.” (Ex.1:8). Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob whom his jealous brothers sold to slave traders to get rid of him. The slave traders took Joseph to Egypt and got a good price for him from the Egyptian government who paid top dollar for slaves to do the work that they couldn’t get their own citizens to do. (Sound familiar?) (more…)

I recently came across a very interesting insight into an aspect of the Lutheran Reformation that I had never understood before. We may wonder how such obscure and innocent things turn into movements and reformations. When Luther posted his 95 Thesis on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, he was only doing what had been done hundreds of times before – proposing a discussion and debate of certain propositions among fellow theologians. How did it happen that this particular episode created such a stir and led to such a movement? (more…)

"Proper Preparation For The Lord’s Supper”

"Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself." 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.

Just as you wouldn't think of going on a dinner date without properly preparing, neither would you sit down to a family dinner without first preparing the food, setting the table and washing your hands. St. Paul warns us, that due to the nature of the Lord's Supper, we dare not come to this meal unprepared. Here, our Lord invites us to come to a meal that He Himself has prepared, and at which He Himself is the host, and the food. To come to this meal is to encounter the living God who sits as ruler and judge over all heaven and earth and who comes in peace to meet us at the railing with gracious gifts to give to us. A meeting like this one is never to be taken casually or done irreverently. (more…)

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I. The Taste of Death In Genesis, chapter 3, we read the account of how the serpent seduced Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden. First, a few round about questions to draw her attention to the one thing in the entire world that God had said she should ignore. And then, a few seductive suggestions that maybe God was trying withhold something pleasurable from her. And as he saw her eyes become fixed on that tree and her hand slowly moving outward toward that branch bent over by the weight of the fruit that it bore, he just watched in silence.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate…” (more…)

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Would you please take your bibles and turn to our gospel reading for this morning, Mark 9. I’d like to look very quickly at vss. 43-48. (Pew bible page 845). Now before we re-read this section I want you to notice something that may have escaped your attention as you heard this text read the first time. Look carefully at the verses. There is verse 43, but no vs.44. There is verse 45 but no 46. There’s vss. 47 and 48. What’s going on here? Well, when you line up all of the most reliable manuscripts of the gospel of Mark, it turns out that some have it just as we have it in front of us. But others show that what we read in vs. 48 is actually repeated after vs.43 and 45. Now in this particular case, both sets of manuscripts are very reliable. So, the translators has to decide which set they’re going to go by. And so the ESV chooses the set of manuscripts that don’t include the repetition of vs. 48 but, in all fairness they are showing us that there’s room here for you do to so if you choose and they’ve noted all this at the bottom of the page.

So, just so that we might here how it sounds with vss.44 and 46, let’s listen to this text with them included. (more…)

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“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected…” (Mark 8:31).

I. Our Fear Of Rejection A. Peter’s Rejection of Jesus The scene is a courtyard outside of the high priest’s house. The time is evening. The darkness is complete, both literally and figuratively. There is a fire burning in the courtyard outside the house around which several people have gathered to keep warm.

Inside the high priest’s office candles are lit. Silhouetted figures of people can be seen from the courtyard. The movements are rather animated. A man is struck on the face, then bound, beaten with many blows and roughly, pushed out of the room. The candles are extinguished.

A woman is in the courtyard and approaches the fire to warm her hands. She looks intently at one of the men who is doing the same. “Aren’t you one of His disciples?” she says, pointing up to the window, once lit now dark. (more…)