Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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We live in a “Home Depot” world. “Do-it-yourselfers” love Home Depot because Home Depot has all that you need to do it yourself. From installing a new floor to replacing the faucets to fixing the broken screen door to replacing your roof, you can do it yourself, and Home Depot is there to help you. Now, for some of us who are not so much “do-it-yourselfers” as we are “do-it-to-yourselfers,” we sometimes feel as if we’re misfits in a “Home Depot world.” Occasionally, we let it slip, that we’ve got this project that needs doing at the house and sure enough, a secret agent for Home Depot, (they’re all over the place), says, “no sweat! You can do that yourself.” And so we give it the old college try. We go to Home Depot and buy what we need. And then we confess our foolish pride, repent, return to Home Depot and ask for forgiveness, and then turn to the one who can do it for us.

If ever there was an area of the life of faith that we believed we can do ourselves, it would be prayer. We may not believe that we can save ourselves, but very few doubt that they can pray themselves. This is surely what the disciple of Jesus had in mind when he said, “Lord, teach us to pray…” “Show me how to do it so that I can “do-it-myself.” (more…)

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This is now the third, consecutive week that we have been listening to the 10th chapter of St. Luke’s account of the life of Jesus Christ. If you’ll recall, this chapter began with Jesus sending out the 72 disciples “…two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go,” like lambs among wolves looking for hospitality. At every house they came to they were to say, “peace to this house.” The response would be either positive or negative. If they were given a welcome, they were to stay there and eat and drink what they were served. And they were to “heal the sick that were in it and say to them, ‘the kingdom of God is near to you.’ If they were told to scram, they were to say, “even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. (Or as we used to say in West Virginia – “choke’em in heal dust.”) But they were still to say, “the kingdom of God has come near.” Whoever received one of them received Jesus and whoever rejected one of them rejected Jesus. (more…)

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Anytime we hear a parable from the lips of Jesus, we must always ask ourselves two questions. Who is Jesus in this parable and who am I? The answer to both of those questions is contained in every parable that Jesus tells because every parable that He tells is all about Himself and you.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s not too hard to identify who Jesus is. He’s the Good Samaritan. Despised and rejected as he is, He nonetheless, out of His great compassion, gives everything He has to save the half-dead man.

So the question is, who are we? Are we the priest or are we the Levite? Or, are we the half-dead man whom the Samaritan saves? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves as we listen to this parable.

I. The Lawyer Tests Jesus A. He Wants To Argue With Jesus Before we get to the parable itself, we need to spend just a few minutes considering the question that a lawyer asks of Jesus that leads to this answer in the form of an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” (more…)

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A massive propaganda offensive. That’s how one analyst described the political campaigning that is going on for the nomination to run for President of the United States. Getting the word out is the name of the game. In every place where a candidate goes to campaign, staffers are sent on ahead to prepare the way so that when the candidate arrives on the scene, it won’t be by surprise and they’ll be warmly received. It’s a massive propaganda offensive.

I. The Message of Peace Is To Be Spoken In our gospel this morning, Jesus is engaged in a massive propaganda offensive of His own. (more…)

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By 1775, things were really heating up between Great Britain and the American Colonies. The fiery Patrick Henry stood before the Virginia Convention and urged the formation of a militia with these famous words: “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

A year later, on July 4th, 1776, the thirteen, United States of America were ready to declare their independence with these words written by Thomas Jefferson.

“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…”