Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This past Monday, this nation celebrated the 40th anniversary of when a man first walked on the moon. I’m sure that there were some, on July 20th, 1969 who thought that now that we have learned how to put a man on the moon, we could certainly accomplish anything we put our minds to. But, looking back over the past forty years, I doubt that anyone would dare be so optimistic about man’s potential to advance the human race.

If anything, the past 40 years ought to be sufficient proof to us of just how limited we are to accomplish much at all. We still have not overcome the most fundamental problems of human existence on this planet, like natural disasters, poverty, sickness and disease. Nor, do we seem to be able to make any great strides when it comes to things like man’s injustice towards his fellow man nor the corruption that power breeds in men and women, nor the trouble we create for ourselves by our selfishness, greed, pride and lust.

A man has walked on the moon. But mankind is still, by nature, sinful and unclean and we still sin against God by what we have done and by what we continue to leave undone. In that, humanity has made no giant leaps. In fact, we continue to fall over and over again.

So today, the Christian Church does not celebrate the day a man walked on the moon. Today, the Christian Church celebrates the day that a man walked on the water. We think that it’s such a great accomplishment that we sent a man into outer-space who walked on the moon. But that is nothing, less than nothing, in fact, an utter distraction, when compared to what God the Father has done in sending His Son down from heaven and who walks on the water of the Sea of Galilee. (more…)

Pastor David Webber gives an very interesting perspective on the faith of Abraham Lincoln. Our own George Kohl is going to present a four week series on this very topic during the Adult Bible Study hour in October.

Click here to go directly to Issues Etc. for a broad range of discussion on some great topics concerning the life of faith from a truly Lutheran perspective. Click on either of the “Subscribe” buttons for a complete listing of programs you can download. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LISTENING!

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Pastor Deutschlander offers some excellent insights into the nature of the ‘theology of the Cross.’ A couple of nice thoughts that make me want to get his new book and read it.

Click here to go directly to Issues Etc. for a broad range of discussion on some great topics concerning the life of faith from a truly Lutheran perspective. Click on either of the “Subscribe” buttons for a complete listing of programs you can download. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LISTENING!

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A nice sermon on the comfort and grace of the doctrine of election by Doug Zahner.

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Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.

To download the mp3 file, right click the image below and “save as.”

This month marks the 16th year of our marriage together as pastor and people of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. As I’ve said, it’s a good marriage because there’s a mutual love for one another and we share the common interest of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, growing in that faith and sharing that faith with others.

I think that St. Paul had had a good marriage with his congregation in Corinth. From his letters to them, we know that there was certainly a mutual love between pastor and people. And by his preaching and teaching, Paul led the Corinthians into the life of faith that is centered upon the all availing sacrifice of Jesus Christ through whom we are saved by grace alone through faith alone for Christ’s sake alone.

But Paul was not one of those pastors who stayed in one congregation for a long time. His calling was to move from place to place and plant as many new congregations throughout the world as possible. When Paul left, others would be called to take over as the pastor of the congregation. What Paul discovered was that it didn’t take long for new pastors to undo what Paul had worked so hard to establish.

For example, (more…)

The carnival came to town. There were lots of booths for people to test their skills and win a prize. One booth featured a strong man. In front of the gathered crowd, he took a lemon and squeezed it with all his might, his huge biceps bulging as he did. The juice flowed into a large container until he couldn’t squeeze another drop out of it. Then he challenged anyone from the audience to come forward and if they could squeeze just one drop more from the lemon, they’d win the prize. Big, macho men came forward and gave it their best. But, not a drop more could they squeeze. Then, one man came forward. Just a mouse of a man. The strong man handed him the dry lemon and said, “go ahead, give it your best shot.” The man squeezed the lemon sure enough, not one but five more drops came out of it into the container. The strong man marveled. “How did you do that?” he asked. “Oh,” said the man, “I’ve had lots of practice at this. For the last 17 years, I’ve been the stewardship chairman at my church.”

Nobody had to put the squeeze on the Macedonians. Paul writes that they gave “of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”

So, just who were these Macedonians and what was this ‘relief of the saints’ that they were so anxious to participate in? (more…)