Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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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. (more…)

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This is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. We've come to the end of another year of the Christian Church on earth. You have to add that bit about "on earth" because the Christian Church in heaven doesn't keep track of time anymore. There are no calendars in heaven. No watches for that matter either. Imagine it. Always right on time, never late, because there is no time? Everything is one never-ending day and the time is always now. All of the past and all of the future is all rolled up together into the present.

Next Sunday is the 1st Sunday in Advent and we'll start a whole new Church Year. That is of course, assuming that there'll be a next Sunday. Whether Christ comes this Sunday or next Sunday, this Last Sunday of the Church Year is the perfect time to talk about the end of time and what we're to expect and how we're to live our lives in faith. (more…)

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In 1996, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Israel and tour of the Holy Lands. The first two days we toured the city of Jerusalem and the hotel we stayed in was perched right on the top of the Mount of Olives. From the top of the Mount of Olives, you look down on the whole city of Jerusalem. Like all cities, it's expanded outward from Jesus' day. But the city, as it was in Jesus' day is still clearly marked out by the massive wall that surrounds the old city, dating all the way back to the 1st century A.D.

As a 21st century tourist, all you can do is try to imagine what it must have looked like in Jesus' day because all of the buildings that were there then are now gone.

This is where Jesus led his disciples after He left the Temple with them after marveling the faith of a poor widow who put her two copper coins into the Temple treasury. On the way out of the Temple, the disciples marvel at the impressive architecture of the Temple. It had to have been something really. It was one of the seven wonders of the world. Stones of solid granite measuring 36 feet long and 18 feet wide and 12 feet wide and covered in solid gold. They say that the roofing shingles of the Temple were made of solid gold. "Look teacher, what wonderful stones, what massive buildings." They sounded like our tour guide pointing out sites of special interest to Jesus. (more…)

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There is really only one conclusion that we can honestly come to if we have really heard our Old Testament and Gospel reading for today. We are cowards, every one of us.

We have been given the assurance of eternal life through the unfailing and unchangeable promise of God in our baptism. Through the same baptism, we have been given the Holy Spirit as the security deposit and down payment that God will complete all that He has begun in us. We have the testimony of the Prophets of Old and the Apostles of New who bear inspired and infallible witness that God took on our humanity in order to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. And as if that were not enough, we have the body of Christ, crucified for you, and the blood of Christ, shed for you, placed into our hands and pressed upon our lips, over and over and over again for the assurance that all of this is most certainly ours.

And yet, even with all of that, we are afraid to take a risk and step out in faith for fear that we might fall or fail. We put our faith into action, but only insofar as it's safe. We're cautious. We calculate the cost of discipleship and manage it like we do our portfolio; spreading the risk around, because after all, you wouldn't want to take the chance of loosing everything.

We live by faith, but the faith we live by is safe, convenient, painless. Nothing too risky, nothing too threatening, nothing too dangerous. Nothing that might cause us to suffer, or face rejection, or to deny ourselves.

What else are we to conclude from our Old Testament and Gospel readings this morning? Two, poor widows have exposed us and shown us who we really are – cowards, every one of us. (more…)

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On this Sunday every year, were read the names of all those who were members of this congregation when they died. Many of you cannot put a face to these names. You never knew them. Some we knew quite well. These are fathers and mothers, husbands and wives and even the sons of some among us this morning. Time has passed and the anguish of the grave has faded. Death has lost the sting that it once had. And we give thanks to God for that.

But why do we do this? Why do we name our dead before the Lord? Why do we place flowers at the foot of altar with the names of our loved ones on our lips and in our hearts?

We name our living before the Lord every Sunday in our prayers asking for the Lord's to take care of their body that is ill or injured. We certainly don't need to do the same for the dead. Their bodies are in the grave awaiting the resurrection of all flesh. Their souls are in heaven and they have everything they need and more than they could ever imagine.

So why has the Church been naming its dead before the Lord since the 4th century? The answer is, we are counting the spoils of victory. For Christ our Lord has done battle with the devil and has won the victory. And the spoils of His victory are the names we that we have just read aloud and spoken in our heart. This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. (more…)