Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Today, we come to the three / quarter mark in our preparation for Christmas. The purpose for the Church’s four week season of Advent is to, in the words of one famous preacher, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Now certainly, the Lord comes to His people, not just at Christmas, but all year long. Where ever and when ever we come into contact with the Word of God, in our home, in bible study, here in worship, the Lord Himself comes to us through the wind that carries the sound of His voice into our ears, or the light that carries sight of His Word into our eyes.

But during the season of Advent we are preparing for the Lord to come to us not just by the sound of His voice or His Word written down, but in the flesh. Christmas is all about the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.

So, the goal of the season of Advent is to prepare us to meet our Lord who comes to us in His flesh which if you have caught my drift, is starting to sound a lot like the way that we meet the Lord every time He comes to us in the Lord’s Supper, where our Lord comes to us through the bread and wine that carries His body and blood into our mouth.

The very fact that there is a ‘season of Advent’ on the Church’s calendar tells us that the Church considers to be important that we would be PREPARED for the Lord’s coming to us in the flesh. Continue reading →

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It has always seemed just a bit strange to me that on the 1st Sunday in Advent the appointed gospel reading is always the Palm Sunday account. My initial reaction every year is always a quick double-take. ‘Hey, this is Advent isn’t it? Why are we reading the Palm Sunday account which marks the beginning Holy Week? I thought Advent was supposed to get us ready for Christmas, not Good Friday and Easter.’

But then I come to my senses and remember why Advent and Palm Sunday belong together. Advent prepares us for the celebration of Christmas when God became Man, “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.”

Palm Sunday prepares us for Good Friday when the same God/Man, did what He was born on Christmas to do – which is to “take away the sin of the world” by the ‘all availing sacrifice of His body and blood on the cross.’

On Christmas, God came into this world, not as a ‘vision’ or a ‘spirit,’ but in flesh and blood, incarnate, FULLY HUMAN, so that He may be nailed to a cross and die, because you can’t nail a ‘vision, or a ‘spirit’ to a cross.

Without Christmas there would be no Good Friday and without Good Friday, the whole world is still dead in their sins and without hope.

So, Advent and Palm Sunday go together. The purpose of the season of Advent is to prepare us for a PROPER CELEBRATION of Christmas, just as the purpose for the season of Lent is to prepare us for a PROPER CELEBRATION of Good Friday and Easter.

So, how do we PREPARE for a PROPER CELEBRATION of Christmas? Continue reading →

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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 also exists in heaven BUT no one keeps track of time there BECAUSE there’s no time to keep track of in heaven. Calendars, watches and alarm clocks are all as obsolete as chemotherapy, air raid sirens and money.

But we’re not there yet, we’re still here, and as long as we are still in this world, we count hours 60 minutes at a time and days 24 hours at a time,
• and some LIVE IN THE PAST hoping that someone will finally TURN BACK THE CLOCK;
• and some LIVE IN THE FUTURE waiting for BETTER DAYS TO COME;
• and some LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME because ‘who knows what tomorrow may bring’;
• and some LIVE FOR THE MOMENT because the MOMENT is all that matters.

But it doesn’t matter really, because no matter where you live, ‘time marches on.’ It’s one of the few things that we have no control of and can’t seem to get control of. We can’t slow it down or speed it up or stop it.

Once the Lord God created TIME… “and there was evening and there was morning’ the first day and the second day and the third day…, there was no stopping it and TODAY becomes YESTERDAY and TOMORROW is always getting closer but never arriving. And maybe that’s okay because as Jesus says, TOMORROW has PLENTY TO BE ANXIOUS ABOUT.

BUT, says Jesus, there is A DAY when even TIME will stop. There is a DAY when ALL THE YESTERDAY’S are swept up in a whirlwind and gone from both sight and mind in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’ And ALL THE TOMORROWS, filled with either hope or fear will vanish at the sound of a trumpet. Continue reading →

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“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” (Heb.10:11-13)

The priests in the Old Testament were the official, certified, ‘blood handlers” for Israel. Carpenters work with wood, bakers made stuff out of flour, farmers grew crops out of the ground, shepherds raised sheep, and priests slaughtered those sheep along with bulls and cows and goats, and collected their blood and poured that blood onto the curtain that hung in front of the ‘holy place’ and onto the people into the temple.

Just try to picture it. You come to church with a little lamb or a big sheep or ‘Bessy the cow’ and the ‘priest’ slaughters it about where the ‘baptismal font’ is. And the blood is collected in containers and some is thrown on the altar and then some is thrown on YOU.

And everyone and everything is a ‘bloody mess.’ And what would the Department of Health say about this? And what would the Humane Society say about this? And what would the neighbors say about this? But on the other hand, all your neighbors would certainly know that you’d got to church this week. Continue reading →

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“Good morning. I would tell you my name, but it seems as though it’s not important for you to know my name. It is enough that you know that I am from the village of Zarephath, which is in the region of Sidon, just north of Israel.

I have been widowed for some time now. It’s just me and my son. I do all that I can to provide a decent life for the boy. But it is not easy. There is no such thing as, what you call, ‘welfare’ or ‘social security.’ If I am to survive and feed my son, I must be resourceful and work hard, and we live a very frugal life. I am always grateful for the generosity of my neighbors which at times, has meant the difference between having something to eat and going hungry.

When the economy is good, that is, when the weather is good and the harvest is abundant, we get by. There is always plenty to go around and people are generous. But when the economy is bad, everyone becomes very nervous and a lot more protective of what they have and they are not as generous, which I can fully understand.

We have been in the midst of a severe drought now for several years and food has become very scarce for everyone. I have heard that the drought is due to a Jewish holy man named Elijah. As I heard it, Elijah prayed to the God of Israel that there should be no rain on the earth until Ahab, the king of Israel repented of his corruption and wickedness.

It’s been over a year without a single drop of rain. The thing is, everyone is suffering because of the king’s stubbornness. The famine has become severe and everyone is hungry, even we who do not live in Israel. Continue reading →

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Matthew writes, “And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. SEEING THE CROWDS, he went up on the mountain, and he sat down…”

Jesus SAW the crowds. He didn’t ‘work the crowds,’ or ‘play the crowds,’ or ‘entertain the crowds.’ He ‘SAW’ them – like a good shepherd ‘SEES’ his sheep. Like a Father ‘SEES’ his dear children.

When the ‘world’ sees ‘CROWDS,’ it sees ‘consumer,’ ‘tax payer,’ ‘voter,’ ‘worker,’ ‘dependant, ‘statistic.’ But when Jesus saw the ‘CROWDS,’ what did He SEE?
• He SAW people who are “poor in spirit,” “who mourn” their sinful life and the sinful world in which they live.
• He SAW people who those “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” “those who are meek,” “those who are pure in heart,” “those who are peacemakers,” “those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”
If you had been in those CROWDS, how much of this would Jesus have SEEN when He SAW you?

Matthew writes that these are GREAT CROWDS. Individuals with their personal names and unique personalities and problems and needs get lost in GREAT CROWDS. Sometimes GREAT CROWDS are just the place where individuals go so that they can hide and NOT BE SEEN.

But, HE SAW THEM. Continue reading →

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“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”

As you know, this summer I went hiking on the A.T. in Southwest Virginia, which, I want to assure you, is not what this sermon is going to be about. But there was a memory from that trip that I filed away. Mike and I drove to Bland, Virginia to the “Big Walker Motel.” That was where our trip would end and where we would leave the car. The next day, a man named ‘Bubba’ drove us a 100 miles south to the beginning of the hike.

It was the check-in at the ‘Big Walker Motel’ that caught my attention. “Do you have a credit card that you would like to put the charges on,” the manager asked. Handing her my credit card, she reached under the counter and pulled out a contraption that I haven’t seen in a long time. She placed my card on it, put a credit-card slip over that and quickly pulled the arm across them both. “Rrack-rrack.” It dawned on me that I hadn’t heard that sound in a long, long time. And I suspect that some of you may not have a clue what I’m talking about.

That sound, “rrack-rrack,” let’s you and everyone within earshot know that you just rung up a debt. It’s nothing like the almost silent ‘swoosh’ through the machines we use now where we rack up debts without any assistance needed and no one else notices, even we hardly notice. Continue reading →

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Today, the church gives thanks to the Lord for giving us Luke.

So, if I were to ask you which of the four gospels is the largest and most comprehensive of the four, the correct answer would be, ‘Luke’s.’ Luke begins his gospel with the account of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ and concludes with the sending out the Apostles “into all nations beginning in Jerusalem” and the ascension of our Lord .

Luke also wrote a sequel to his gospel called the book of Acts in which he gives a detailed account of how Jesus’ great commission unfolds.

So, if I were to ask you which of the New Testament writers is responsible for writing more of the New Testament than any other, the correct answer would be, when you put Luke’s gospel and Acts together, Luke is responsible for writing more of the New Testament than any of the other authors.

So, Luke gives us Jesus Christ in two volumes. In volume one, he reports on God’s purpose to reconcile the world to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ during the time from His conception to His ascension. Then, in volume two, he reports on God’s purpose to reconcile the world to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ from His ascension to… today, tomorrow.

In a sense, the book of Acts is still being written as God continues to bring life and salvation to “all nations” through the word of Jesus proclaimed by His apostles and recorded by men like Luke.

The gospel reading appointed for the feast of St. Luke is the one we just read from Luke’s gospel about the sending out of the 72. First Jesus calls and sends the 12 who are known as APOSTLES. Then, He calls and sends the 72. Continue reading →

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A man came to Jesus with a question that had been ‘nagging’ at him for awhile. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Frankly, I wish this man’s question nagged at more people than it does. No one seems to be very bothered with the question of ‘eternal life’ anymore. Either because they’ve given up on the whole idea – ‘when you’re dead you’re dead. That’s all there is.’ Or because they believe that ‘eternal life’ is just something that automatically happens after you die.

I wish it were like it was in the days of John the Baptist. “The crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’ ‘And the tax collectors asked, “What shall we do?” And the soldiers asked, ‘what shall we do?’

• In the Old Testament, David in the 15th Psalm asks, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” (Psalm 15:1) I wish more people had that question on their lips.
• In the 24th Psalm, he asks the question again, “Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” (Ps. 24:3,4). I wish more people wanted to know?

• In the New Testament, the crowd who witnessed the Pentecost who were ‘cut to the heart’ by Peter’s sermon and ask, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) I wish everyone would be so ‘cut to the heart’ that they could not rest until they got an answer.
• The Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) I wish everyone was like this jailer.

None of these who ask their question do so for the sake of theological discussion or debate. They do so as someone hanging onto the slim edge of the cliff by their fingertips.

“A man RAN UP and KNELT BEFORE Jesus and asked him, ‘good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ I really like this man. I wish that there were a lot more just like him.

This is just how it’s supposed to work. He’s a wealthy man with some standing in the community. He’s got a good wife and the all the kids are on the honor roll. He’s healthy. He’s got life on a string. What more can a person want? Continue reading →