Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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For many of you, this morning marks your initial introduction to ‘The Te Deum.’ A few of you may be more familiar with it. A few of you may be able to sing in from memory.

For the sake of those for whom the “Te Deum” is new, let’s begin by reciting it together just to get the lay of the land. Would you turn in your hymnal to page 223. And let’s speak together verses 1-4….

It is said that the “Te Deum” is one of the most widely sung hymns of praise to God in the history of the Christian Church. And that may well be true. This morning, we join our own voices to that history that continues into the present and goes on into the future.

One of the many gifts that God has given to His people is the invitation to pray. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it. As hard as you may try to speak with the President of the U.S. or the Governor of Maine or to a real person in ‘tech-services,’ you’re chances of actually getting their individual attention is pretty small. But almighty God, the ruler of the Universe, who Created it all and holds it all together – we can always get right through to Him, with no ‘wait time’, and He always hears us and always answers us. Continue reading →

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42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ The word of Jesus.

The doctrine of hell is always getting brushed under the carpet. No one really wants to think about it or talk about it because it’s unpleasant. We love to talk about heaven and going to heaven and we look forward to the day when we go there. But the thought that there is a place called ‘hell’ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’ is so repulsive that we either try to deny that it exists or deny that anyone will actually “be thrown into” it, except of course, Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and a few others who are really, really bad people.

The only problem is, Jesus sure does believe that there is such a thing as ‘hell’ and that it really is THAT TERRIBLE that “it is better for YOU” to ‘CUT OFF’ whatever causes you to sin than to “be thrown into” it. And it is neither safe nor wise to believe differently than Jesus. Continue reading →

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“Then He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.”

When the Romans conquered and occupied Israel, they divided the territory up into several ‘regions.’ There was the ‘region of Judah’ which included Jerusalem and the Temple. The ‘region of Galilee’ which wrapped around three sides of Sea of Galilee. And there was the ‘region of the Decapolis’ on the east side of the Sea of Galilee.

Unlike the regions of Judah and Galilee that were predominately Jewish, the ‘region of the Decapolis’ was predominately Gentile. So for the Jews, it was the ‘wrong side of the Sea.’ Or as the gospel writers call it, ‘the OTHER side.’

This is where our gospel reading for this morning takes place.

So the Hymn of the Day that we just sang isn’t quite right. “O Son Of God IN GALILEE, You made the deaf to hear, the mute to speak…” (LSB #841). It’s actually in “the Decapolis” that this happened. But “O Son of God IN DECAPOLIS” doesn’t sing as well, and Mark does say Jesus came to the Sea of Galilee, and it’s a pretty good hymn otherwise, and that’s good enough for us. Continue reading →

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“Then He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.”

When the Romans conquered and occupied Israel, they divided the territory up into several ‘regions.’ There was the ‘region of Judah’ which included Jerusalem and the Temple. The ‘region of Galilee’ which wrapped around three sides of Sea of Galilee. And there was the ‘region of the Decapolis’ on the east side of the Sea of Galilee.

Unlike the regions of Judah and Galilee that were predominately Jewish, the ‘region of the Decapolis’ was predominately Gentile. So for the Jews, it was the ‘wrong side of the Sea.’ Or as the gospel writers call it, ‘the OTHER side.’

This is where our gospel reading for this morning takes place.

So the Hymn of the Day that we just sang isn’t quite right. “O Son Of God IN GALILEE, You made the deaf to hear, the mute to speak…” (LSB #841). It’s actually in “the Decapolis” that this happened. But “O Son of God IN DECAPOLIS” doesn’t sing as well, and Mark does say Jesus came to the Sea of Galilee, and it’s a pretty good hymn otherwise, and that’s good enough for us. Continue reading →

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“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil…that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all to stand firm.”

Paul’s closing word to his beloved congregation is a heartfelt plea to remain in this ‘one true faith until life everlasting.’ Like every pastor before him and since, he’s seen far too many
• who were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
• who sat in the congregation and confessed the faith with their lips,
• who joined their prayers to the prayers of the church,
• who received the Lord’s Supper week after week,
• fall away, walk away, turn away, wander away, drift away.

And each one has broken his heart. How many times had he heard it said, ‘IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL.’
• A brother or sister in Christ who announces that he’s leaving the family.
• Or who doesn’t announce anything but just stops showing up for the Sunday Supper.
• Or who doesn’t care how his or her behavior reflects on the rest of the family.
• Or, when asked why, calls his brothers and sisters a bunch of hypocrites.

To use Fernando’s illustration from last Sunday, it’s as though in the dance with our Lord, Satan asks if he can cut in, and despite our Lord’s ‘no,’ they change partners and dance with the devil.
“It’s ‘nothing personal’? Please. Continue reading →

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“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do…”

Old habits are hard to break, assuming you want to break them. I read somewhere just recently that it takes 30 days of repetitive behavior for that behavior to become a habit.

Identify something that you want to turn from ‘sporadic’ into ‘regular,’ from ‘forcing yourself to do it’ to ‘without having to think about it,’ and then do it for 30 days and, if the theory is right, it’ll become a habit. Want get into the habit of daily exercise? Force yourself to go to the gym for 30 days and then it should just happen habitually. Want to get up earlier in the morning or go to bed earlier at night? Just do it for 30 days and it’ll become a habit. Want to start a habit of spending time in the Word and daily prayer? Just do it for 30 days.

Frankly, I’m not sure how true the theory actually is. It all sounds a bit too easy and mechanical. “Just doing it” for 30 days is usually a lot harder than it sounds.

But then again, there are some habits that we seem to acquire almost effortlessly. That bowl of ice cream in the evening while watching TV. That cup of coffee that you stop for on the way to work every morning. How hard was it to make that a habit?

And what about the flip side of this? How do you break old habits? How hard was it to break that ice cream or coffee habit? And what about that cocktail after work every day or the porn site you visit or the language you use? How hard was it to break that habit?

On the other hand, how easy was it to fall out of the habit of exercising or praying or coming to church every Sunday? Not hard at all was it?

It’s not a level playing field is it? Seems like it’s tilted against us. It’ HARD to do the good that we want to do and EASY to do the evil that we hate. It’s HARD to break the BAD habits that we want to break but so, so EASY to break the GOOD habits that we want to keep on doing. Continue reading →

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This morning we continue our summer journey through St. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. As we said last Sunday, Paul’s evangelism strategy was to visit a place where he wanted to plant a new congregation and visit the local synagogue. Because he was a Jew and a Pharisee at that, he would always be asked to speak. When Paul spoke he testified as to why Jesus Christ, crucified for the sins of the world and raised from the dead on the 3rd day was the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for.

Eventually Paul would get kicked out of the Synagogue and those who believed his message would follow him and that would be the beginning of a new Christian congregation.

So, the congregation in Ephesus was made up of Jews who believed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. But the message of the cross is that Jesus Christ died for the sins, not just of the Jews, but of the WHOLE WORLD, for ALL PEOPLE. And that message was well received among the Gentiles. And so especially in a city like Ephesus that is predominately Greek, the congregation is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, or as Paul refers to it, ‘the circumcised and uncircumcised.’

And there’s some HISTORY between the Jews and Gentiles, if you know what I mean. Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants may learn to live side by side but there’s a lot of ‘history’ there and that ‘history’ can cause problems. The Sunni and the Shia will have a hard time living together peacefully because there’s a ‘history’ between them and with that history comes a lot of RESENTMENT and HOSTILITY. Continue reading →