FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. Eternal Life and Love. Worship: March 10, 2024

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We hear today of eternal life that is given to us because of God’s great love for us, shown to us in perhaps the most famous Bible verse, John 3:16. This verse speaks of God’s genuine love for us and the world shown in Jesus’ death on the cross for us. The love of God never ends. God’s love is present here and now and extends into eternal life as eternal love. May we be so encouraged by God’s love to share it with others. Thanks be to God for such love!

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. Christ Crucified Worship: March 3, 2024

We focus our attention on Christ crucified. The apostle Paul tells us that this is a stumbling block and foolishness to some people. Yet Paul also reminds us that for us who are being saved, Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God. We may face people in our lives who view us as foolish. God, in His wisdom, sent Jesus to die for you.

From Suffering to Hope. Worship: February 25, 2024

Today we hear the apostle Paul proclaim something rather odd: that we can rejoice in our sufferings. Paul says this because—as he tells us—suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because our hope is in Jesus who died and is risen for us and our reconciliation and peace. That is something to rejoice in!

Baptized, Tempted, Forgiven. Worship: February 18, 2024

The season of Lent lasts for forty days (excluding Sundays). This forty-day season of Lent is a time of fasting and repentance. It is a time when we recall Jesus’ forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. Throughout these forty days, remember where we are going. We are headed toward the cross and empty tomb of Jesus. We are headed toward Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the devil.

Everyone Is Looking for You. Worship: February 4, 2024

Living at a time when it seems the Church is under attack, we might long for a time when everyone was looking for Jesus. Whether they know or realize it, the world is looking for Jesus, that is, for an answer to sin, fear, loneliness, pain, and death. Jesus is that answer. For this reason, our Lord had to continue to preach at the next town and the next. For this reason, we continue to proclaim the unchanging Gospel year in and year out, for it is the only Gospel by which any can be saved. May the Lord grant us zeal for His house and His kingdom!

Astonished at His Teaching. Worship: January 28, 2024

In a world where there is nothing new under the sun, we still run to anything that appears to be new. When Jesus taught in the synagogue, the hearers heard a man speak with the authority of the author of the Scriptures. They were surprised and even more surprised when His Word was not simply theoretical but silenced an unclean spirit and relieved the man of this demon. In their amazement, they could not help but tell the story to any who would listen. Yet even as Jesus’ fame spread, so did opposition to His teaching and preaching.

God’s Time and Ours, Worship: January 21, 2024

Ever had those days that felt like weeks or those weeks that felt like days? Those minutes that felt like hours, or the hours that felt like minutes? Time is a fickle thing on this earth, as we are bound by it yet our perspective of it is ever changing. Our Scripture Readings today all deal with time. As God deemed it time for Nineveh to have the opportunity to repent and know His grace, He came to Jonah a second time. In the Epistle, Paul reminds us time is short, and the physical world is passing away. In the Gospel, Jesus would begin His earthly ministry and call His disciples, echoing the words of John the Baptist, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). Though to the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day, we live each day knowing that all time is in His hands. Until He calls His people to glory, we rejoice for the time to gather where His Spirit is, be blessed by His Word of Law and Gospel, rejoice in mercy and forgiveness, and make use of the time given to be witnesses to others.

God Speaks, We Listen. Worship: January 14, 2024

Since the beginning of creation, God has spoken. He spoke into being our universe and our very selves as the crown of His creation; He spoke when seeking out Adam and Eve in a fallen world; He spoke many times and many ways through the prophets; and He spoke by the very words that came from the mouth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. From Him came words of instructing, healing, forgiving, and of invitation to follow Him as we hear today with Philip and Nathanael. The Lord still speaks to us today in His Word, as His Spirit spoke instruction and encouragement of the use of bodies through Paul in his letter to the church of Corinth. Through all He speaks, we are called to listen to that Word to guide and direct, and to hear His continued words of forgiveness, peace, hope, and joy as “in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:2).

Look Here! Hear! Worship: January 7, 2024

The Twelve Days of our Christmas celebration have come to an end. But the miraculous birth of the Son of God is only the beginning of the story. For though Jesus came as the fulfillment of all the promises to God’s chosen people Israel, the promise to Abraham was clear that by his seed “all the families of the earth” would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). This is the mystery Paul speaks of in Ephesians 3, how “the Gentiles are fellow heirs . . . of the promise in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:6). Anything hidden remains a mystery until it is revealed. No one, Jew or Gentile, can come to faith in Christ without the Gospel being revealed. Another word for “reveal” is “epiphany.” So today Matthew uses the word “behold,” showing what may seem a surprise to some. “Behold, wise men from the east” (Matthew 2:1). “Behold, the star that they had seen” (Matthew 2:9). Today we say, behold, Christmas is a much bigger thing than many have thought. It encompasses nothing less than all our Lord’s earthly ministry culminating in His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit. It is nothing less than the gift of salvation to all who believe. This epiphany has invaded your darkness through the water and the Word of your Holy Baptism, through the Word of God preached in your hearing, and through the receiving of our Lord’s very body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar to sustain that gift, that epiphany of faith to the end of days. By faith you have made a very good beginning.

In Every Generation. Worship: December 31, 2023

How long is a generation? Keepers of statistics suggest that a generation is between twenty and thirty years and note that at the present time there are six distinct generations living in the United States. The current generations range from our oldest citizens, known as the Greatest Generation through our youngest, given the group name of Generation Z. In the account of the presentation of our Lord in the temple at Jerusalem, we see Jesus as a baby from the youngest generation and we meet Anna the prophetess, well advanced into the most elderly generation, and Simeon, who is often portrayed as an older man. The temple is the place for all generations to experience the presence and blessing of God! The psalmist exults in praise to God: “One generation shall commend Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4). As we worship, we continue that praise in this generation.