Hearing the Voice of the Shepherd

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Biblical Text: Acts 20:17-35

This Sunday is typically “Good Shepherd” Sunday. The Gospel text comes from John 10. The key verse of that being “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” The first reading assigned in from the end of Acts. And why it is paired up with the Gospel reading is because it is the answer to the natural question: How do the sheep hear the voice? This sermon meditates on the answer based on Paul’s “good-bye” message to the Ephesian Elders.

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Living Signs

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Biblical Text: Acts 9:1-22

This sermon takes on a topic that is probably a little far afield for most Lutheran churches, conversion. And in thinking about conversion we have to think about things above and things below. What I mean by that is we live in a sacramental world. The reality above breaks into our reality here. We can call it sacraments. We call it signs. We call it revelation. Depends upon the stability of the inbreaking. The conversion of Saul/Paul is the text to think about this. If you ask how Saul was converted, a valid answer is baptism. Ananias baptizes Saul and he is welcomed as brother and receives the Holy Spirit. That is the reality. But that is not how most of us would describe Saul’s conversion. The road to Damascus is the sudden replacement of Saul’s will which was breathing threats and murder with the will of Christ. This is also the daily conversion of any Christian. The sermon attempts to think through these things. As I said, not a standard subject. I think it hangs together, but sermons are signs themselves. And describing signs is always a bit like interpreting dreams or reading revelation. You are better off experiencing it.

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All the Words of Life

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Biblical Text: Acts 5:12-20

The assigned texts for the Sunday’s after Easter this year selectively read through a couple of books. The Epistles are coming from the book of Revelation. At least right now I’m trying to write about those in the weekly newsletter. The “first lesson”, replacing the normal Old Testament reading, is a reading from the book of Acts. Acts is a book about the formation and life of the early church. This lessons comes from the first months after the Resurrection. And I think it is worth preaching through Acts at this time. Why? Because I think we in the modern church have lost connection with “all the words of life.” That is what the Angel told Peter and the Apostle’s to go preach when he released them from prison. There are complex words, but it isn’t those we’ve lost, its the simple ones. And that is what this sermon meditates on. What are the simple words that make the church?

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Today is Different (Easter)

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 65:17-25

The inspirations for this sermon were the Isaiah text, Chrysostom’s Easter sermon and a common conversation we have in confirmation class on the distinction between mercy and grace. Easter is grace.

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Good Friday 2022

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The service is a Tenebrae, which means there is a dowsing of the lights after each of the seven readings until the we are in darkness at the end. It is a moving service in person. I’ve left the recording complete. In most of the service posts I edit things to the sermon, readings and maybe a verse or two of the opening hymn. I do that primarily because our sound system isn’t so great as to record the congregation. But for this service it doesn’t makes sense. The “sermon” is really 5 mini-ones. Two of the meditations are musical. To give some time to meditate before rushing on to the next scene. The readings are longer and the hymns are present in shorter form, but to give response and guide meditation. It really all hangs together. And this package of homilies I one that I’m putting in the keeper pile. In the hope of the resurrection.

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Maundy Thursday

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Biblical Text: John 13:1-20, 31-35

Maundy Thursday, at least when I do it, is usually about the institution of the Lord’s Supper. This is still that, but this year I picked the alternate text. This text is the foot washing from the Gospel according to John. It is a more challenging text, but worth it from a Law and Gospel meditation. Because both are in this. And I’d bet that we miss it normally.

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Three Ring Failure

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Biblical Text: Luke 23:1-56

It was Palm Sunday which has morphed into the Sunday of the Passion. The Triumphal Entry is the Gospel of the Day in Advent 1. Maundy Thursday (the institution of the Lord’s Supper) and Good Friday (the crucifixion) have their own days, so I try to preach on the arrest and trials of Jesus. And I have to be honest that 15 years ago I don’t know if I was just naive or if things were really different, but these trials always felt like a different world. But with the number of polically motivated trials and refusals to prosecute that we’ve seen in the past few years, they have become much more real. This sermon meditates on how Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’ three trials: Chief Priests, Pilate and Herod represent three modes of failure to do justice: venality, cowardice and cynicism. How we often succumb to those failures. And How Jesus overcame them and deserves the crown.

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A New Thing; Do You See It?

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 43:16-21, Luke 20:9-20

The parable of the wicked tenants always feels a little like an overdetermined dead letter. Even the Chief Priests understood that Jesus told it against them. The Salvation History understanding is natural. But the problem is that history alone doesn’t preach. Especially if that history hasn’t been made one’s own. The biblical story, the story of Israel, used to be fully the possession of every Christian. But today I fear we have been severed. We still desire the form of the old things. We desire the sacraments. We desire that the bible mean something. But we want them to mean what we want them to be, not what God has clearly made them to be. And we will kill the heir to make them ours.

This sermon is an encouragement to lay hold of the new things of God, to perceive what He is doing. Before the vineyard is taken from us.

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Only Sons

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Biblical Text: Luke 15:1-32

The text is possibly the most famous biblical text of all time, Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. But there is a problem with that. There is also 2000 years of piety around the text. Sometimes piety is a great thing. Most times. It usually is a virtue and prevents us doing something really stupid. But occasionally piety gets in the way of an authentic meditation on a text. We can’t hear or imagine the text because of everything else around it. This sermon attempts that meditation. These texts are not about about repentance, not really. They aren’t about sorting into prodigal and elders. They aren’t about spurring us on to greater feats of piety. They are a picture of God. The God who does come for us. The God who does clean us. The God who welcomes us back to the household. The God who wants only sons. (Not excluding daughters here, but the God who wants only members of the household, not hired men. And households don’t operate on the law. Households live on grace.

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Becoming Fruitful

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Biblical Text: Luke 13:1-9 (Ezekiel 33:20)

This sermon addresses something that I think we all are falling into wrongly and that is judging people by group standing. With God there is no collective righteousness, neither is there collective damnation. The Lord says, “I will judge each of you according to his ways.” Unlike our natural ways, comparative and collective, God doesn’t engage in comparison. Your neighbor’s sins are nothing but a mirror that reflects our own unworthiness. Your neighbor’s righteousness can’t be transferred to you. What God is interested in is you. None of us will avoid the judgement. The question is will we be found fruitless or fruitful. Whether we are talking about the general providence of God the Father, or the saving grace of the God the son, we have been given our daily bread. We have been given the care and feeding needed to be fruitful, personally fruitful. That starts with repentance. This sermon develops these themes around the parable of the fig tree in the vineyard.

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