“Whom do you seek?” Sometimes when we look for God, we find the unexpected. Should that bother us?

From a Lenten service based on John 18:5-6 from an “I Am” series. Uses the image from the Shroud of Turin.

For sermon based on Romans 10:8-13 that happens to fall on Valentines Day
Description: “How can I be sure of love?” In our world, love and broken promises seem to go together. But when want to be sure about love, how can we know?

(Psalms 119:11) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

For my sermon on Psalm 19:7-14
Description: “The Sweet Law” Does obedience excite you? Probably not. But the better we know God, the more we desire obedience to Him.

This week’s sermon title is, “What is the Baptized life?” based on Romans 6:1-11. Here’s some graphics I created for it.

Benediction: A Sonnet

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Text: (Num 6:22-27 ESV)

“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.””

This is the Word of our Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Broken Promises

As passing go the days of ev’ry year

The promises we make we rarely keep

A resolution make but not adhere

As dreams from mem’ry go when rise from sleep

Pureness of heart will drive the good intent

But those intents have paved infernal roads

And though reflection on them brings lament

It doesn’t change our course as evil goads

So long as flesh is born in fallen earth

Rebellion will precede physical birth.

Our Baptismal Promise

In Baptism we make a solemn oath

Renouncing every devil’s work and way

In purity the One Who would betroth

We pledge our faithfulness to final day

Yet though our bridegroom forfeit all His life

We callously discard His affection

Our hearts and deeds do not befit His wife

And question memory of connection

Though deluge purged out Adam’s legacy,

The patriot still acts the enemy.

God’s Baptismal Promise

Yet from the flood, creation sprang anew,

And from New Adam’s veins, eternity

And just as one tree God’s image withdrew,

Yet with another gives it back to thee

And even though like Gomer, we still stray,

Our Lord forever claims us as His own

By water and His Word with each new day,

Renews His vows until we face His throne

Adopting us, bequeaths to us His name,

Indwells and grants the Holy Spirit’s flame.

The Promise at the Tomb

In Baptism, the New Man comes alive

And transgression’s left buried in the grave

Just as the Lord Himself did once revive

And pave the Way for those He died to save

So those who go again as from the womb,

By water and the Spirit rise again

As Christ was raised exalted from the tomb,

Shall follow His example at the end.

As Resurrection looms, we need not fear

His promised blessing given when He’s here.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Originally preached Dec 30, 2009

Here’s my Christmas Eve sermon from 2009:

How the Grinch Missed Christmas

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Text: (1 John 4:7-11 ESV) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

This is the Word of our Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

 

You’ve probably heard of the Grinch and the whos

That Christmas comes even when we get bad news

But Christmas is more than bright lights and roast beast

And more than friends, family, and songs, at the least!

 

See, Theodore Geisel’s a great storyteller

That guy, Dr. Seuss, was a talented feller

And as a Luth’ran, he liked Christmas: you said it,

But the Grinch, without Jesus, he just didn’t get it.

 

We think about Christmas and all of its trappings

The travel, the parties, the gifts and their wrappings

The shopping and hunting for whatnots and Zhu Zhu’s

And running around ’til you ache in your shoe-shoes.

 

Along with the tree and the stress and the fun

There’s still deeper meaning that’s second to none

How God sent the Savior to save everyone

The Father sent Jesus. He sent us His Son!

 

See, just like the Grinch, we were born with a defect

A tendency all that is good just to reject

It’s not that our hearts are two sizes too small

Our hearts are so sinful, we’re not live at all.

 

The heart of a human, in sin it is rooted

And thus it’s all poisoned and gross and polluted

We don’t want to live like a child of the Lord

We get more concerned by the riches we hoard.

 

Since God knew the problem with which we all suffer

He isn’t the type to just sit on His duffer

He had Him a plan that He knew from the start

He’d handle our sin. He’d clean up our heart.

 

So just when the time was right, just at that minute

When all was in place, He began to begin it

His Son became flesh, and He came to our earth

He took on our weakness and went through our birth

 

And although in heaven, He had all kinds of glory,

There’s not much of that in the true Christmas story

To fulfill the Law so to God you’re no stranger,

He was born in a stall and was laid in a manger.

 

And not far away, there was noise and commotion

While angels appeared and gave shepherds a notion

That God had sent Love not just to all the wealthy,

But to poor folks and sad ones, the weak and unhealthy.

 

The angel said, “Go,” and the shepherds, they came

And they found a small babe like the angel did claim

And they were so amazed, so they ran through the town

And soon all Bethlehem heard of what they had found.

 

That the God of the ages in a whole new endeavor

Had become mortal man to give us His forever

He put it aside, all His glory and power

To save people who’d weekly maybe give Him an hour.

 

Why, you ask, would a God who’s so righteous and mighty

Give Himself for a people whose commitment’s so flighty?

Is it ’cause we possess some great thingamajig?

No. It’s all ’cause His heart’s extranormously big.

 

Just because God is love in a way we can’t fathom,

And He saw that between us sin had dug a chasm,

He knew that we were lost; hope was beyond diminished,

And the only way was if He started and finished

 

So that’s why on this day we remember the child

And we sing of the infant, “So tender and mild,”

But the story’s not done. Here’s the part that gets lost:

Being laid in a trough’s only part of the cost.

 

Because 30 years later, He gets going and preaches,

Heals lepers, cures blindness, gives all kinds of speeches,

To sinners and tax collectors He outreaches,

And walks to a boat that’s far out from the beaches.

 

And even all that’s not the reason for joy

That we celebrate on this day that little Boy

On the feast of His birth and His first little breath

The real reason we’re feasting is because of His death.

 

Once again, when the time had been fully fulfilled,

He was hauled off to trial, and He got Himself killed

They attached Him with nails to an old wooden tree,

And He willingly went to redeem you and me.

 

Because on that old cross, where He hurt, and He bled,

And He suffered from whips and the thorns in His head,

And He suffered until He was finally dead,

There He paid for our sins as the prophets foresaid.

 

But the story’s not done, no it’s not, don’t you know it?

Since He’d paid with His life for the times that we blow it,

There’s no way death could hold Him, though He didn’t forgo it,

He came out of the grave, life forever to show it!

 

So with hearts full to bursting, we all share on this night

How the Lord of creation put the devil to flight

By a child in a manger, a cross and a grave

The whole world was forgiven, to sin no more a slave.

 

And so as you go forth with all your family

And your thoughts wander north and look under the tree,

As the Bible has told through God’s inspired pen,

Love has come down among us, and in His name, Amen.

 

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

I’m preaching on Christmas Eve on Isaiah 9:2-7, and I created this image for use in it. Help yourself if you find it useful.

This is supplemental information for our Sunday School teachers using Concordia Publishing House’s Growing in Christ Sunday School curriculum. I write this up each month for our teachers and discuss it at our teachers’ meeting, so I thought I’d share. Pastors and Sunday School Superintendents, feel free to pass on the link or print it out for your teachers. It also has a weekly bulletin paragraph with discussion questions for families. The public can comment on the doc, so feel free to add your comments, insights, corrections, and additions within the doc or below.

(Note: those lessons with a strikethrough mark days we don’t have class here at Saint James. If anyone else would like to create the information for those weeks, just use the comments on the doc, and I can add it in.)

 

Source: Sunday School Lesson Notes 2015-2016 – Google Docs

This Thanksgiving, I’m preaching on Deuteronomy 8:1-10:

It’s hard to be thankful in the hard times even when we know God is with us. So what needs to change so we can be truly thankful?

Here’s the image I created for it—feel free to use it.

 

An image designed for a sermon based on Ecclesiastes 5:10-20, depicting how our wealth can leave us trapped in a tomb, but in Christ, God gives us new life and frees us.