Sermon for January 25, 2015

Sermon for Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 25, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Mark 1:14-20

Sermon Theme:  “What’s the Best Way to Fish?”

(Sources:  Anderson’s Preaching Workbook, Cycle B: original ideas; Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Wikipedia Online.)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s a Peanuts comic strip in which Linus is listening carefully as his sister, Lucy, boasts about her religious faith and her potential as an evangelist.  She says to Linus, “I could be a terrific evangelist.  Do you know that kid who sits behind me in school?  I convinced him that my faith is better than his faith.”

Linus asks, “How did you do that?”

Lucy replies, “I hit him with my lunch box.”

Not exactly what Jesus means by “fishing for men” in today’s sermon text.

In Jewish culture, whenever students attached themselves to a particular rabbi, that is, teacher, they would study the Law of God.  Now Jesus, the rabbi in our text, is a different sort of rabbi, in that He is the fulfillment of the Law, and, having been sent by the Father for a purpose, He needed to proclaim far and wide, that fulfillment.  Thus He actively went out seeking and choosing the men who would help Him in this task.

Jesus proclaims in the text, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  The Greek language has two concepts of “time”:  one is “chronos,” that is, time as duration; and the other is “kairos”

, time pregnant with meaning, that is time filled with meaning, purpose and opportunity.  The time Jesus is speaking of implies both concepts.

A survey was taken of Americans over 90 years of age.  They were asked, “If you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently?”  Their answers were, “I would reflect more, I would risk more, and I would invest in more things that would outlive me.”  Peter, Andrew, James, and John all invested in a cause that would outlive them on this earth, and found it was eternally worth it. Continue reading

LWML TEENS AT BROOKWOOD AND KRAUSE

Cassidy and Nicole (l to r) Brzozowski pictured at Brookwood Community near Brookshire visiting the Horticulture Division at Brookwood.

Cassidy and Nicole (l to r) Brzozowski pictured at Brookwood Community near Brookshire visiting the Horticulture Division at Brookwood.

Cassidy and Nicole (l to r) Brzozowski pictured at Brookwood Community near Brookshire visiting the Horticulture Division at Brookwood. From there they went to Krause Center in Katy, where they interacted with residents by playing board games and card games with them. Their activities were part of their mission outreach with the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 515 Cedar Street, in Wallis. LWML officers and Teen Sponsors, Cheryl Davis and Peggy Spitzenberger, who supervised the trip, treated the girls to a special lunch at Brookwood.

Sermon for January 18, 2015

Sermon for Second Sunday after the Epiphany

January 18, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Sermon Theme:  “Listen to What God Says When He Calls You”

(Sources:  Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 25, Part 1, Series B; Anderson’s Preaching Workbook, Cycle B; Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Examples; original ideas; Online blog: A Pop Culture Addict’s Guide to Life; Zionministry.com; Israel-a-history-of.com; Online Wikipedia.)

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amelia Bedelia is a popular culture character, appearing in at least 36 books by Peggy Parish since 1963.  She is a maid who wears a blue bonnet, who means well, but, because she is so naïve, she takes things too literally; and this gets her in trouble.

Here are a few Amelia Bedelia-isms:  To make a “date cake,” she cuts up a calendar into the dough.   “Dusting the furniture” to her means pouring buckets of dust on everything.  In her mind, “drawing the drapes” means taking out a notepad and sketching pictures of them.

Her antics remind both young and old alike how much trouble miscommunications cause.  In our sermon text for today, young Samuel is no Amelia Bedelia, but he also misinterprets a message.  From this Old Testament story, we learn that it is important to understand God correctly when He speaks to us, and that we realize God may call when we least expect it. Continue reading

Sermon for January 11, 2015

Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord, January 11, 2014

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Texts:  Genesis 1:1-5 and Mark 1:4-11

Sermon Theme:  “Hovering Over the Water”

(Sources: Lutheran Worship: History and Practice; Lutheran Book of Worship: Manual on the Liturgy; Anderson’s Preaching Workbook, Cycle B; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Sancta Missa Online Roman Catholic Views on Baptism; Water, Water, Everywhere! Online Lutheran Baptismal Liturgy.)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can be glad that our awesome God is not like us, Can’t we?  What if He were?

In the beginning, it was nine o’clock, so God had to go to work.  He filled out a requisition to separate light from darkness.  He considered making stars to beautify the night and planets to fill the skies, but thought it sounded like too much work; and besides, God thought, “That’s not my job.”  So He decided to knock off early and call it a day.  And He looked at what he’d done and He said, “It’ll have to do!”

On the second day God separated the waters from the dry land.  And He made all the dry land flat, plain, and functional, so that – behold – the whole earth looked like Idaho.  He thought about making mountains and valleys and glaciers and jungles and forests, but He decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort.  And God looked at what He had done that day and said, “It’ll have to do.”

And God made a pigeon to fly in the air and a carp to swim in the waters and a cat to creep upon dry ground. And God thought about making millions of other species of all sizes and shapes and colors, but He couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for any other animals.  In fact, He wasn’t too crazy about the cat.  Besides it was almost time for The Late Show.  So God looked at all He had done and God said, ”It’ll have to do.”

And at the end of the week, God was seriously burned out.  So He breathed a big sigh of relief and said, “Thank me, it’s Friday!” Continue reading

Sermon for January 04, 2015

Sermon for Second Sunday after Christmas

January 4, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Luke 2:40-52

Sermon Theme:  “Where Is That Boy?!”

(Sources:  Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 25, Part 1, Series B; Anderson’s Preaching Workbook, Cycle B; Online Sermons Illustrations: “Growing Up Jesus”; original ideas and examples; Believer’s Commentary)

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since my mother was the church organist, when we were eleven or twelve, my twin brother and I still spent a great deal of time with her at the church, going with her to all the Sunday services, as well as Mid-week services, choir rehearsals, wedding rehearsals, weddings, funerals, etc.

Believe it or not, I was the quiet, timid one, and my mother always knew where I was while she was rehearsing or meeting with the pastor, — I was in the car reading as I waited for her.  My ADHD brother, however, was another matter.  While she was about her business as organist, he was off at the cemetery a half mile behind the church shooting off firecrackers, or in the meadow next to the cemetery chasing jack rabbits.  He never missed an opportunity for adventure and excitement.

When my mother would come out of the church, the first thing she would ask was, “Where is that boy?!”

My response was, “I don’t know; I was reading.” Continue reading