Sermon for First Sunday in Lent, February 22, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Texts:  James 1:12-18 and Mark 1:9-15

Sermon Theme:  “Steadfast under Trial”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations and Commentaries; Concordia Journal, Winter 2015; Believer’s Commentary; “Dealing with Temptation,” christdeaf.org; “Trial, Test or Temptation,” bobrussell.org; “The Difference between Trials, Tests, and Temptation,” another Online commentary; original ideas; Pope Francis, “Their Blood Cries Out to the Lord”; Online Famous Quotations; Execution of 21 Coptic Prisoners, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 16, 2015.)

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

           Trials, tests, and temptations!  — that’s what both of our sermon texts for today are about.  Often, the same Greek word in the New Testament is translated as “trial” in one passage and “temptation” in another, because in the contexts of the verses they are not quite the same.

Although “temptation” is a very serious concept, we human beings often make light of it, saying things like, “The devil made me do it.”  We all get a good laugh out of Mark Twain’s famous witticism, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.  I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.”  Yet, lung cancer isn’t very funny, is it?  Perhaps Oscar Wilde and Charlie Brown were speaking for all of us when they said, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

Trials, tests, and temptations are not exactly the same thing, so we need to make some distinctions first before we look at our sermon texts, — the letter of James and the Gospel of Mark.  I started out with James as my text and then added Mark to develop the message fully.  A number of theologians have defined these three words and have pointed out distinctions, but I like Bob Russell’s differentiations the best. Continue reading →

Sermon for The Transfiguration of Our Lord

February 15, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Mark 9:2-19

Sermon Theme:  “Why Can’t Life Be All ‘Ups’?”

 (Sources:  Anderson’s Preaching Workbook, Cycle B; original ideas; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 25, Part 1, Series B; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations)

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

From the time I was a child until I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up.  Maybe that explains why I start so many of my sermons with one of my favorite Charlie Brown Cartoon strips.  So, here goes yet another one:

In this one, Charlie is listening to Lucy, who confesses, “Sometimes I get discouraged.”  Charlie responds, “Well, Lucy, life does have its ups and down.”

“But why should it?”  complains Lucy, “why can’t my life be all ‘ups’ – if I want ‘ups,’ why can’t I have them?  Why can’t I just move from one ‘up’ to another ‘up’ to an ‘upper-up’?  I don’t want any ‘downs,’ I just want ‘ups’ and ‘ups’ and ‘ups.’”

Charlie Brown walks away shaking his head, saying, “I just can’t stand it!” Continue reading →

Sermon for Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

February 8, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Isaiah 40:21-31

Sermon Theme:  “With Wings Like Eagles”

(Sources:  Online Wikipedia, “On Eagle Wings”; Online biblehub.com; Emphasis online Commentaries; Emphasis online Illustrations; original ideas; Believer’s Commentary)

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

           Last Sunday, we talked about Moses, the first of a long line of prophets who passed on God’s messages to the Israelites.  When he was about to die, the people begged Moses to beg God to send another prophet to do the same thing.

Over the years, the prophets did not mince words; they told it “like it is!”  And, as I said last Sunday, it was often admonition and warning, sometimes severe; but also there was guidance and comfort and boosting up.  John the Baptist yelled at the people to repent.  Samuel gave the Israelites a verbal beating for not consulting God, for turning their backs on God.  Ezekiel paraded the sins of Judah before the people, warning of captivity and destruction; and later he also condemned Judah’s pagan neighbors, blasting them for their idolatry and the way they treated God’s people.

Malachi condemned God’s people, the Jews, for marrying pagans, for dishonest financial practices, and for withholding tithes from God’s house. Continue reading →

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

February 1, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Sermon Theme:  “What Is a Prophet Anyway?”

 (Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Workbook; footnotes to the Concordia Self Study Bible; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 25, Part 1, Series B; Harper’s Bible Dictionary.)

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

           I have two teenage Sunday School students and one teenage granddaughter,  I believe teenagers are good and interesting human beings, and I enjoy being around them.  However, teenagers, like other young people, need mentoring, don’t they?  For example, consider this interaction between a father and his teenage son:

Father says, “Please cut the grass this afternoon.”

Danny says nothing.  He is silent.

Father:  “Did you hear me?”

Danny:  “Yes, father.”

The father comes home in the evening after work and the lawn hasn’t been touched.

Father:  “Didn’t you hear me tell you to cut the lawn?”

Danny:  “I did hear you, but I never said I’d do it.”

That’s not unlike the relationship between God the Father and the Israelites in the Five Books of Moses.  The responsibility of a prophet is to speak the Lord’s message.  The recipients, that is, those who are supposedly listening to the prophet’s message, are expected both to hear and heed the word of the Lord.

You see, the Israelites shunned the immediate presence of God; it was too frightening.  In today’s sermon text, they were quoted as saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.”  They demanded someone to stand between them and God.  So they were given the prophet Moses as a mediator.  He became a great mediator and prophet, and served the people for many years.

In today’s text, Moses, this mediator, this prophet, God has used for the last forty years to pass along His words to the people of Israel is about to leave, to die.  So the frightening question the people are faced with is, ‘To whom should we listen now?’ Continue reading →