Sermon for Second Sunday of Easter, April 12, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  John 20:19-31

Sermon Theme:  “Show Me!”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Illustrations; personal ideas and examples; Brokhoff’s Series B Preaching Workbook; Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Workbook; Online quotes about doubting; Online Cartoons about Doubting Thomas; Online Humor about Doubting)

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

           As human beings, many of us, if not most of us, tend to identify with the disciple whom history calls, “Doubting Thomas.”  Many would say, ‘That’s our weakness as flawed homo sapiens, — to doubt.’  Some, however, especially those from the “Show Me” State of Missouri, would say, ‘We are people who want to know the facts, because we don’t want to be duped.’  Maybe Thomas was from Missouri.  After all, Thomas was not at the crucifixion to see Jesus die, nor was he at the empty tomb, nor was he present when Jesus made His first post-resurrection appearance to the other disciples.  For his Master to have arisen from the dead defies reason.

Most of you know the origin of the “Show-Me State”-label, when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me.  I am from Missouri.  You have got to show me.”  Thomas had to be shown. Continue reading →

Sermon for Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Mark 16:1-8

Sermon Theme:  “Gone?!”

 (Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 16, Part 2, Series B; Emphasis Online Illustrations and Commentaries; original ideas and examples; Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Notebook; Brokhof’s Preaching Workbook, Series B)

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

           In our Gospel text for today, as the three women, — the two Mary’s and Salome, — enter the empty tomb at dawn, and an angel says to them, “He is risen!,” they didn’t respond, as we did this morning, with “He is risen indeed!,” did they?

No, — instead, the women are scared out of their wits by the presence of the angel sitting where the body had lain.  They leave the tomb trembling and bewildered.  The women were afraid.  They fled from the tomb.  They said nothing to anyone.  The predominant emotion is fear!  The main idea is that Jesus is GONE, and that could be good or bad.  Where is the Easter joy we came to hear about, read about and sing about this morning?

The Easter angel, — or angels (Luke says “angels” in his Gospel), — announced the Good News in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but in a different order.  Matthew and Luke say first that Jesus is not here anymore, that He has left the tomb, — in other words, GONE!  Then, they say He has arisen.  The angel in Mark’s Gospel says He is risen first, and then that He is not there.  This may be nit-picking, but it seems that Mark is prioritizing the proclamation.  He is saying that Jesus is alive, and He is out there with you! Continue reading →

Sermon for Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 22, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Mark 10:35-45

Sermon Theme:  “What?!  You’re Asking for the Best Seats in the House?!”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Believer’s Commentary; Nelson’s Three-in-One)

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

           Let me tell you about the two cattle ranchers who were bragging to one another.  The rancher from Oklahoma said, “Well, I’ve got 15,000 head of cattle with an ‘A’ branded on them.”

“An ‘A?,’” said the rancher from Texas, “heck, my spread is called the Bar T, Circle L, Cross Creek, Flying Z, Bent Fork, Double Back, North Canyon Ranch.”

“Wow,” said the first rancher, “how many head of cattle do you have?”

“Well, confessed the Texan, “not too many survive the branding.”

We human beings like to brag, don’t we?, because we want to be Number One.  Too often we want to be greater and better than anyone else.

Such an attitude could be applied to the behavior of James and John in the incident in today’s sermon text.  These two disciples tell Jesus they want Him to do something for them.  When He asks what that is, they tell Him that when He comes into His glory, they wish to sit on His right and left, the places of highest honor.  This request shows that James and John had really, really missed the point. Continue reading →

Sermon for Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  John 3:14-21

Sermon Theme:  “In Christ There Is No Condemnation”

 (Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Examples; original ideas; Bible Dictionary)

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

           Today’s sermon text is one of those bold texts that even wakes up the pew-nappers who don’t get enough sleep on Saturday nights.  They suddenly wake up and think, “What did Jesus say?  Run that by again!”  Jesus likes to shock us into listening, doesn’t He?  He does it throughout the New Testament.

He tells us, ‘Don’t point out that speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye when there’s a plank in yours.’  He loves to say things like comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to the yeast a woman hides in the grain to make bread.  I mean, the Jews considered yeast an “unclean” substance, and when you prepared for Passover, you had to get rid of all yeast-raised products out of the house.  So comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to yeast was a shocker.

There are some “shockers” in today’s text, but before we look at them, let me just briefly sum up the text itself. Continue reading →

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Mark 8:27-38

Sermon Theme:  “You Can’t Live Your Life in a Safe Deposit Box”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas: Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Workbook)

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

           When two sisters divided a family inheritance, there was a precious gold watch that had belonged to their mother.  Said one wise sister to the other, “You can have it if you wear it.  But if you are going to put it in a safe deposit box and never look at or enjoy it, then I will keep it.”

Life cannot be lived in a safe deposit box.  But if life is lived for Christ and the Gospel, it is “safe.”  We have God’s promise.

In the television documentary of a nun who was killed in El Salvador, she was sure that God had called her to be a missionary to this particular place at this time in her life.  When she was home on missionary leave, her friends, her family, and even a priest tried to persuade her of the imminent danger in El Salvador, and to dissuade her from returning to her missionary assignment.  But she was willing to be lost for Christ’s sake.

Most of us, probably none of us, will be called to serve God in such a way, where danger is imminent and being killed is very real possibility.  Yet we need to hear the message of this Gospel, because our commitment to Christ and our dedication to His work are so lukewarm.  Many Christians today want to put their whole church in a safe deposit box. Continue reading →

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 →