Sermon for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

November 16, 2014, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon Theme:  “Using Your ‘Talents’ for the Lord”

(Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations; Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; original ideas; Westminster Dictionary of the Bible; Online Bible Dictionary)

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

Our talents are given to us to be shared, not buried or hidden away.  One of my favorite stories is about a preacher back in the days before they had wireless microphones.  His hand mike was on a long, heavy cord, and he would have been OK if he had stayed in the pulpit, but, being a hyper-energetic type who pranced and bounced all around the front of the chancel area, jerking the microphone cord as he went, he kept getting tangled up in the cord.

As he got more and more emotionally worked up, he started making more bounces and jerks and nearly tripping, until a little girl in the third pew leaned toward her mother and whispered, “If the preacher gets loose, will he hurt us?” Continue reading →

Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

November 9, 2014, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon Theme:  “Be Wise and Ready!”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Concordia Pulpit Resources, vol. 24, Part 4, Sept. 21-Nov. 23, 2014, Series A)

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

 “What time is it?”  Molly shouted from the far side of the playground.

“Late!” Theresa yelled back over her shoulder as she ran headlong toward

the door.

“Eight?”  Molly thought.  “If it is only eight, why is Theresa in such a tearing hurry?”  she asked herself.

“We’re late, Molly!  Come on!”  Theresa urged, as she continued racing across the school yard.

Suddenly Molly realized Theresa had not said, “Eight!” but “Late!”  She grabbed her bookbag and ran after her friend just as fast as she could go.

“Wait, Theresa!  Wait for me!”  Molly cried.

“I can’t wait,” Theresa flung back, “you know the school policy.  Late more than five minutes and they lock the door.  You have to sit in the principal’s office while they call your parents!”

Out of breath, Theresa dashed into the building and down the hallway to her classroom, just as the hall monitor was preparing to turn the key.  A moment later, Molly raced inside, her dress torn, her knee and lip bleeding.  She had tripped on a high spot in the sidewalk, and had fallen flat on her face.

The hall door was, by then, firmly locked.  She beat on it to no avail.  Slowly, she turned toward the principal’s office, noticing for the first time the tear in her dress and the blood trickling down her leg.

“Oh, my!”  she thought.  “Am I ever in trouble!”

In the parable in our sermon text for today, Jesus is teaching about the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, when the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, will return and call the faithful, repentant believers to the eternal marriage feast.  He tells the parable, because He doesn’t want us to have to say one day, “Oh, my!  Am I ever in trouble!” Continue reading →

Sermon for All Saints’ Day Observed

November 2, 2014, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Theme:  Blessed Are We, the Living Saints

(Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations; Emphasis Online Commentary; Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; original ideas; Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 24, Part 4, Series A; Harper’s Bible Dictionary)

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

           In one of my favorite Charlie Brown cartoons, Charlie, Lucy and Snoopy are walking along the road when Lucy says, “Sooner or later, Charlie Brown, there’s one thing you’re going to have to learn.  You reap what you sow.  You get out of life exactly what you put into it.  No more and no less.”

Hearing these words, Snoopy stops following Charlie and Lucy, and he says to himself as he walks away from them, “I’d kind of like to see a little more margin for error.” Continue reading →