Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 14, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  John 14:1-14

Sermon Theme:  “So What’s the Question?”

(Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Online Christian Jokes; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 27, Part 2, Series A; original ideas; Greek/Hebrew Key Bible; American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary; Life Application Study Bible footnotes)

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

Quite a few years ago, our sermon hymn, “Jesus Is the Answer,” was widely sung by evangelical Christians all over America; it was the most widely sung Christian song in churches, at tent revivals, and on the airwaves.  The cynics and skeptics who made fun of fundamental Christians in those days would show up at Christian rallies where “Jesus Is the Answer” was being sung with great fervor and emotion, and would hold up signs which said, “What’s the Question?”  Or they would shout sarcastically at the worshippers, “What’s the question?”

Even in today’s world, to say that “Jesus is the answer for the world today” seems absurd to some people, — but it’s absolutely true.  Jesus IS the answer.  Maybe not all the questions are quite clear as of yet, but whatever they are, today’s preaching must get to this great declaration of faith!  Jesus IS the answer.

There are a number of reasons why Jesus is the answer, and today’s sermon text from John’s gospel begins with the ultimate, bottom line answer, ‘There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I’m going there to prepare a place for you.’  The King James Version of the Bible translates this as “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Continue reading →

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter

April 23, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon Theme: “Facing Trials and Pain with Faith and Hope”

(Sources:  Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations: original ideas and examples; Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Life Application Study Bible)

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

I was a teacher for 30 years, both in high school and college, before I became a pastor, and now, I have been a pastor for almost 30 years; as a consequence, I have been compared to the Energizer Bunny.  About ten years ago, one of my former high school students, now a retired Lutheran Pastor, told another former student that he had visited with me, — to which the other replied, “You mean that old codger is still living?!”

Not too long ago, our LCMS District President asked my Circuit Counselor if I were still preaching, and he seemed awe-stricken that I still was.

However, I must say emphatically that I am no Energizer Bunny compared to Rev. Wayne Brouwer’s old friend, who was older than I and still going strong in the pulpit.  The old pastor had reached a good age and was mostly ready to go.  In fact, he jokingly said he had more lives than the proverbial cat with nine lives.  On too many occasions, because of cancer and accidents and blood diseases, doctors had written him off.  Yet, like the Energizer bunny, he kept going and going and going.

At a Circuit Pastors’ meeting, all the pastors present got to talking about how they hoped their congregation would remember them when they passed away.  One pastor said he hoped people would say nice things about him at his funeral, especially that he was a Godly man.  Another said he hoped folks would remember him for loving his family and being a pastor they could count on.

Having a great sense of humor, Wayne Brouwer’s old friend said, “When people come by my casket, I hope they look at me and say, “Oh, my!  He just moved!”

None of us wants to die, yet all of us face that prospect with a one-hundred percent certainty.  Except that after Easter, you can’t count on death any more.  Jesus reversed the natural course of events and shattered our pre-conceived notions about terminations.  Jesus came back to life.  Now everything changes. Continue reading →

Sermon for Easter Day, April 16, 2017

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon Theme:  “So What IS the Meaning of Easter?”

(Sources:  Brokhoff, Series A, Lectionary Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Online Funny Easter Quotes and Jokes; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 27, Part 2, Series A; A Little Book of Joy by Matthew C. Harrison)

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

Advent.  Christmas.  Lent.  Easter.  Everything leads to Easter.  So what is the meaning of Easter?

A Sunday School teacher once asked her pre-school class about the meaning of Easter.  “Children,” she said, “Do you know why we celebrate Easter?”

A little girl raised her hand.  “Yes, Jenny,” said the teacher.

Jenny said, “Is Easter when we put on costumes and go trick-or-treating?”

“No, Jenny, that’s Halloween.  Does anyone else know?”

A little boy yelled, “It’s when we set off fireworks!”

“No, Danny, that’s Independence Day?  Anyone else?”

A shy little girl in the back said, “Easter is when Jesus died.”

“You’re on the right track, Shawndy,” said the teacher.  “Jesus died on Good Friday, and then what happened next on Easter Sunday?”

“Well,” said the little girl, “He died and got buried, and every Easter he comes out.  And if he sees his shadow, there’s six more weeks of winter.”

Such an outlandish answer makes us chuckle, but, you know, there are many adults who really can’t give you a good answer to that question either.  “What does Easter really mean?” Well, that little, 4-sentence sermon text from Paul’s letter to the Colossians answers the question quite well!  What better time to answer the question than on Easter Sunday!

In general, it means salvation completed, it means reconciliation completed, it means complete joy!  But it’s also important to know what it means to each one of us individually.  Continue reading →

Sermon for Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Composite of Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-38; and John 12:12-18

Sermon Theme:  “So Why Is Palm Sunday So Important?”

(Sources:  Brokhoff, Series A, Preaching Workbook; “All Hail King Jesus,” wordpress.com; Online “Palms for the Lord”; “The Significance of Palm Sunday, christiantheology.com; original ideas; Lutheran Cyclopedia; Harper’s Bible Dictionary; online China’s End of World War II 2015 Anniversary Parade)

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

Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and others use a Lectionary for preaching during the Church Year; there is even a Common Lectionary, as well as a Catholic and Lutheran Lectionary, and they are all somewhat similar.  In the 1980’s, the Lectionaries changed, no doubt because many of those denominations were no longer holding Holy Week services, not even on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  And most of them, long ago, seemed to have stopped having Wednesday night services throughout Lent.

As a consequence, the Lectionaries added Passion Sunday Scriptures to the traditional readings for Palm Sunday.  This raised the question, “Can both be celebrated on the same Sunday?”  If you do both, you will have a two-hour long service, so most take the option of observing EITHER Palm Sunday OR Passion Sunday.  Having them both on the same day kind of neutralizes both of them.

When I began preaching in 1988, like a lot of other preachers, I used a   Lectionary Preaching Workbook that was already offering both a Palm Sunday text and a Passion Sunday text (which is essentially a Good Friday text).  Then in 1993, when that Lectionary Workbook was replaced with a new one, Only the Passion Sunday texts were offered, almost as though they did away with Palm Sunday.  Although our insert recognizes both, it offers only the Passion Gospel.

To me, eliminating a Palm Sunday celebration is doing away with one of the most important Christian Festivals in the Church Year. Continue reading →

Sermon for Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 2, 2017

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Romans 8:1-11

Sermon Theme:  “But Does the Spirit of God Dwell within You?”

(Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; What Luther Says; Online Emphasis Commentary; Online Emphasis Illustrations; original ideas; “What Are the Names and Titles of the Holy Spirit?,” gotquestions.org; Life Application Study Bible; Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia; Lutheran Cyclopedia)

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

The Lutheran Lectionary System we follow, which determines, among other things, which Bible texts we use every Sunday, seems strange sometimes.  The Epistle text for today, for instance, is Romans 8:1-11, which is about the Holy Spirit, and which more logically is a Pentecost text.  But here we are deep into Lent, and we have a text focusing on the Holy Spirit.  What has the Holy Spirit got to do with Lent?

The Church Calendar ties in with the Holy Spirit, but it has Festivals that seem odd for Lent.  March 20 is the Festival of St. Joseph (foster father of Jesus), and March 25 is the Festival of the Annunciation, celebrating the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she is with child by the Holy Spirit.  It makes you think you’re back in Advent.  So it goes with man-made Systems and Calendars!  And Church tradition tells us not to celebrate Festivals of any kind during Lent, whether they appear out-of-place chronologically or in-place.

I said all that just in case you were wondering why the sermon was about the Holy Spirit on the 5^th Sunday in Lent.

To be sure, the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS a valid topic, as Martin Luther says in his Large Catechism, “The Holy Spirit carries on His work without ceasing until the Last Day, and for this He has appointed a congregation on earth through which He speaks and does everything.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely extraordinary.  How can you tell if a person is a Christian?  By the fact that he or she has the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them, and you can tell THAT by the difference it makes in the person’s life, — how he or she thinks, speaks, and acts.  If it doesn’t make a difference, is the person a truly regenerated, reborn follower of Christ?  There are Christians, and then there are “Christians.”  The Holy Spirit makes the difference.

Mohandas Gandhi spent some years studying in England, at that time considered a very Christian nation.  After returning home from England to India, he was asked if he had been exposed to Christianity while he was away.  “Yes,” he replied.  He was then asked, “Why didn’t you become a Christian?”  To this, Gandhi replied, “Because I knew too many Christians.”  We gotta remember, we Christians are the only Bible some people read.

A missionary was shipwrecked on a desert island and spent many miserable days waiting for rescue.  Fresh fruit, fish, and edible animals were plentiful, so he wasn’t hungry, but he became desperately lonely.  So he decided to explore deeper into the interior of the island, to see if there were any other human beings on it.

After fighting his way through underbrush, he saw the smoke of a camp fire.  At first he was excited, just at the thought of other humans being there on the island, but then he began to worry that they might be headhunters or cannibals.  So he carefully and quietly got close enough to the campsite to hear what the voices were saying.

“Deal the cards and pass the bottle,” he heard a voice say.  “Oh, thank God!” he gasped, “I’m among Christians!” Continue reading →

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 26, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Ephesians 5:8-14

Sermon Theme:  “Are We Children of the Night, or Children of the Light?”

 (Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook;  Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; “You Stupid Darkness,” avclub.com; original ideas; Nelson’s Three-in-One; Believer’s Commentary)

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

           A little girl walked around her house singing a song which she had learned in Vacation Bible School:  “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.  This little light of mine; I’m, gonna let it shine, let it shine, shine, shine.”  Her parents enjoyed hearing her sing.  One evening she got into a terrible fight with her brother and she was sent to her room.  The next morning she was in a bad mood.  Seeing this, her mother said to her, “What happened to my happy, singing girl?  What happened to that shining light?”

To this the young girl replied, “My brother blew it out!”

Paul says to us in today’s sermon text, “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).”  In Matthew 5:14, Jesus tells His followers, “You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Continue reading →

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent

March 19, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Romans 5:1-8

Sermon Theme:  “Don’t Keep Clutching the Hot Pot”

(Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Lutheran Cyclopedia; Footnotes, Concordia Self-Study Bible; Footnotes, Life Application Study Bible; Harper’s Bible Dictionary; Original Ideas; Westminster Dictionary of the Bible)

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

Thousands of books have been written about “justification,” probably enough books over the years to fill a library.  In chapters preceding our sermon text, Paul has attempted to explain “justification,” and much of the letter to the Romans is about justification. Harpers’ Bible Dictionary devotes almost a whole page to defining “justification.”  On our own turf, The Lutheran Cyclopedia gives one definition of “justification,” followed by eight explanations.

Here’s the official definition of The Lutheran Cyclopedia: “’Justification’ is a judicial act of God which consists of non-imputation of sin and imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”  Clear as mud, huh?  We’re better off sticking with Paul’s definition.

What the Lutheran Cyclopedia meant is that we are by nature sinful and incapable of obeying God’s Laws ourselves.  God is moved to justify us, that is, declare us not guilty, by grace through faith alone.  The righteousness of Christ is given to us by God (that’s what the Lutheran Cyclopedia means by “imputation” of Christ’s righteousness), by His grace, by the sacrifice of Christ, through faith.  Justification is then ours.

Today’s text is about the blessings we receive from justification. Continue reading →

Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent

March 12, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  John 3:1-17

Sermon Theme: “The Born-Again Metamorphosis”

(Anderson’s Cycle C Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Online Christian Jokes; original ideas; Harper’s Bible Dictionary; What Luther Says; Luther’s Small Catechism)

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

When God changes a human being by replacing the “Old Adam” in him or her with the “new Adam,” we Lutherans like to compare that to the metamorphosing of a an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.  We tend to shy away from the stronger imagery that Jesus uses in our sermon text of being born again.  No, it’s not just Baptists who use that term, “born again,” Jesus used it long before they did.

In our sermon text, when Nicodemus asks, ‘Can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?,’ Jesus replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

If you’re wondering, does “water and the Spirit” refer to the receiving of the Holy Spirit during the Sacrament of Baptism, the Apostle Paul clears that up for us in Romans 6:4, where he says, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  Paul calls Baptism a “washing of regeneration” in Titus 3:5.  “Regeneration” is also the term Christians use for “conversion” or “being born again,” – we Lutherans tend to prefer the terms “regeneration” and “conversion” to “being born again.”  Whatever you call it, conversion involves a metamorphosis, or change, — it’s never too late, while walking this earth, to become a beautiful butterfly.

Walking through the forest, an atheist heard a rustling in the bushes.  Turning, he saw a massive grizzly bear changing toward him!  He ran as fast as he could but tripped over a stump and fell.  As the bear raised a hug paw to strike, the atheist shouted, “God!  Help me!”

Time froze.   The bear became immobile, the forest was silent, and the river stopped running.  Then the atheist heard a powerful voice:  “You have denied my existence for years, taught others I don’t exist and credited my creation to a cosmic accident.  Why should I help you?”

“It would be hypocritical to ask you to show mercy on me,” the atheist agreed.  “But perhaps you could make the bear a Christian/”

At that, the noise of the forest resumed, the river ran, and the bear dropped to its knees, brought its paws together, and said, “Come, Lord Jesus, be my guest, and let this food to me be blessed.” Continue reading →

Sermon for First Sunday in Lent, March 5, 2017

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon Theme:  “Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!”

(Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Brokhoff, Series A, Preaching Workbook; original ideas; Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Illustrations; “Temptations,” christianforum.com; Temptation jokes from Hee Haw)

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

On the TV show, “Hee Haw,” Doc Campbell is confronted by a patient who says he broke his arm in two places.  The doc replies, “Well, then, stay out of them places.”

He may have something there.  There is no way we can regularly put ourselves in the face of temptation and not be affected.  When faced with the problem of temptation, we need to take the good doctor’s advice and “stay out of them places.”

We begin this first Sunday in Lent with Satan’s temptation of Jesus, which calls to mind the temptations we are confronted with.  The question I had as I began to prepare this sermon was, “How do we pastors prepare ourselves and others to withstand temptation?”  In one of the sources I used to prepare this sermon, the commentator wrote, “If you’re looking for illustrations on the meaning of Lent, then you might as well start where it begins, by looking in the mirror.”

In other words, don’t lecture others about not being able to resist temptation, when you yourself might be guilty.  You want an illustration?  Use yourself.  It struck me as funny that one pastor preaching a sermon on resisting temptation began, not by using himself as an example, but his wife.

This poor country pastor, barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, confronted his wife the day he received a bill for a $250 dress she had bought.  “How could you do this?!”  he shouted, unable to control his anger.

“I don’t know,” she said, sobbing.  “I was standing in the store looking at the dress on sale.  Then I found myself trying it on.  It was like the Devil was whispering to me, “Gee, you look great in that dress.  You should buy it!”

“Well,” her pastor-husband replied, “you know how to deal with Satan!  Just tell him, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

“I did,” replied his wife, “but then he said, “It looks great from back here, too!”

That takes me back to the question, why should Lent begin with each of us looking in the mirror?  Continue reading →

Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

February 26, 2017, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon Theme:  “Do We Have to Come Down from the Mountain?”

(Sources:  Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Anderson’s Cycle A Preaching Workbook; Brokhoff, Series A, Preaching Workbook; original ideas; Short’s The Gospel According to Peanuts; Footnotes, Concordia Self-Study Bible)

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

So Jesus takes his three best friends, Peter, James, and John, to the top of a high mountain where they meet up with Moses and Elijah, — that’s how Matthew starts to tell the story of the Transfiguration.  It almost sounds like the start of a joke, — like, “Did you hear the one where three nuns and a penguin walk into a bar? . . .”  It has all the elements of a joke:  there’s a normal setting (a mountain), the people you’d expect (Jesus, Peter, James, and John), — and then there’s the kicker:  Moses and Elijah!

It’s got to be a joke.  Those things don’t go together.  Just like three nuns and a penguin don’t go together, four New Testament leaders of the Way don’t join two Old Testament prophets on top a mountain.  So you wonder what’s the punch line, — but there isn’t a punch line, because this isn’t a joke.  In fact, it’s one of the most serious activities Jesus has involved his disciples in thus far.

This very serious activity, the Transfiguration, took place for three reasons:  ONE, it was to reveal the glory of the Son of God, a glory now hidden, but to be revealed fully when Christ returns at the End of Times; TWO, to serve as proof of the difficult-to-understand teachings of Jesus at Caesarea Philippi; and THREE, to uplift the disciples, to give them a shot in the arm, so to speak, after learning that Jesus would suffer and die in Jerusalem. Continue reading →