Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent

December 13, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon Theme:  “Rejoice!  Have No Anxiety about Anything!”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations; Anderson’s Cycle C Preaching Workbook; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 26, Part 1, Series C; original ideas; Online Peanuts Comic Strips)

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

Happiness is an elusive thing.  Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” and several great thinkers have said something equivalent to, “Unless you carry happiness within you, you will never find it.”

Everybody has his or her own idea about what happiness is.  Snoopy says happiness is an ice cream cone.  Sally Brown says happiness is having your own library card.  But, in today’s sermon text from Philippians, Paul is talking about “joy” rather than “happiness,” and for many, joy is even more elusive than happiness.

I love the Peanuts cartoon strip which begins with Charlie Brown, head down, standing with his “hung dog” stance.  Charlie says to his girl friend, Peggy Jean, who is standing there looking at him, “This is my depressed stance.  When you are depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand.  The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high, because then you’ll start to feel better.  If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.”    Peggy Jean says nothing, just looks at him bewildered. Continue reading →

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

December 6, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Luke 3:1-14

Sermon Theme:  “The Color of Repentance”

(Sources:  Anderson, Cycle C, Preaching Workbook; What Luther Says, CPH Anthology; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Repent and Sin No More, Online Jokes; Repent and Be Saved Online Commentary; original ideas)

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

           Sin is not a joking matter, and confession and repentance must be taken seriously.  However, I want to share a joke about repentance that really makes a very good point.

Once there was a tradesman, a painter named Jack, who was very interested in making a dollar where he could.  So he often would thin down his paint to make it go a bit farther.  As it happened, he got away with this for some time.

Eventually, the local church decided to do a big restoration project.  Jack put in a painting bid, and, because his price was so competitive, he got the job.  And so he started, erecting the trestles and putting up the planks, and buying the paint and thinning it down with turpentine.

Jack was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly done, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder.  The sky opened and the rained poured down, washing away the thinned down paint from all over the church and knocking Jack off the scaffold to land on the lawn.

Jack was no fool.  He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he fell on his knees and cried, “Oh, God!  Forgive me!  What should I do?”

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke, “Repaint!  Repaint!  And thin no more!”

Continue reading →

Sermon for First Sunday in Advent

November 29, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Jeremiah 33:14-16

Sermon Theme:  “A New Branch; a New Name”

 (Sources: Anderson, Cycle C, Preaching Notebook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; original ideas; Online Jokes about Small Towns; Funny Names of Towns Online; Introduction to Jeremiah, Concordia Self-Study Bible.)

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

           Today’s sermon text is a very short, simple, but powerful prophesy from the Prophet, Jeremiah.  Through Jeremiah, God proclaims that He will fulfill the Promise He made, He will cause a Righteous Branch of David to spring up; He will save Judah, and Jerusalem will be safe; and He will give the Holy City of Jerusalem a new name.

This prophesy comes at a time when this capital city of Judah, Jerusalem, is doomed to defeat by the feared Babylonians.  In 605 B.C., the mighty Egyptians were crushed by Babylon, returning to Egypt with heavy losses.  That meant Babylon had a free hand in western Asia for the next 70 years, and could and did terrorize small nations like Judah.  In his prophesy, Jeremiah assures the people God’s Promise, made long ago, will be kept, and he speaks of a new name for Jerusalem.  It will be called “The Lord is our righteousness.”

What difference does it make what a city is called?  Social scientists have found that the name of a city makes a great deal of difference, both positively and negatively.

Years ago, Cincinnati was disparagingly called “The Sin (S-I-N) City,” – that is, until political and social leaders decided the name for their city was not what they wanted, so they cleaned it up, making it more morally pure.

Los Angeles was commonly called “the city of Angels,” which was a wonderful name.  But, in more recent times, L.A. seems to be the opposite of a city of angels – unless you’re talking about “Hell’s Angels.”

I grew up in Dime Box, Texas.  The name is very appropriate considering the size of the town.  A dime is even smaller than a nickel.  It fit all those “You- know-you’re-from-a-small-town-isms.”

You know you’re from Dime Box when the local phone book has only one yellow page.  You know you’re from Dime Box when 3^rd Street is on the edge of town.  You know you’re from Dime Box when “A Night on the Town” takes only 11 minutes.  You know you’re from Dime Box when weekend excitement involves a trip to the grocery store.  It may be small, but it was a safe, peaceful, and a caring place to grow up in. Continue reading →

Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Sermon Theme: “Thank God during the Best of Times and during the Worst of Times”

  (Sources:  Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 12, Part 4; original ideas; Online Jokes about Thanksgiving; footnotes, Concordia Self-Study Bible; Rinckhart, Wikipedia.)

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

           Perhaps like some of you were doing earlier today, the mother of the family was pawing through some frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn’t find one big enough for the huge number of family members coming the next day for Thanksgiving dinner.  So she asked the stock boy, “Do these turkeys get any bigger?”

“No ma’am,” the stock boy replied, “they’re dead.

One year, a couple’s four year old boy wanted to give thanks before the Thanksgiving meal.  Everybody bowed their heads, and the boy began his prayer thanking God for his Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa.  Then he gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the mashed potatoes, the fruit salad, the cucumber salad, the cranberry sauce, the bread rolls, the pumpkin pie, the chocolate dessert and even the Cool Whip.  Then he paused.

Everyone waited.  And waited.  Finally, after a long silence, he looked up at his mother and asked, “If I thank God for the broccoli, won’t he know that I’m lying?” Continue reading →

Sermon for Christ the King, Last Sunday of the Church Year

November 22, 2015, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  John 18:33-38

Sermon Theme:  “What Do You Worship as King of Truth?”

 (Sources:  Anderson’s Cycle B Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentary; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Online “Snoopy and the Meaning of Life”; original ideas)

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

           One of the most all-time favorite Peanuts comic strips shows Snoopy in the lead-in box lying on top of the “u” in a stone sculpture of the word “truth.”

Then the strip actually begins with Snoopy lying on top his dog house, staring at the stars, unable to sleep.  “Rats,” he says, “it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m wide awake!”

“Were am I going?  What is the meaning of life?,” he asks suddenly.

So he trots to the back door of Charlie Brown’s house, and kicks the door loudly, “Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.”

Inside the house, Charlie Brown is awakened from his sleep by the noise and says, “I recognize that kick.  That is the kick of someone who has awakened in the middle of the night and wants to know the meaning of life.”

Charlie goes to the door, sticks his head out, and says to Snoopy, “The meaning of life is to go back to sleep and hope that tomorrow is a better day!”

Then Charlie adds, as he slams the door in Snoopy’s face,” And if you’re thinking about eating, forget it!”

Snoopy walks back to his dog house muttering, “Wouldn’t that unplug your heating pad!”

All of us no doubt have had nights like that and can identify with Snoopy, especially in the unsettling times of recent weeks, — ISIS brings down a Russian passenger plane; ISIS causes mass murder and destruction in Paris; Al Qaeda terrorists take hostages in a hotel in Mali; and with 27 killed; ISIS says on the day your wife leaves for New York that they will suicide bomb Times Square.  Yes, these are unsettling times!

What does all of this mean?  What is the meaning of life?  What is truth? Continue reading →

Sermon for Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

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

Sermon Text:  Mark 12:38-44

Sermon Theme:  “Life Without ‘Spiritual’ Social Security”

 (Sources:  Brokhoff, Series B, Preaching Workbook; Anderson, Cycle B, Preaching Workbook; Harper’s Bible Dictionary; Believer’s Commentary; Nelson’s Three-in-One; original ideas and examples; Online Jokes: Stewardship of Life; Online Religious Humor about Church Tithing; Luther’s Small Catechism and Explanation.)

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

           “It’s always about money!,” an early teaching colleague of mine used to say whenever he talked about his church, which was a denomination other than Lutheran.  “In my church, we’re always being hit up to give more money, more, more, more,” he continued.

Being Lutheran and having grown up in the Lutheran Church, I searched my memory, and said that I never heard any of my pastors talk about giving more money.

“What did they talk about?”  he asked.

“Oh,” said I, “our old Herr Pastors always talked about sin, repentance, hell fire, and get yourself to church!”

As an immigrant church, still holding most of our services in German, and living right after the Great Depression, we couldn’t talk about money, because we didn’t have any.

Before Concordia Junior College in Austin became Concordia Lutheran University, each fall my grandmother would tithe several dozen jars of home-canned pickles to the Concordia cafeteria.  As one of only a few musicians in all of Dime Box, my mother tithed her playing the organ for every service all year long.  My grandfather would tithe ham, bacon and sausage to the pastor and his wife every time my family killed hog.

You see, while stewardship was expected and talked about, money never was. Continue reading →

Sermon for All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas

Sermon Text:  1 John 3:1-3

Sermon Theme:  “Everything You Wanted to Know about Saints”

 (Sources:  Emphasis Online Illustrations; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 25, Part 4, Series B; Nelson’s Three-in-One; What Luther Says, CPH; Lutheran Cyclopedia, CPH; Believer’s Commentary; original ideas; SermonCentral.com; Online Christian Jokes about Saints)

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

 Last night was All Saints’ Evening, or All Hallow Eve,’ transliterated into “Halloween,” and transmigrated into trick or treating frivolity.

A priest told the little kids they could come trick or treating at the rectory this year, but they must dress up as one of the Saints.

So the kids arrived.  One little boy was dressed up like St. Anthony, another was disguised as St. Joseph.  A little girl arrived as St. Clare of Assisi.  The priest was pleased, and then a little boy shows  up in a dog costume.

So the priest asks him, “Where’s your Saint costume?”

The little boy replies, “I’m Saint Bernard!”

Today, All Saints’ Day, is the day yesterday was the Eve of.

In these post-Christian times we live in, if you mention the word, “Saints,” people think you’re talking about the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League, who in their early history were almost a laughing stock, but have since won five divisional championships, two conference championships, and one Super Bowl.  Their behavior hasn’t always been “saintly.” Continue reading →

Sermon for Reformation Sunday

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

Sermon Text:  1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Sermon Theme: “The Reformation and the Rock of Our Refuge”

 (Sources: Luther: His Life and Times by Richard Friedenthal; Rocks, PhysLink.com; Online Lutheran Jokes; Online “You Know You Might Be Lutheran If”; Online Rocks and Gems; Footnotes from the Concordia Self-Study Bible; Protestant Reformation, Online Theopedia; my original ideas; “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over,” Online Bible.org; Nelson’s Three-in-One).

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

           We Lutherans are a unique group of Protestants, maybe not so much now as we were in the past.  I wonder if we have changed very much.  When I was growing up Lutheran in the 1940’s, you knew you might be Lutheran if a midlife crisis meant switching from the old hymnal to the new one.  You knew you might be Lutheran if you were 57 years old and your parents still wouldn’t let you date a Catholic.  You knew you might be Lutheran if you believed the Eleventh Commandment was “If we’ve never done it that way before, thou shalt not do it.”

You know you might be Lutheran if you actually think your pastor’s jokes are funny.

Today, Lutherans are unique in that they are no doubt the only Protestants who still celebrate Reformation Sunday, and, of course, Catholics, for obvious reasons, never did.  The Reformation, led by Martin Luther, began in Germany and spread first to the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Scotland, and parts of France before becoming a world-wide “revolution.”   The Reformation is much more complicated than just a German monk nailing 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door.

The Church, which Jesus wanted to remain One, was split in two and soon would be splintered even further, ultimately into more divisions than you can count on both hands and both feet.

There’s a funny story that shows what it’s like after the Reformation.  It seems that Pastor Hubert, a Lutheran Pastor, Father Joe, a Catholic Priest, and Brother Bob, a Baptist Preacher, were fishing together in a boat not far from the shore.

Pastor Hubert had to make a trip to the port-a-potty located on the shore, so he got out of the boat, walked across the water, and, in the same manner, came back to the boat after he was finished.

A little later, Father Joe had to make the trip also.  He got out of the boat, walked across the water, visited the bathroom, and in the same manner, came back to the boat.

Still later, Brother Bob needed to go ashore.  He got out of the boat and immediately sank.  Pastor Hubert looked at Father Joe and said, “Do you think we ought to tell him where the rocks are?”  I guess that’s one way to lead into the subject of today’s sermon – rocks.  And The Rock. Continue reading →

Sermon for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

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

Sermon Text:  Mark 10:23-31

Sermon Theme:  “Is It Mission Impossible?”

 (Sources:  Brokhoff, Series B, Preaching Workbook; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 25, Part 4, Series B; original ideas; Nelson’s Three-in-One Bible Reference; Online 25 Inspirational Quotes on Wealth and Money; Online Revelation.Co, Regarding a Rich Person Entering Heaven; Online Charlie Brown Quotes; Online Religious Jokes; Believer’s Commentary)

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

           It is not uncommon for Jesus to say something that really slaps us in the face.  In reading today’s sermon text from Mark, some of us felt a pretty hard whap!  And so did the disciples.  Jesus made this jaw-dropping statement:  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  We have to take this in context of the entire Bible and its teachings, and understand it in context.  Otherwise, we might promote a welfare state, and that’s not what God wants.  Folks during the time of Jesus would have seen wealth as a sign of God’s favor, so it’s no wonder His statement would have startled them.  Let’s see what we can make of this.

Keeping in mind that 1 Timothy 6:10 says the LOVE of money is the ROOT of all evil, not that MONEY per se is EVIL, let’s first look at the world’s wisdom on this subject before we plunge into a theological explanation.

Jim Rohn says, “Time is more valuable than money.  You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”

One of my favorite quotations from the world’s pool of wisdom was written by an anonymous commentator:  “The person who doesn’t know where his next dollar is coming from usually doesn’t know where his last dollar went.”

Norman Vincent Peale once said, “Empty pockets never held anyone back.  Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”

I saved Eleanor Roosevelt’s for last:  “He who loses money, loses much; he who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all.”

The world’s wisdom understands the importance of money, as well as the limitations of money, but you could read a thousand quotations about wealth and money and not understand what Jesus meant.

In the text, Jesus seems to say it is impossible for a rich person to enter heaven.  Impossible or difficult?, you ask.  Jesus would answer, “Impossible.”  But then, if we asked Jesus, ‘Is it possible for ANYONE to enter heaven by himself, He would also answer, “No, it’s Mission Impossible!”  Just as the camel cannot make it through the eye of a needle no matter how hard he works at it or how much he struggles, so we cannot work our own salvation.  We can enter heaven ONLY by God’s grace through faith.   Continue reading →

Sermon for LWML Sunday

Pentecost 20, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas, Oct. 11, 2015

Sermon Text:  Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon Theme:  God’s Idea of the Perfect Woman

(Sources:  LWML Facts, Online, lwml.org; Men Versus Women Jokes Online; Original ideas and examples; Online Peanuts Comic Strips; Introduction and Footnotes to Paul’s Letter to the Romans; Online Commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31; my devotional given to LWML Zone Rally 10-3-15; U. S. Congregational Life Survey; U.S. Census; Barna Research; Lifeway Research)

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

Ever since John Gray wrote his best-selling book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, many folks are convinced of a planetary difference between men and women.  That difference is the subject of hundreds of jokes, most of which are told from a man’s point to view.

Let me tell you several of the jokes, and then I’ll tell you some facts.

In the beginning, God created the earth and rested.  Then God created Man and rested.  Then God created Woman.  Since then, neither God nor Man has rested.

Men see the telephone as a communication tool.  They use the telephone to send short messages to other people.  A woman can visit her girlfriend for two weeks, and upon returning home, she will call the same friend and they will talk for three hours.

Here’s one more.  A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.

“What are you doing?”  She asked.

“Hunting flies,” he responded.

“Oh,” she said, “killing any?”

“Yep,” he replied, “three males and two females.”

Intrigued she asked, “How can you tell?”

He answered, “Three were on a beer can, and two were on the phone.”

Those were some slanted jokes.  Now let me tell you some facts.

These facts come from three different national surveys.  The typical Christian congregation in the United States is made up of 61 percent female and 39 percent male.  And the gender gap is found in all age categories.

So, on any given Sunday, there are 13 million more adult women in American churches than there are men.  Less than 25% of married women worship with their husbands on Sunday.  Also 70 to 80 percent of the female members of a church participate in midweek activities.  Only about 25 percent of the men do.  While those percentages seem a bit startling, it doesn’t mean that the majority of American men are atheists, as 90 percent say they believe in God.

Does it mean church isn’t very important to men?  I can’t answer that. Continue reading →