Sermon: Lent 3.A

Text: John 4:5-30, 39-42
Date: 2011.3.27

Listen to the sermon here.

The true worshipers will worship the Father

in Spirit and in Truth.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”

True worship is worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth. True worship therefore is Trinitarian, worshiping God, the Father, the Son (who's called Truth here, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life); the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Holy Trinity.

Worshiping the Holy Trinity makes you holy. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and if you worship in Him, then you will be holy as He is holy. You will be flowing with holy water, (as Jesus pictures it) Spirit water, living water. Not just containing the living water but it will be bubbling over, springing over into the eternal life.

Sermon: In Memoriam +Agnes Elsa Morrison (Timm)+ 1916-2011

Died: March 21, 2011

Service: March 25, 2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Chilling. Somber. Confusing. Peaceful.

I'm describing for you the experience of watching a human being fall asleep in Jesus, at least this was the case on Monday afternoon when the soul of our beloved sister in the faith, +Agnes, when her soul left her body and went to be with +Jesus, in peace and joy forevermore.

We prayed for healing, and that's what happened. We prayed for mercy, and so our Lord has had mercy. +Agnes is with +Jesus. Her baptism held strong, or rather, the Lord +Jesus, the One into whom blessed +Agnes was baptized, our Lord held strong, held on to +Agnes, and never let go. He is faithful, the Good Shepherd has carried his lamb, Agnes, into the promised land where she enjoys peace and rest and complete protection, never ever again having to bear the burden of sin.

Sermon: Lent 2.2011

Text: John 3.1-17
Calendar Date: 3.20.2011

Listen to the sermon here.

He who has been born from the Spirit,

is Spirit.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Ephphatha,” that is, be opened. And so the senses are opened up to God.

Jesus spoke, and the man born deaf was healed, he could now physically hear; something was changed in the man, he could now do something that wasn't possible before. It was real, it was powerful. Jesus' Word did this.

So in the Baptismal rite, the pastor speaks Jesus' Word, Ephphatha, that is, be opened, and the senses are opened: not only to the hearing of God's Word, but the seeing and perceiving, the tasting and touching and smelling. We Christians experience God in real things: what used to be ordinary bread and wine, we hear the Words, “this is my Body, this is my Blood”, and so they are, we see how God has taught us to see / by hearing Him. Baptism opens the senses.

Sermon: Ash Wednesday.2011

Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Date: 3.9.2011

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For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“When you fast,” Jesus says. He's making an assumption, here. And, He's giving Himself as an example. Jesus did fast. For forty days and forty nights, out in the wilderness/desert; but that's the Gospel reading for Sunday, so I won't speak much about it now, just enough to point out to you that when Jesus assumes anything about His followers, first the disciples, then also we who are Baptized into His name, when He makes an assumption about us, He fulfills it all first. So Jesus fasted. And He assumes that His followers will do the same.

Sermon: The Transfiguration of Our Lord.2011

Text: Matthew 17.1-9
Date: 3.6.2011

Listen to this sermon here.

This is my beloved Son...

Listen to Him.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

The Festival of the Transfiguration of Our Lord marks the end of the Epiphany Season and so also the end of the Time of Christmas, as called in the Church Year. The reason it is placed at the end: the Transfiguration is the most dramatic Epiphany, or revealing, of our Lord Jesus. The point of the Transfiguration, and the whole point of Epiphany, actually the whole point of the Time of Christmas (beginning way back in Advent), is that Jesus is God. Our life together here is founded upon and centered in this very truth. It is no wonder than that every single one of the 101 days of Christmas Time this year, they are focused upon this One truth, teaching us who Jesus is, that He is God, / so that, (as we move on in the Church Year) every single one of the 102 days of Easter Time can teach us what our God Jesus has done for us and for our salvation.