Holy Thursday Divine Service 2024

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Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread and gave it to His disciples. And the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ immediately started to quarrel.

St. Luke tells us, “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.” (Luke 22:24 NKJV) After this, instead of praying, they slept. Then they fought the guards, Peter slicing off a man’s ear. Then they ran.

But first, they argued. About who was greatest.

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Psalms of Lament: Psalm 90

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The “celebrations of life” people hold now pretend that what has happened isn’t real. The funeral homes with flowers everywhere—flowers that themselves will be dead in mere days—cover with their sickening sweetness the stench of death in a corpse we’ve filled with formaldehyde to pretend none of this is really happening….

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On Worthy Reception of the Lord's Supper

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If we charted the history of the age for admission to communion, you would see it be very low for well over a thousand years, then rise sharply in the ages of rationalism and pietism, until the mid-to-late twentieth century when it begins to come back down. There are a number of factors involved in this, but underlying it all is this question: what makes a person ready to receive the Eucharist? …

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The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

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“From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” Thus the Apostles’ Creed summarizes what God’s Word says about the end of the world, the Day of Judgment.

Be not deceived: The judgment of Jesus is coming. On that day, your thoughts will be revealed. The things done in darkness will be brought to light; there is nothing secret that will not be exposed.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem in today’s Gospel, He anticipates the coming judgment on that city. In less than four decades, Jerusalem would be burned, her stones toppled, the temple looted and razed, blood running through the streets as water. Jesus’ prophecy came to pass in the year 70 when Titus conquered Jerusalem.

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The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

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“Little children, it is the last hour” (1 Jn 2:18). On us “the end of the ages has come.” That is the constant message to us in the New Testament. It’s not meant to pinpoint the precise moment of the end of the world. It’s a call for us to live our life in the light of eternity. It’s a warning to us that the day of judgment is coming. 

Have you ever noticed how efficient we can be when a deadline is approaching? If I’m going away on vacation, or I have to travel, suddenly work gets reprioritized – some things can wait, other things must get done. That’s when I realize I should have had different priorities all along.

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The Fourth Sunday after Trinity 2019

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Last week we heard about a father who is merciful. The lost son, sometimes called the prodigal son, wasted everything. He was rebellious. He was ruined. He is us. 

His father forgave him. His father was merciful.

That’s the foundation for today’s Gospel. Without the merciful father, the words of Jesus will be abused, misused, misunderstood. The merciful father is everything.

“Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Just as your Father. 

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The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity 2018

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“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.” These words from the holy prophet Job are about himself. But they are also about us: “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.” Our days are numbered, yet in our folly we do not count them correctly. Your days are determined; the number of your months is with God; He has appointed limits for you that you cannot pass. And so the fear of death that every man experiences is not a fear of pain in dying, but pain in life escaping, slipping away. Like a flower, man blooms, then withers and decays. Like the leaves of an autumn tree, so beautiful in vibrant color, only to fall to the earth, destined to be carried away, burned or buried.

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The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity 2018

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“What do you think about the Christ?” Jesus asks; “Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” David was the great King of Israel to whom was promised a son who would be an everlasting king. But the father is greater than the son. So how, Jesus asks, can David’s son also be David’s Lord?

Those interrogating Jesus cannot answer. The climax of the Gospel reveals the answer: When unbelieving Thomas is confronted with the risen Jesus, who still bears scars on His hands and side, he confesses, “My Lord and my God!” That’s who Jesus is: God in the flesh. True God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

But why? Because He yet loves this world whose love has grown cold. The Bridegroom bears the hatred and animosity of His bride, yet He loves her to the end, to the Telos, to the completion of what it means to be human. For the God who is love made us also to love.

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