Three Meditations on "Lo! He comes with Clouds Descending"

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“Why won’t there be food in heaven?” a student asked me recently. I reminded this thoughtful child that in the kingdom of God our bodies will be resurrected, and the Bible often talks about God’s kingdom as a feast. And then I asked, “What made you so sure there wouldn’t be food?”

“Because the Bible says we won’t hunger or thirst.” Ah! Yes, I see why you might think that. But you see, it’s not eating and drinking that’s the problem, but a world where people suffer.

Our world is infected with sin, and corrupted by death. So when the Bible says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore,” it’s describing a world where people don’t starve, where people have clean water to drink….

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Thankful for All We Do Not Have

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
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“He is good.” That confession of faith from the Psalms made its way into the Liturgy of Christ’s Supper: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” What if we isolate the words from the time of our prosperity? Can we still confess them? Is He good? Even when He takes away our good things?

Is He good when family is missing at Thanksgiving? Is He still good when your dreams become terrors in the night? Is He still good when your child is in pain?

Or have we made our judgment on God’s goodness dependent on the good we experience? …

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We Are a Forgiveness People

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
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Louis Armstrong once said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Peter’s question shows he doesn’t know what forgiveness is. Forgiveness doesn’t ask, “How many times do I forgive?” Love keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus explains this by means of a parable – a parable about a debt.

The national debt of the United States is currently about $22.7 trillion - up $17 trillion since 2000. Maybe it’s just me, but that seems like a lot of money. I don’t understand how it happened. I’ve never studied economics, but I wonder how we’ll ever pay it off.

The guy in today’s parable was probably wondering the same thing. He owes 10,000 talents. One talent equals 6,000 denarii. A denarius was about a day’s wage. So to get an idea of what this man owes, imagine your annual salary. Let’s call that about 310 denarii. If you worked for 19 years and saved everything you earned, you’d have about 6,000 denarii – or one talent. That means you’d need to work for 190,000 years to get to the amount of this man’s debt. It’s simply not possible. This isn’t the debt of a man, but a nation. How will he ever pay it off? …

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Faith Grasps God's Word

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
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Howard Jones sang, “No one is to blame,” but the Eighties were a long time ago. In 2019, someone must be blamed. Political anger has replaced religion as the culture’s driving animus. Someone is to blame, and the mob won’t stop until the scapegoat is called out and cancelled.

Today’s Epistle shows us that people are not our problem. I don’t agree with Marianne Williamson on much, but she’s right about one thing: We have spiritual forces of evil arrayed against us. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Against this enemy, no earthly defenses will avail. The Satan has this aim: to turn you away from the God who loves you; to drive a wedge between creature and Creator...

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Blessed Are the Losers

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
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“The Be Happy Attitudes,” they’ve been called. The opening sayings of the Sermon on the Mount, today’s Gospel, are usually referred to as the Beatitudes. It’s from the repeating word Blessed, which in Latin is Beati. Beati pauperes spiritu. “Blessed are the spiritual paupers.” I doubt that’s what people mean when they say they’re spiritual but not religious.

Robert Schuller popularized the idea that blessed is really an attitude. In his book The Be Happy Attitudes, Schuller writes, “Blessed literally means ‘happy.’ So … you can be happy if you will discover the eight positive attitudes given to us by Jesus in the Beatitudes.”

I want you to be happy. But blessedness is something far deeper than happiness. Blessedness transcends happiness. Blessedness helps us survive all the unhappy things. Blessedness is not an attitude. It’s a condition, a state, a status…

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Reformation Sermon

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Lady Gaga tweeted on Friday, “Fame is prison.” I believe her.

“We … have never been enslaved” said the Jews to Jesus. I don’t believe them.

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons.

Perhaps you’ve struggled with an addiction. Alcohol. Video games. Porn. Social media. Gazing into the electronic abyss, fondling your phone.

Maybe you’re mired in what seems an inescapable situation. A job; a marriage; a mental construct that tyrannizes your mind and desolates your soul.

For Luther, he saw he was imprisoned by his sin. He knew God demanded righteousness. And Luther knew he was not good, no matter how hard he tried…

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Identity Politics & Identity Theology

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Identity politics threatens civil discourse. Identity politics rips at the fabric of our society. Identity politics is finally dehumanizing, because it teaches people to find their identity in non-integral characteristics, instead of at the core of what it means to be human….

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A Word Fitly Spoken

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“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” That passage from the Proverbs pictures an elaborate piece of jewelry – a sculpted piece of fruit, made from gold, inside an intricate setting of silver. How many thousands of dollars would that be worth? But better than that is to have the right word at the right time. That’s what fitly means here – the right word at the right time.

Words get us in trouble from the moment we start to speak. Angry words, defiant words, crude words, lies when we should tell the truth, the truth when we should keep silent, silence when we should confess….

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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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Funeral of Nicholas Corvelli

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
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At any age, losing a father devastates. It’s disorienting. A father protects, provides, and guides. And Nick was all of that. Without your father, the world is not right. It stings.

This loss opens a flood of emotions: grief; guilt; anger. That’s natural. But experiencing the loss points us to the gift. A father is a gift; so is a husband, a grandfather, a friend. A father is a gift. So today is a day to give thanks.

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