Trinity 17, 2024

in

Do you want to be the donkey, or the master? Turned in on ourselves, we don’t merely want to be the master of one donkey. We would like to own a thousand donkeys, a thousand beasts of burden to do my work – a valet to prepare my clothing, an army of lawyers to solve my problems. But in the language of today’s parable, we are not the master. We are the donkey, the one in the pit.

“Which of you,” Jesus addresses the Pharisees at their Sabbath dinner, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” We are the donkey fallen into a pit. Look at your life! We’re in a pit of problems, sins of our own and the world’s corruption pushing us down. To adapt the story of Sisyphus, we try and try and try to climb out, but just as we reach the top, slide back down again. ...

Read More

Trinity 16, 2024

in

We cannot say, “Mine is the true religion; yours isn’t true.” That’s what the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, said on Friday. He continued,

All religions are a path to reach God. They are, to use a comparison, like different languages, different dialects to get there…. There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths.

To assert one’s religion is true, the Pope said, this leads to destruction. With these words, the pope places himself outside the Christian faith. It’s a tragedy that goes back nearly a thousand years. The claims of the bishop of Rome split the church in two in 1054, and Rome’s continued false teachings led to the fragmentation of Christianity in the West in the sixteenth century. This is a tragedy, and we must long for unity. But we cannot allow false teaching about salvation. That is not loving. Truth matters. The Word of God matters. The Gospel matters. ...

Read More

LCMS International Center Matins Sermon

in

The day we brought him home, I began a routine every night at my son’s bedtime. After our prayers and before the blessing, I say to him, “James Julius, you are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” It’s adapted from the words of the Father at Christ’s baptism. Today’s Bible reading says the Father now identifies us with His beloved Son: The Father qualifies us, or makes us sufficient, to share in Christ’s inheritance; He transfers us into His beloved Son’s kingdom.

Well it’s a great thought, and they’re easy words to say to an infant: “James Julius, you are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” A long time goes by, night after night after night, and I remain well pleased. But of course the time inevitably came when the Old Adam gained the upper hand. It had been a rough evening. Rebellion, and raised voices. I was disappointed in him. I was angry. I was not well-pleased. Did you ever see The Incredibles? Great movie. “I’m not happy, Bob. NOT HAPPY!”

What then? Do you still say the words? ...

Read More

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 2024

in

Jonathan Haidt’s important book The Anxious Generation demonstrates that smartphones and social media multiply anxiety. This is particularly true for adolescents. He’s right. Yet the problem of anxiety is not new. Tolstoy in the 19th century said, “Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.”

Election years exacerbate anxiety. But anxiety haunts the human experience. A little 4 year old spent Tuesday morning crying through morning prayer on the first day of school, right over there. Perhaps the mother was also weeping. Letting go of your child, whether for JK or her freshman year out of state, is fraught with worry....

Read More

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity 2024

in

“Dear God.” With these words many prayers begin. But when the desired outcome is achieved, God is no longer so dear. He was a means to an end.

Many people treat each other like that. Relationships are transactional. So long as one gets something valuable from the relationship, he’ll maintain the pretext of friendship. It’s painful to learn someone was never truly your friend.

What about the ten lepers in today’s Gospel? They cry out to Jesus in their need. When the need is met, they skedaddle....

Read More

Trinity 13, 2024

in

Man was made in the image of God. When man rebelled, his own hubris damaged the image. Man, steward of the world, was wounded, throwing the world into disarray. Creation’s harmony was disrupted. If we think of harmony in musical terms, what we get now is dissonance. It grates, and unresolved, it drives us to madness. So the world is filled with insanity, corruption, and death. It is disordered, and man—who was intended to maintain the world’s order and harmony—fulfills not the task God gave us. All this, some of the fathers called trauma. ...

Read More

Eighth Sunday after Trinity 2024

in

‌I just finished reading The Infinite Game, a book by Simon Sinek. He says many people, companies, and countries are playing the wrong game; they’re serving short-term goals instead of infinite ones. There’s some worth to the book, but it’s not without flaws. One of its weaknesses is in what he calls “ethical fading.” This is where you have a gradual compromise of ethical standards in, say, what a corporation allows in its business practices. The problem is he assumes an ethical standard without ever defining it or establishing any foundation for ethics. For us, as disciples of Jesus, He is the foundation of all ethics and all Truth. In short, ethics is derived from the Word of God….

Read More

The Resurrection of Our Lord 2024

in

“Your boasting is not good.” So opens today’s Epistle. Boasting—or pride—is the fundamental human problem. So we must be told, even on Easter, “Your boasting is not good.” The broader context is a scandal in the Corinthian church. But the problem of pride, of boasting, is universal….

Read More

Good Friday Chief Service 2024

in

Our self-image is always wrong. In times of prosperity, we perceive ourselves with pride. In times of adversity, we may rage and demand better; or, sink into self-loathing. But it’s all wrong, the self-love and the self-hatred. The only right image is to view ourselves cross-eyed; which is to say, we see who we are by looking at Christ’s cross. There we find that our pride is damned, but there is no cause for self-loathing, for the stretched-wide arms of Jesus proclaim the Father’s forgiveness. The cross is the Gospel. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the story of our identity. Our self-image is wrong, but the cross-eyed view is the truth. On Good Friday, we discover God has taken who you are out of your hands.

The gospel is “the eternal statement of who you are” (Russell Moore). The Triduum—the three holy days—give us the Supper of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, the baptism into Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. These Holy Days give us the gospel, the good news that God in Christ loves us, absolves us, embraces us, welcomes us, accepts us, and will tear open the graves of those who fall asleep in Him….

Read More