When Jesus takes aside the deaf mute, He takes aside all of humanity. Which means, when Jesus confronts the man who is deaf and has an impediment in his speech, Jesus confronts us. We have several problems: like the man in today’s Gospel, our bodies don’t work right – not the way they were created to work. Medicine helps – but it only delays the inevitable. We are all terminally ill. We are born that way….
Read MoreWhat a mess! This congregation is divided. The congregation is divided about which pastor is better. There’s a deeply judgmental spirit. Some even boast about their sin!
This congregation has serious problems with sexual immorality. Some people give nothing, while others give begrudgingly. Some of the women don’t dress modestly.
In this congregation the Lord’s Supper is a serious problem. There are factions. How can Christians eat the same supper when there are divisions? People are rude, they don’t bear with one another, they keep a record of wrongs. There are many words spoken, but few are said to build others up….
Read More“And … Festus said with a loud voice, ‘Paul, you are out of your mind.’”
Isn’t that what this world keeps on saying to you? And perhaps it’s crept into your own thoughts, as well: On Sunday afternoon, when you wonder if it’s all worth it. Or when you’re sitting in a meeting at church and once again, they’re arguing and vying for control. Or when you pick up that piece of bread at the altar and the blasphemous words enter your mind: “How can this be the body of Christ…
Read MoreMost people sense that something is deeply wrong in the world; everything from riots in the streets to the incredible rise of depression and suicide indicate this. The US surgeon general recently declared America has an epidemic of loneliness.
What’s been the response? American Christianity from Evangelicalism to the mainline churches set forth a vision of God as a feminized fuzzball of felicitous friendship. All have won and all must have prizes. Meanwhile, the “Tolerance” bumperstickers are gone, and politicians only make demands for reparations, recriminations, or retribution….
Read MoreThe world hates Christians. “They speak against you as evildoers.” It’s tempting to want to argue with them. People don’t get argued into the faith. Arguing just pulls us down into the passions we are called to avoid. God’s Word today tells us not to respond to evil with evil, but to respond only with good deeds….
Read MoreEaster is about a risen body. If that isn’t true, then everything really is meaningless. But the words, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”, those words were spoken to people who then saw the Lord Jesus risen in His body….
Read MoreWe don’t naturally want to forgive. If someone has hurt us, and then they apologize, maybe then we’ll forgive. But until then, we keep it, and it burns our soul like acid.
Now think again about what we heard in the Passion account today. Jesus does the opposite of what comes naturally to us….
Read MoreThe Concordia Publishing House Podcast interviewed me on my book (Dis)Ordered: Lies about Human Nature and the Truth That Sets Us Free. You can watch below, or listen to the podcast by clicking here.
Jesus, the enfleshed God, stoops down into our filth. The emperor becomes a servant. The earth is a graveyard filled with innumerable rotted corpses. Their dust clings to the soles of our feet. The ancient sin corrupts our hearts. But Jesus, the enfleshed God, cleans us and feeds us, as a father cares for his children. This is love. Not mere sentiment, but bold action. Action that costs….
Read MoreA gem from Luther:
Christ is nothing other than sheer life, as his saints are likewise. The more profoundly you impress that image upon your heart and gaze upon it, the more the image of death will pale and vanish of itself without struggle or battle. Thus your heart will be at peace and you will be able to die calmly in Christ and with Christ, as we read in Revelation [14:13], “Blessed are they who die in the Lord Christ.”
LW 42:104