How's This for Being Relevant and Contemporary?

Did you know that, according to our Lutheran teaching and practice of the faith, every time we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," in the Lord's Prayer, we pray that our Father in heaven would give us faithful government leaders to "vanquish the Turks," i.e., Islamists, and that He would "preserve us from all sorts of disaster to body and livelihood, like lightning, hail, fire, flood, poison, plague, cattle disease, war and bloodshed, famine, destructive beasts, wicked men, and so forth?" [Luther's Large Catechism explanation to the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer as cited below from "Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions," Concordia Publishing House.*]

How do you get more contemporary and relevant than that with what we are facing in the Ebola and Islamic viruses invading our United States of America?

[Graphic: "Carlos Borromeo Signismomdo Caula (Roman Catholic Priest) Administering the Sacrament to Plaque Victims," artist unknown to this author.]

* The Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer.

71] Give us this day our daily bread.  72] Here, now, we consider the poor breadbasket, the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life. It is a brief and simple word, but it has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread. On the other hand, you also pray against everything that interferes with it....

74] There is, indeed, the greatest need to pray for earthly authority and government. By them, most of all, God preserves for us our daily bread and all the comforts of this life. Though we have received from God all good things in abundance, we are not able to keep any of them or use them in security and happiness if He did not give us a permanent and peaceful government. For where there are dissension, strife, and war, there the daily bread is already taken away, or at least hindered....

76] ... On this topic anyone might indeed make a long prayer. With many words one could list all the things that are included, like when we ask God to ... give wisdom , strength, and success to emperors, kings, and all estates, and especially to the rulers of our country and to all counselors, magistrates, and officers. Then they may govern well and vanquish the Turks and all enemies.... 78] On the other hand, we ask that He would preserve us from all sorts of disaster to body and livelihood, like lightning, hail, fire, flood, poison, plague, cattle disease, war and bloodshed, famine, destructive beasts, wicked men, and so forth...."

Two Questions

Nice guys finish last. I don’t need to tell you that. You see it and live it every day.

Very likely you’ll go home today and watch a contest or two or three--or even more if you have the NFL package and PIP--where the winner, the guy or t...eam that finishes first, is often the one who can bend and push the rules to the limit; break the rules in such a way as to not get caught; or who simply doesn’t care, figures the officials can’t/won’t catch you every time, and even if they did they’ll become numb to it after a while and won’t want to disturb the flow of the game.

...You love your spouse and family, your boyfriend or girlfriend, you watch out for and help your buddies and sacrifice for their welfare and one day you find out they are cheating on you or have dumped you. Heck, even at church you look around and feel like you are finishing last while other churches seem to be flourishing.

Maybe being nice, doing what is right, playing by the rules, and living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God isn’t such a great idea after all. I mean even Jesus broke the rules. Isn't that right in the Gospel lesson we heard today?

To hear the entire sermon preached for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, "Two Questions," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3909

[Graphic: “Jesus Heals a Man with Dropsy,” Church Icon.]

"What Have You against Me?"

"After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18And she said to Elijah, 'What have you against me, O man of God?'" 1 Kings 17:17–18

 

"What have you against me?" That is the question of every sinner, born of unbelief.

 

...All three of our Scripture lessons today reveal to us how God has visited and continues to visit His people. Perhaps more importantly for us, they reveal *why.* And most importantly of all, they reveal that God is not against us *when* He visits His people.

 

To hear the entire sermon preached for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, "What Have You against Me?" click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3904

 

[Artwork: “Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son,” photo of the Hildesheim Cathedral, built A.D. 1010-1020.]

What Does Tomorrow Hold?

What does tomorrow hold? That’s the question on everybody’s mind that is behind Jesus’ question of His disciples on the mountainside: “Why Are You Anxious? “

This is a powerful and important question our Lord asks His disciples up on the ...mountain. Notice He doesn’t ask “if” the disciples are anxious. He asks them, "Why Are You Anxious?"

It is one He asks every one of His baptized children. "Why Are You Anxious?" And it is one He asks of you, His beloved ones gathered at Trinity today as we approach the close of our congregation at the end of October and the uncertainty that tomorrow holds. "Why Are You Anxious?"

Again, it isn’t a matter of "if," or "whether or not" you have anxiety right at this moment, but when —because it happens to us all, including those closest to the Lord like the disciples to whom He is speaking in our Gospel reading today--"Why Are You Anxious?"

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, "What Does Tomorrow Hold?," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3901

[Artwork for today's OT reading: "Elijah & the Widow of Zarephath," oil on canvas by Nicolaes Maes—b.1634, d.1693.]

“Rise and Go Your Way”

TEXT: Luke 17:19 An [Jesus] said to the [thankful Samaritan leper], “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Dear Baptized and Cleansed Ones of God,

“Rise and go your way!” This is what the Lord, your God, is telling you every time you hear the words and name by which you were born again from above and into the kingdom of heaven--in the name of the Father ,and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, "Rise and Go Your Way," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3896

“And who is my neighbor?”

TEXT: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

It’s a great question the lawyer asks, isn’t it? "And Who Is My Neighbor?"

The simple answer is--yes, you guessed it--Jesus. Ah, but unlike the lawyer, we don’t have Jesus standing right in front of us. Or do we?

[Artwork: “Le Bon Samaritain,” by Aimé Morot,1880.]

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, "And Who Is My Neighbor?," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3886

"Be Opened"

Last week the tax collector showed us how the Lord lifts up the lowly and only the lowly. This is the life of Baptism, the life of repentance and forgiveness of sins that is a daily thing by which “the old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge (come forth—be opened up like a butterfly) and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. As St. Paul writes in Romans, chapter 6: 'We were buried with Him through Baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.'”

Now today, as we approach another anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on our soil, our Gospel not only shows us the healing of one deaf and mute 2000 years ago, but speaks God’s Word to us today so that our sinful Ears, Mouths, Hearts, and even heaven itself “Be opened” to us now.

To hear the entire sermon preached for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, "Be Opened," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3879