Luke 1:26-38 / Advent 4B / 18 December 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
We’ve come to the 4th Sunday in Advent and our readings take a kinder and gentler turn. Gone and past are the big eschatological texts warning of the approaching last day. Gone too is John the Baptizer, that strange almost creepy, figure appearing in the wilderness, that voice calling us to repentance and to the water of Baptism. We go from the Jordan wilderness to an obscure town in northern Galilee named Nazareth. It’s a garrison town in the high country, a watchtower over Israel standing guard over the north. It was unknown in the Old Testament. There we meet a young girl somewhere between 16 to 18 years old, planning her marriage to a man named Joseph.
John 1:6-8, 19-28 / Advent 3B / 11 December 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Last week we heard the preaching. Today we consider the preacher. “There was a man sent from God, who name was John.” Who was he, this strange man of the wilderness, dressed like an Old Testament prophet, subsisting on wilderness food? In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John is a prophet, sent in the spirit of Elijah. In fact, he is Elijah, says Jesus, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is Elijah come to prepare the way of the Lord.
Isaiah 40:1-11 / Advent 2B / 04 December 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Last week, a coming King. Today, a prophetic voice. The second Sunday of Advent brings the prophetic voice of Isaiah and the prophetic person of John the Baptizer. You know it’s Advent when John makes his appearance in the wilderness, calling Israel out away from temple and synagogue back into the wilderness. John is a figure straight out of the pages of the Old Testament. Camel’s hair, leather belt, locusts, wild honey - he’s the complete package, looking like Elijah and appearing where Elijah had disappeared.
Isaiah 64:1-9; Mark 11:1-10 / Advent 1B / 27 November 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Come on down, Lord! Come on down! Tear open those heavens and come down and make the mountains shake. Kindle the fire, boil the water, make those heathen quake in their boots at the sound of your name! Do like you used to do back in the good old days when you used to shake things up in a big way! Show yourself for who you are, God, and come down to save us!
Matthew 25:31-46 / Proper 29A / 20 November 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.”
We believe and confess this. We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, whom we do not now see, who reigns over all thing at the right hand of the Father, will reappear on the Last Day in great glory to judge the living and the dead. The Last Day is a day of judgment.
Matthew 25:14-30 / Proper 28A / 13 November 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Today is the second to last Sunday in the church year. Hard to believe it, but we are coming to the end again. And with the end comes some thoughts about the End, that is the end of all things. The Last Day. The Judgment. The coming of Christ in glory. Eschatology. Last things.
Matthew 05:01-12 / All Saints / 06 November 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
In the life of the believer, there is both the now and the not yet. What is seen is now, what is not yet is not yet seen. There is the now of faith and the not yet of sight. All Saints Day is about the now and the not yet. The now of this life and the not yet of the life to come.
Romans 03:19-28 / Reformation / 30 October 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:19-28)
It doesn’t get more basic than that, does it? This is the heart of the Christian faith. In fact, this is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. A sinner, condemned by the Law, sentenced to death and damnation by God’s own law is justified, declared righteous by a forensic act of God’s Word, by faith, trust in Jesus Christ and His atoning blood shed on the cross, apart from works of the law. How much clearer could Paul have been?
Matthew 22:1-14 / Proper 23A / 09 October 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”
The parable of the king’s son’s wedding clearly takes place in an entirely different cultural context. In Jesus’ day, weddings were run by the men, not the women. The character at a wedding was not the bride but the groom. And you can tell that men were in charge because the most important thing about a wedding was lots of barbecued meat and wine to drink. “Rich food full of marrow and aged wine well refined.” The only thing missing is bacon, but remember the context is still Old Testament and Jesus’ hasn’t yet died to fulfill the law of Moses.
Philippians 3:4b-14 / Proper 22A / 02 October 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
In the increasingly silly world of religion and popular Christianity, today has been declared “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” in some circles. This is supposed to be a Sunday dedicated to our freedom to use the pulpit for political speech in defiance of the IRS and in view of our tax exempt privileges as a 501c3 non-profit religious entity. The organizers would have us review the qualifications of the candidates in view of the Scriptures and declare which ones are the godly choice. Suffice it to say that our churches in the LCMS do not participate in such stunts. Oh we are perfectly free to criticize the government on Scriptural grounds on any given Sunday and all the other days in between. And we are also free to pray for those in government office. And, if we were to evaluate all the candidates in the basis of Scripture, we’d have to toss the whole lot of them and get a new batch.