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.
Matthew 21:23-27 / Proper 21A / 25 September 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” The question of authority is on the table here this morning, and the religious leaders have put it there. The chief priests and elders of the people, the guardians and stewards of the religious institutions and traditions of Israel were challenging Jesus’ authority. Who did He think He was? Riding into Jerusalem like some kind of Messiah? Turning over the tables of the money changers and calling the temple “His house.” “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Literally, a haven for terrorists. Who did this Jesus think He was, walking around the temple and teaching the people as though He owned the place? As though this really was “His house”?
Matthew 20:1-20 / Proper 19A / 18 September 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
The kingdom of heaven is not fair. It’s just but it’s not fair. And that’s good because grace isn’t fair. Fair is the law; grace is the Gospel. If it’s fair, it’s not good news. If it’s law, then it’s all up to you. If it’s fair, the first come in first, the last come in last, survival goes to the fittest, the race to the swiftest, the kingdom to those who achieve it. But if it’s grace, gift, then the first are last, the last are first, and the deadbeat sinner gets justified in the same way as the righteous saint. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go the parable.
Matthew 18:21-35 / Proper 19A / 11 September 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Joseph had every reason in the world to get even with his brothers. And a great opportunity. They had dumped in a pit and sold him to slave traders and told their father he had been attacked by wild animals. Joseph wound up in Egypt, and in classic rags to riches fashion, he went from Pharaoh's prison to being in charge of Pharaoh's granary, the food supply of Egypt. When famine hit the land of Israel, his brothers came to him hat in hand to buy grain, not knowing they were dealing with Joseph. Instead of getting even, Joseph forgave his brothers, took them in along with their father Jacob, and took care of them.
Matthew 18:1-20 / Proper 18A/ 04 September 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Interesting question. I wonder what the disciples had in mind. Were they thinking of themselves? They would be later on in the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed to death, the same night in which He gave them His Body and Blood in the context of the Passover. There they argued about which of the was the greatest. They’d argued about it on the way.
Matthew 16:21-28 / Proper 18A / 28 August 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:21-28
The moment that begins with “from that time” marks a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Peter had just made the great and glorious confession you heard last week when he declared of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And that confession was extolled by Jesus as a revelation of His Father and the foundation of His Church. The cat was out of the bag, so to speak. Jesus was, and is, the Christ, the promised and prophesied Messiah of Israel, and He is the Son of the living God, the only-begotten of God, Yahweh, the Lord in the flesh.
Matthew 16:13-20 / Proper / 21 August 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
It was a city known for its temples. The Sellucids had built a temple to Pan, the goat-footed god of victory in battle, there. Herod built a temple to Zenodorus there too. Philipp II dedicated it to Caesar Augustus and had just struck a coin with his picture on it, which the Jews considered idolatrous. Caesaria Philippi was a city of many gods and many lords. Little wonder then, that Jesus asks His disciples the decisive question in the region of Caesaria Philippi.
Matthew 15:21-28 / Proper 15A/ 14 August 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
She was desperate. She had no one to turn to. Her daughter was deeply oppressed by some sort of demon. No description of the symptoms, but the woman is at the end of her hope. Jesus is all she has left. She heard He was coming into her region, the district of Tyre and Sidon, the far north coast county named after the great grandson of Noah. Canaanite territory. The Canaanites were the inhabitants of the land before the Israelites came. They were the people the Israelites were to supposed to have driven from the land but didn’t. Needless to say, Israelites didn’t have much to do with Canaanites. The rabbis even called them “dogs,” which was about as low as it got. Filthy, garbage picking scavengers. A respectable Israelite wouldn’t even talk to a Canaanite if one came up to them on the street.
Matthew 14:22-33 / Proper 14A / 07 August 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
Well, Jesus finally gets a chance for some solitude to pray. He’s been trying for a whole chapter to get some peace and quite but the crowds keep following Him. Word of cousin John’s death in prison has just reached the ears of Jesus, and understandably He want to take some time by Himself to pray to His Father. So after feeding the 5000 plus and ordering the disciples off in their boat, Jesus finally gets some alone time up on the mountain.
Matthew 14:22-33 / Proper 13A / 31 July 2011 / Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights, CA
“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” wrote economist Milton Friedman. And he’s right. Someone has to pay. Somewhere, sometime. Free lunches went out with Genesis 3 and the curse against Sin. Before that all lunches, as well as breakfasts, dinners, and snacks, were free for the plucking. Fruits and nuts, all you can eat. Then came Sin and the terms changed. The free lunch was over. Now it was cultivated plants and sweat and work. No more free fruits and nuts. Now costly bread, working against the weeds by the sweat of your brow until you drop dead into the dust. There is no such thing as a free lunch.