He Came Down to Save

Text: Isaiah 64:1-9 Date: Advent I + 11/27/11 “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,” the prophet Isaiah leads God’s people to pray. But it is only when God seems far away, out of reach in the distant heavens that the heavens need to be rent, that the separation between us and [...]
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Your Turn

Text: Matthew 25:31-46 Date: Last Sunday of the Church Year + Proper 29 + 11/20/11 On the Last Sunday of the Church Year we are interested in “the bottom line,” the answer to the question, “what’s it all about?” It is another way to ask about our destiny, the End Times, the Last Day, the [...]
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Get Ready

Text: Matthew 25:14-30 Date: Pentecost XXII + Proper 28 + 11/13/11 It is the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, the next-to-last Sunday of the Church Year. As you would expect, therefore, the lectionary readings have become particularly urgent concerning “the times and the seasons” and especially the last day of the Lord when He will come, [...]
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Get Ready

Text: Matthew 25:14-30 Date: Pentecost XXII + Proper 28 + 11/13/11 It is the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, the next-to-last Sunday of the Church Year. As you would expect, therefore, the lectionary readings have become particularly urgent concerning “the times and the seasons” and especially the last day of the Lord when He will come, [...]
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Rest

Text: Matthew 5:1-12 Date: All Saints’ Day (Observed) + 11/6/11 All Saints’ Day originally came to be when the calendar began to be too full of names of those Christians who have died and gone before us through death and the grave into the everlasting arms of our Savior. We continue to remember the most [...]
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Truth

Text: Jude 3 Date: Written on Walther’s 200th Birthday, 10/25/11 + Reformation Day (Observed) + 10/30/11 In this 494th celebration of the 16th century Conservative Reformation of the Church by Martin Luther, we do so this year with special attention given to him who is the founding father in the 19th century of our confessional [...]
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One More Try

Text: Matthew 22:34-46 Date: Pentecost XIX + Proper 25 + 10/23/11 The chief priests and elders of the people and the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees all quizzed Jesus and tried to catch him in His talk. In this last week of His earthly life, after one last attempt to test His orthodoxy, Jesus [...]
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Schmoozing

Text: Matthew 22:15-22 Date: Pentecost XVIII + Proper 24 + 10/23/11 We are definitely on the threshold of the ending of another liturgical year, the completion of the Church’s telling of the story, the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who He is, what He came to do and how all of that involves [...]
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You Are Cordially Invited

Text: Matthew 22:1-14 Date: Pentecost XVII + Proper 23 + 10/9/11 Somebody rewrote the book on etiquette. I never remember being told, I only discovered by observation and then asking someone about it. Since when has it been common practice, even expected, for people to be invited to attend a wedding but then only come [...]
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Get With Christ

Text: Matthew 21:33-46 Date: Pentecost XVI + Proper 22 + 10/2/11 In the last week of our Lord’s earthly ministry, Holy Week, leading up to His foremost goal to be the all-sufficient sacrifice for the sin of the world upon the cross, the chief priests and elders of the people (now joined by the party [...]
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