Matthew 3:13-17 When I was a teenager, one of my household chores was to wash the dishes every evening. One thing that became very clear to me, during these years of my juvenile dish-washing career, was that if you put dirty dishes into clean water, the water gets dirty. Depending on how encrusted…
Epiphany – Matthew 2:1-12 In the Middle Ages, in western Europe, the festival of the Epiphany came to be seen as a festival about three gentile kings – from Arabia, Persia, and India – who were guided by a star to come and worship the Christchild. The names that were attached to these kings were…
Matthew 2:13-23 The festival of Christmas is always a day of joyous celebration. We remember God’s goodness and love in the sending of his Son to be our Savior, and as we do so, we are glad. The story of the birth of Jesus is a declaration that God cares about us. He has not…
Matthew 1:18-25 In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, we are told that Joseph was a just man – or, what would be a better translation, a righteous man. This description of Joseph’s character applies to more than one aspect of his life. First, it means that he was an honorable and moral man. He had…
Matthew 21:33-44 Many of Jesus’ messages had an immediately positive and uplifting impact on his listeners. Today’s message, from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is not one of those. There are some humbling and hard-to-accept truths associated with sinful humanity’s existence in this fallen world, and associated with sinful humanity’s alienation from a holy God, that Jesus…
Matthew 6:24-34 The times in which we live are times of worry and anxiety. We are concerned about our safety. Assaults, murders, and social chaos in general are on the rise in many cities. We are also worried about the economy. Prices are going up, while the buying power of our money is going down.…
Palm Sunday – Matthew 27:11-54 Today we begin our observance of Holy Week, and we begin our recollection of all the things that transpired during the last week of our Lord’s earthly life. One of those pivotal events – as today’s reading from St. Matthew recounts it – was Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate. In…
Matthew 27:11-66 A friend of mine who is a retired Lutheran pastor once told a story about a conversation he had many years ago with his college roommate, who was not a Christian. In casual conversation, the roommate said, “I’ll be damned.” And my friend then said, “Yes, you probably will be.” The roommate got…
Matthew 2:1-12 We all know the Biblical story of the Epiphany, involving wise men from the east who traveled a great distance to find the newborn king of Israel. A star guided them to Bethlehem, where Jesus was, and where the wise men worshiped him. That’s the story, right? Well, not exactly. St. Matthew’s Gospel…
Matthew 11:2-15 John the Baptist was a prophet – and even more than a prophet. So says Jesus, in today’s text from St. Matthew’s Gospel. He was the immediate forerunner of the Messiah, preparing the people of Israel for his arrival. He called them to repentance, and administered to them a baptism of repentance for…