Genesis 50:15-21 In the movie “The Godfather, Part 2,” the mafia boss Michael Corleone and his brother Fredo had a serious falling out, due to Fredo having taken sides with a competitor crime family, against his brother. After a tense meeting between the two, when Michael might have been expected to order his brother to…
1 Timothy 1:12-17 “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” All of us sometimes speak in superlative terms. This means that we sometimes describe something or someone as the very best of all, or as the very…
Presentation of the Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession gave expression to the convictions of the church of the Lutheran Reformation: especially regarding how the Triune God saves humanity from the guilt and power of sin, and from eternal death, through the gospel of our divine-human Savior Jesus Christ. In this, the Augsburg Confession was built…
Mark 13:28-37 Please listen with me to a reading from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, beginning at the 28th verse: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see…
Mark 5:21-43 Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew gives us an abbreviated version of the story of the healing of the woman with a flow of blood. St. Mark gives us a fuller version of this story. We read there that “There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and…
Genesis 1:1–2:4 Today’s Old Testament reading presented us with the creation account from the Book of Genesis. It is real history, written in majestic prose, by divine inspiration. The Book of Genesis is not written in the vocabulary of modern science, because it is a story for the ages. It was true and meaningful before…
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…
Ephesians 4:17-5:2 Nobody likes conflict and warfare. When we hear news reports about the suffering of those who are caught in the middle of conflict in various parts of the world, or when we see images of the death and destruction brought about by war, we cringe. We desire peace – for ourselves, and for…