Easter 2 – John 20:19-31 Many people today believe in life after death and in ghosts. The increasing number of popular ghost-story and ghost-hunting shows on television testifies to this – as does the common notion that the souls of dead loved ones remain with their family members, and watch over them. Many people find…
Acts 10:38-43 Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Today is the high festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord. It is indeed the highest day, which shines the heavenly light of God’s salvation in Christ onto every other day. If the resurrection of Jesus had not taken place, nothing else would matter. And because…
Easter Matins Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Atheists and agnostics commonly launch a wide array of criticisms in the direction of the Christian religion, disparaging Christianity as the source of all evil in human history. An exception, however, was Antony Flew, a British philosopher and student of science. He started out as a…
Good Friday The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was one event in a sequence of saving events that needed to occur during the Lord’s last week of earthly life. He ate the Last Supper with his disciples. He was arrested and tried. He was crucified. And on the third day, he was resurrected. All of these…
Maundy Thursday – Luke 22:7-20 “Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus gave this directive to his disciples on the occasion of his institution of the Sacrament of the Altar. His giving of his body and blood to them, for the forgiveness of their sins, was not going to be a one-time occurrence. This giving…
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…
Lent 4 – Mark 6:32-44 Please listen with me to a reading from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, beginning at the 32nd verse. This is a parallel text to today’s appointed Gospel from St. John. And [Jesus and his disciples] went away in the boat to a desolate place by…
There is no video for this sermon. Lent 3 – Mark 3:20-35 Please listen with me to a reading from the third chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, beginning at the 20th verse. This is a parallel text to today’s appointed Gospel from St. Luke. Then [Jesus] went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that…