Tag Archives: Lent

Sermons

Good Friday—Tenebrae (Jn 19:1–42)

Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

Lift up your eyes and see the salvation of God. The Lord God from heaven above with a mighty hand and outstretched arms has saved His people, all people. “My eyes look up to the hills,” from there, from above our help and salvation come. As Jesus says, “You are from beneath; I am from above.” Salvation isn’t just “from above;” it is above! That’s today. Salvation was up. Jesus, your Savior was up: on a hill, lifted up, crucified, “from aboved.” Good Friday is good because of that. Yeah,

JESUS IS “FROM ABOVED” THAT YOU WOULD BE BORN FROM ABOVE. Continue reading →

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Sermons

Good Friday—Chief Service (2 Cor 5:14–21)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN

So many things comes together at the place of the skull. In Jesus cross things that are opposites are joined together. Jesus’ cross being like one giant addition symbol. We rejoice in this joining. This divine plus sign means our eternal salvation. It’s what makes today Good Friday.

So, what sort of things are joined at Jesus’ cross? Well, for starters, God’s justice and His mercy. Sin must be paid for, justice served. God’s justice demands this. He is also merciful and gracious, and He pardons iniquity, transgression, and sin. So often people want to pit these two things against each other. But in one divine action, Jesus’ death for sinners, God’s justice and mercy meet.

Our Epistle points us to two other things that are joined at the cross. Sin and righteousness. For your salvation they’re united at the cross in Jesus, in His flesh and blood. How are they joined? Well,

JESUS WAS YOUR SIN, AND, IN HIM, YOU ARE GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS. Continue reading →

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Sermons

Holy (Maundy) Thursday (1 Cor 11:23–32; Jn 13:1–15, 34–35)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

How do you gauge God’s love for you? We think all sorts of things about how you know that God loves you. If your life is generally pretty good, if you are generally pretty good (healthy or whatever), if you’re generally a nice person—in all these sorts of ways we figure out if God loves us and how much He loves us.

But what about experiencing God’s love? How would you go about doing that? We want to feel something. As if love is simply a feeling. (That’s what we think today.) Don’t get me wrong: if you feel something (joy, sadness, anything in between), that’s okay as far is it goes. But it’s not a sign of God’s love for you, nor is it a sign of how weak or strong your faith is.

“God is love:” each person of the Trinity putting the other two first. Anyway, experiencing that—God’s love: how? Well, we look inside ourselves. We meditate on whatever (Jesus, His death, His resurrection, whatever blessings we’ve received), and by our meditation, our works, our spirituality we try to drum up some sort of feeling because, we think that’s the sign of true faith.

We boil it all down to feelings: a quiver in the liver, a lump in the throat, a glistening of the eye. God’s love, Jesus’ love is something far different than all that, it’s more concrete. Faith is same way too, too. Continue reading →

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Sermons

Holy Week Wednesday (9th & 10th Commandments)

Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

[[9th and 10th Commandments]]

INI + AMEN.

((5. Oops!: Our hearts are the problem.))

“The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” You aren’t without, you don’t lack, you do want for anything when you’ve got the Lord. Yeah, right… Oh, it sounds great, and we want to believe it. (Lord, help our unbelief.) But day to day we don’t think that, don’t believe that, don’t act like it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t crave, desire, or want what we want. That’s what coveting is all about: craving or desiring what you don’t have, wanting what those around you have.

These two Commandments (Nine and Ten) tie in with the First Commandment. You can really study them together, take them together, they go hand in hand. Commandments Nine and Ten get us to the heart of the matter, the heart of our spiritual problem: our hearts! Continue reading →

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Sermons

Palmarum—Palm Sunday (Mt 21:1–9)

Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

Well, here we are again—Jesus riding into Jerusalem. And, I’m saying “again” not because we’re in another Holy Week, or we’re winding down to another Good Friday and Easter. I said “again” because we have this reading twice in the Church Year. Jesus riding into Jerusalem is the Gospel reading for Advent 1 and Palm Sunday. Using this text twice shows us how important this reading is! This text embodies everything of the Christian faith. It embodies everything about Jesus, too. Bethlehem and Golgotha, the coming of our Lord (Advent and Christmas), the dying of our Lord (Lent and Easter) are all embodied in this one account. Almost everything contained in nine verses!

Continue reading →

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Sermons

Lent 5 Midweek (8th Commandment)

Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

[[8th Commandment]]

INI + AMEN.

What’s in a name? Your name? Everything! It’s almost as important as your Social Security Number, your credit report. Once your name’s trashed, you’re ruined. It’s hard to come back from a lie, a rumor, a truth! What’s in a name? God’s name? Jesus. “The LORD saves.” God’s name: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Given to you in your Baptism. There everything of God, given to you in His name. What’s in name? Your neighbor’s name? Yes, their name, too. Actually, them before you. Continue reading →

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Sermons

Judica—Lent 5 (Jn 8:46–59)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

((5. Oops!: There is death—ever present foe.))

Death. That’s uncomfortable. Death. Who wants to talk about that? No one, really. Death: the opposite of life. Why would we want to talk about that? Especially on a day like today! It’s very true that death makes us comfortable. Death is an ever present foe. Has been since almost the beginning.

Death came because of the devil’s lie: “You won’t surely die…you’ll be like God.” That was a lie. The Lord’s Word held true: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Then Adam and Eve were afraid of God, and they died. We’re afraid of death, too. Don’t like to talk about it. Don’t want to think about it. We’re afraid of death because, like Adam and Eve, we’re afraid of God. If we die, we meet God. Better put that off as long as possible. Death. Uncomfortable? Afraid? Of course, it’s death! Continue reading →

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