Free Republic

The assumption that 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 reinforces a universal Church custom that women must wear a garment over their heads in Christian worship to show their subordination to men makes this “one of the most obscure Pauline passages” (W. Meeks), one that “still awaits a really convincing explanation” (C.F.D. Moule, G. B. Caird). This passage has many statements, including the following twelve, which do not make sense if it’s about a Church custom that all women must have a garment covering symbolizing subordination: “I praise you for … holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you”...

“Enriched in All Speech and Knowledge” (1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42a) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s how I start every sermon I preach, with those words. Where did I get that idea? From St. Paul. That’s how he starts his epistles, with those same words: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” For example, that’s how Paul begins his epistle to the Corinthians, as you heard. With those words, the apostle Paul is conferring a blessing on his hearers as he begins to...

“Leading a Chaste and Decent Life” (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) Have you seen the January issue of the Lutheran Witness? On the cover it has a quote from Luther’s Explanation of the Sixth Commandment. It says: “We should fear and love God so that we lead a chaste and decent life.” And that’s the theme of the issue: The articles are on how we as Christians should lead a chaste and decent life in what we say and do. And so, when I looked at the Scripture readings coming up for today, I thought, “Wow, the Epistle lesson ties right in...

“The End Is Coming” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Matthew 25:31-46) The end is coming. The end of the church year, I mean. In fact, today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. Next week we’ll begin a brand-new church year with the First Sunday in Advent. But the thing is, the church year mirrors the life of Christ and the course of history. That’s why, in these darkening days of November, our readings and hymns deal with the last things, the end times, and the return of Christ on the Last Day. Think of the hymns we’ve been singing this...

“Christ Has Been Raised from the Dead” (1 Corinthians 15:1-26, 30-42) Happy Easter! “What?” you say. “Pastor Henrickson, I know you must be a little antsy for spring to get here--we all are--but look, this is still February!” And I say to you, “Nuts! This is Easter!” Why? Because this is Sunday. And every Sunday is a little Easter. Or, you could put it the other way around: Easter is a great big Sunday. Why do I say that? Because our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and that’s why we have Divine Service on Sunday...

“The Love Chapter: Way More than a Wedding Text” (1 Corinthians 12:31b – 13:13) It’s February! And you know what that means. Soon we will hear those most wonderful of words: “Pitchers and catchers report.” No, I’m just kidding. While the start of Spring Training is a beautiful thing, I’m referring to something else that happens in February. And that is Valentine’s Day. Now we hear and see everywhere the beautiful word, “love.” Love is in the air! Love is everywhere! Go into any greeting card store and you will see row upon row of cards with hearts on them...

“Many Members, One Body” (1 Corinthians 12:12-31a)I’m sure most of you have heard the children’s nursery song that goes like this: Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes! Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes! And eyes and ears and mouth and nose, Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes! This is a cute little song that teaches the child the various parts of his or her body. But that’s the understood assumption, namely, that all these body parts go together and are meant to work together in that child’s body. It’s not like these various body...

“Weak Power and Foolish Wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31) Every so often an organization called the American Religious Identification Survey conducts a national survey to find out how Americans are identifying themselves by their religion. And so we have data to compare from complete surveys taken in 1990, 2001, and 2008. In 1990, 86% of Americans identified themselves as some sort of Christian--Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, non-denom, you name it. By 2008, that number had dropped ten points, down to 76%. In 1990, the percentage of the population that said they had no religion was just 8%. By 2008, that number had...

“Hold Lightly to the Things of This World” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) Are you married? Some of you are, some of you aren’t. OK, so let’s broaden the field. How about these questions: Are there times when you mourn? Are there times when you rejoice? Or how about these: Do you ever buy goods? Do you ever have dealings with the world? OK, now I think I’ve got everybody covered. Well, here’s what I want you to do today. Two words: Stop it. That’s it: Stop it. Stop doing those things! Live like you’re not married. Stop mourning. Stop rejoicing. Live...

“A Day of Judgment and Salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:3-9) In thinking about a theme for our three midweek Advent services this year, I decided to go with the Epistle readings for the first three Sundays in Advent. For there is a common theme that you can see in all three. There is a phrase, a connecting thread, that runs through these readings. See if you can notice what it is. First, from the Epistle for the First Sunday in Advent, 1 Corinthians 1, the part where it says: “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who...

A key Biblical passage which has been used to prevent women from being ordained is not original and was added later, an academic has claimed. The section of Corinthians which says women must remain silent in church has been used to justify restricting the priesthood to men. But recent research has suggested that the passage was not written by the Apostle Paul, as is widely believed, but was instead added later. Now an academic claims to have discovered a key symbol which proves the passage was not original. Research published in the journal New Testament Studies casts doubt on the...

“The Last Enemy to Be Destroyed Is Death” (1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 51-57) Over 25 years as a pastor, I have had a number of World War II veterans as members of the congregations I have served. Homer Rouggly was one of them. In fact, Homer Rouggly might well be the last one that I will have the honor of laying to rest. That “Greatest Generation” is quickly passing away, and they were quite a crew. By the way, for a number of years I had two World War II veterans sitting near each other in the pews at St. Matthew’s:...

“Death Is Swallowed Up in Victory” (1 Corinthians 15:51-57) Chuck, and the friends and family of our sister Gwen: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First I want to say that you have our sympathy upon your loss. It is always tough to lose someone you have known and loved for many years. It is painful. It feels like we have a hole in our heart. And so we want to be with you at this time and give you our support. And certainly it is good to see the people here...

“If Christ Has Not Been Raised” (1 Corinthians 15:1-26) Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!) Yes, he is risen indeed! Risen from the dead! Risen bodily. And everything depends on this. Your faith, your forgiveness, your future. Your eternal future. The future of your loved ones who have died in the Lord. Everything hinges on this great and glorious fact: that Christ has indeed risen from the dead. But what if Christ has not risen from the dead? What then? What would be the consequences? You know, not everyone believes that Christ has risen from the dead....

“Examples from the Exodus” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13) Some good examples can be instructive for us on what to do. We learn from watching others. Children learn from their parents, about how to speak, how to tie their shoelaces, about how to treat other people. We also learn from reading about others and how they handled things in the past. The example of some outstanding figure from history can inspire and instruct us on how we should conduct ourselves. Good examples are important. But then so are bad examples. We can learn from bad examples of what not to do, of...

"Life and Love in the Body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:1 - 13:13) I don't know if you noticed it, but today and for the last two weeks our Epistle reading has come from 1 Corinthians. That's One Corinthians, by the way, not Two Corinthians. I haven't preached on these texts, having preached instead on the Holy Gospel readings from John and Luke, respectively. But today I think I will preach on these 1 Corinthians readings, taking all three of them together. I've been saving them up for today, because today we have our annual voters' meeting to elect new...

“Blood of the Covenant” (Exodus 24:3-11; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Mark 14:12-26)“Blood” and “covenant” go together in the Bible pretty much all the time. Whenever God establishes a covenant with people, generally it is sealed with blood. And tonight is no exception. In fact, tonight is the culmination of this connection between blood and covenant. It’s Holy Thursday, the night in which our Lord Jesus Christ establishes a covenant with us and says, “This is my ‘Blood of the Covenant.’” I suppose we should start by explaining what this word “covenant” means, biblically speaking. In the Bible, a covenant is a...

“The Cross of Christ, the Tree of Life” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)What a joy it is to be back here in the house of the Lord! Because of the snow and ice, we lost four out of the first five services we had scheduled this Lent: Ash Wednesday; the First Sunday in Lent; the Second Sunday in Lent; and then this past Wednesday, what was to be our second midweek service. But we were able to have the first midweek service, in our series called “The Tree of Life.” And since we didn’t get to do the second message in that...

“Glorify God in Your Body” (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)“Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” Now those are two direct quotations from today’s Epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 6. “Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” Two imperatives, two commands, telling us what to do. Are they true? Yes, of course. This is what we should do, both things. One is stated in terms of what we should flee from. The other is stated in terms of what we should positively do. But now suppose this was all that Paul had to say to us here. “Flee from...

“But We Preach Christ Crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) You’ll notice that the color of our paraments today is red--in other words, something different from the ordinary green that we use in the non-festival half of the church year. This means that we’re observing a special festival today, one that happens to fall on a Sunday this year. And this festival is called Holy Cross Day. What is Holy Cross Day, you ask? Well, let me tell you the background of this observance. Back in the early 300s, the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian. Then in the year 326, his...