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“Fellowship through the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1 – 2:2) Today on this Second Sunday of Easter, we begin six straight weeks of Epistle readings from First John. This is quite appropriate for the Easter season, since First John is all about a real crucified-and-risen, flesh-and-blood Savior for real flesh-and-blood sinners. In his epistle John is telling us that this is the only way to have fellowship with God and with one another: It is through Christ, the eternal Son of God, coming in the flesh, shedding his blood for us, and rising from the dead bodily, to give...

“He Is Risen: No Fooling!” (Mark 16:1-8) Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!) Yes, it’s true! This is no April Fools’ joke. Jesus really is risen from the dead! Just like he said he would. Just like the angel said he had. But who believed this? Do you believe this? This is no joke. This is the most serious--and yet at the same time, the most joyous--fact in the history of the world. And it is the most important reality for you, when I say, “He Is Risen: No Fooling!” No, this is no prank, this is...

“It Is Finished” (John 19:17-30) “Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” This is our text. “It is finished”: one of the last words of Jesus on the cross. But just what kind of a statement was it, this “It is finished”? What...

“Love Received, Love to Give” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Yes, Jesus did that. And he also tells his disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” And so our message tonight is all about love: The love with which Jesus loved us, and then the love he would have us give to one another. “Love Received, Love to Give.” First of all, love received. Love his disciples received...

“Annunciation, Acclamation, Crucifixion” (Luke 1:30-33; Mark 11:1-10; 15:1-39) Today is a day in the church year that goes by two names, “Palm Sunday” and the “Sunday of the Passion.” This is Palm Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem, and the crowd spread palm branches before him and acclaimed him as their coming king. But today also serves as the Sunday of the Passion, the first day of Holy Week, looking ahead to Christ’s suffering, which will culminate in his crucifixion on Good Friday. The Scripture readings we have had so far in the service today...

“The Real Jesus Is All You Really Need” (John 1:1-18; Ephesians 1:3-14) In Sunday morning Bible class, we’re doing a study based on the book, “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? 12 False Christs.” And in these midweek Lenten services, we’ve been picking up on themes from the book, as well. “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? 12 False Christs.” The premise of the book is that in our society people come up with false christs to fit their own presuppositions and desires. The real Jesus does not fit their idea of what he should be like, so...

Less than a year after Theresa F. Latini was hired as the first president of United Lutheran Seminary in Pennsylvania last April, she was unceremoniously ousted from the institution of higher learning after news broke that she once led a Christian ministry helping believers overcome same-sex attraction. She left that organization in 2001 and has since sworn off the idea that LGBT people can reject their identities, but that did not save her from ideological cleansing.United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) was formed in 2017, as a merger between two seminaries in Gettysburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Latini was named its first...

“Set Free to Serve” (Mark 10:32-45) I want to start out our message today with a little quiz. Multiple-choice. Which of these two statements is true: a) “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none,” or b) “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Which one is true? Well, this is a trick question. The correct answer is c) “both of the above.” A Christian is both a perfectly free lord of all and a perfectly dutiful servant of all. It was Martin Luther who set forth these two seemingly contradictory...

A prominent Lutheran seminary with two campuses in Pennsylvania is having a stormy moment of reckoning over the early-career, "conversion therapy" work by its first-year president. That moment reached a climax at the United Lutheran Seminary Wednesday, with the school's board of trustees voting to end the Rev. Theresa F. Latini's tenure as president. Latini, who answered some questions from PennLive via email Wednesday night, called the board's action unfair. "I have been scapegoated by an historically divided institution resistant to unification," she wrote, "and have been given little chance to respond to the accusations against me." United Lutheran Seminary...

“It’s a Gift!” (Ephesians 2:1-10) You are a Christian. You are saved. You believe in Christ. You are heading for heaven. And in your Christian life, you do good works. Now the question arises: How did all this come about? To what extent does all of this, or any of this, depend on you? The salvation, the faith, the good works: Which parts are a gift, by grace, God’s doing? And which parts are up to us, our doing, our contribution to the equation? That’s what we’re going to explore today. Now these are important questions. A lot can be...

“The Gospel on a Pole” (John 3:14-21) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That, of course, is John 3:16, a verse you all know. Because it sums up the good news of Christ so succinctly, John 3:16 is often called “the gospel in a nutshell.” But today, instead of the nutshell, this morning we’re going to be looking at the verses right before it, what I call, “The Gospel on a Pole.” The gospel on a pole? What’s that? Well, what I’m...

“One Option or the Only Way?” (John 14:1-6) We live in an age of religious pluralism. Religious pluralism is the belief that there are a plurality of religions, many religions, that can work. No one religion has a corner on the truth. All religions are equally valid. What really matters is you being a good person, however that is defined. So whatever religion you choose, that is your choice, and that’s fine for you. Your religion is just one option among many equally valid options. All roads lead to heaven. And going along with that idea, then, is this: You...

“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...

“Who Is the Real Jesus?” (Matthew 16:13-23) In Bible class on Sunday mornings, we just started a study based on the book, “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?” In this book, the author discusses twelve false christs that are popular in our culture today, but all of which miss the mark. These twelve redefinings of Christ are Jesus as: The Mascot; One Option among Many; The Good Teacher; The Therapist; The Giver of Bling; The National Patriot; The Social Justice Warrior; The Moral Example; The New Moses; The Mystical Friend; The Feminized Jesus; and The Teddy Bear. I encourage...

“Passion Prediction, Passion Production” (Mark 8:27-38; Romans 5:1-11) Most of you probably remember a movie a few years back called “The Passion of the Christ.” It was about Jesus’ suffering and death. That’s what the word “Passion’ means in that sense, the things that were done to Jesus, his being betrayed, arrested, beaten, crucified, and killed. Well, our Gospel reading today is about the Passion of the Christ, his suffering. To be more precise, it is a prediction of it--the first prediction of his Passion that Jesus makes. In the gospel narrative, the early ministry of Jesus in Galilee leads...

“Out of the Water, into the Wilderness” (Mark 1:9-15) Today is the First Sunday in Lent, which means that the Holy Gospel is an account of the temptation of our Lord. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this episode that took place right after Jesus’ baptism. This year we hear from Mark, who tells it the most briefly. Just two verses, as follows: “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” Mark gets...

A Christian university in Washington state will open its stage in March to women who believe aborting their unborn babies was a good thing. The theater department at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington is sponsoring the pro-abortion event in partnership with the Planned Parenthood abortion chain, according to the Daily Caller. The event, “Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign,” will promote the disproved statistic that one in three women will abort an unborn baby in her lifetime. “From the halls of Congress to pulpits and court houses around the country, women’s personal stories about...

“Hearts and Ashes” (Joel 2:12-19) Today is Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a day for sending your love a box of candy and a Valentine’s card. Something like this: Roses are red, Violets are blue; Sugar is sweet, And so are you. Yes, it’s a day for hearts and flowers. But by coincidence of calendar, today is also Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is a day for recognizing our sinful heart, repenting of our sin, and remembering our mortality: Roses are red, Ashes are gray; Remember you’re dust-- You’ll return there one day. But Ash Wednesday is also a day for...

Transgender Pastor Welcomed By All As She/He Gets Name & Gender Changed! (warning language)

“Where Is the Healing?” (Mark 1:29-39) Every year during the Epiphany season, we get Gospel readings in which Jesus is doing the activities of his public ministry. We see Jesus busy with things like preaching, teaching, and healing the sick. For example, take the readings from Mark 1 we’ve had these last few weeks. Two weeks ago we heard Jesus preaching, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Last week Jesus was in the synagogue teaching, and “he taught them as one...