John 8:31-36
A Sermon for Reformation Sunday
This is the Festival of the Reformation, the Sunday before October 31st, when in 1517 a monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. This long list of points to be debated was written in Latin and intended for discussion among his fellow scholars, but the Theses were quickly translated into German, made into cartoons and drawings, and soon everybody was talking about them.
Galatians 5:1, John 8:32, 36
A Sermon for a Sunday in October
Eighteen years ago, in September 2006, then Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech in Germany at the University of Regensburg. It came to be known as the Regensburg Address, or simply Regensburg.
Before we get into what he said, I want to note the honorifics he used to address the audience: “Your Eminences, Your Magnificences, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.”
A salutation that perks one’s ears.
Hebrews 3:1-4:16
A Sermon for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
In 1937 in Germany, the Nazis threw a Lutheran pastor named Ernst Käsemann in prison. He was one of the most important New Testament scholars of the Twentieth Century. Why did they do it?
At the time, Käsemann was serving a congregation in Gelsenkirchen, a coal mining town. He told about how during the Sunday morning worship services the Nazi soldiers sat up in the balcony with guns, but his miners, as he called them, sat downstairs with clubs in their hands. They had no fear of the Nazis because they faced death every day in the mines.
How did Käsemann handle the whole situation? He said: “So I preached the Gospel.” And then the Nazis threw him in prison.
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
A Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
One of the Scripture lessons for today is from the book called Hebrews. It’s not really a letter although it’s called “The Letter to the Hebrews.” We don’t know much about the original setting of this book. We don’t know the author. We don’t know when it was written or where. It has some of the most beautiful and the most difficult Greek in the New Testament.
A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The gospel text for today mentions hell three times. Moreover, a footnote points out that two verses are omitted because they say the same thing. So, it could be said that this text it talks about hell five times. The word used here is “Gehenna,” which is what we normally mean by “hell.” It isn’t the word, “Hades,” which can mean “death.”
Among us today it is widely considered bad taste to talk about hell. You just don’t mention it unless in cursing or telling jokes. It’s impolite. If you do talk about hell, people will think: “You’re a fundamentalist. You’re backward. You’re superstitious.”
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