Romans 8:26-39

A Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

I recently received a brochure advertising a Lutheran retreat on prayer. The brochure says the retreat will include prayers for many things, for peace in the Middle East, for the renewal of the church, and the like. There’s something good here. They even appeal to our Lutheran heritage and say: “We realize in evangelism it is the Holy Spirit who calls and gathers us so we will begin with calling on the Holy Spirit to make this happen.”

But then at the end of the brochure there’s a description of what prayer is. It says it’s a two-fold process of talking and listening. We bring everything to God by talking to him, and we are to listen and to know what he’s answered by looking in Scripture, by talking with others, and it says sometimes God’s answer comes even through the thoughts and dreams that he gives us.

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Romans 8:12-25

A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Sometimes we have a mountain top experience, and everything is beautiful, and we say with Browning in his famous little poem: “God’s in his heaven, and all is right with the world.”

What a wonderful world. We have that sense sometimes, as we look at this magnificent creation, and we say that tells us something about God.

That has been traditionally summed up in what are called the five proofs for God. (It goes back to Aquinas.) It’s useful for us Christians to know about these. They are like games that lead you astray. No need to caught in them. They don’t really work.

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saiah 55:10-13

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

The text today from Isaiah tells us how God works and what he’s about:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I send it” (Isaiah 55:10-13).

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Romans 13:1-7

A Sermon for the weekend of the Fourth of July

Today, as our country is celebrating its 250th anniversary, I propose that we take for our text Romans 13:1-7 about the state. This text raises the right questions about how we understand our relationship to the governing authorities of this world no matter where or when we lived.

It is important first of all to understand the perspective from which Paul writes, and also for that matter, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In short, they expected the end of the world to come in their generation.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:51-2: “Lo, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

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Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42

A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

The gospel text we have from Matthew is about discipleship and rewards. It says: “Whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will not lose his reward.” That’s in Matthew 10:42.

Many people assume this verse is a “take care of the poor” verse. But it’s really not. Rather, it’s a “take care of the Christian” verse. The “little ones” are the Christian disciples and Christian preachers.

This verse tells us the meaning of the famous parable in Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats and the last judgment. When it says, whoever gives to “the least of these,” it means Christian preachers. “The least of these” are those who are spreading the gospel.

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