A sermon on Baptism for the Season of Epiphany

2 Kings 5:1-14; Romans 6:5

After we have celebrated a Baptism, we ask ourselves: “What did we do?” It didn’t take very long. Only a few minutes. There was speaking and a candle.

In the Small Catechism Luther asks: “How can water do such great things?” That’s why this account in 2 Kings about this General in Syria is so useful here. It’s important to remember how Naaman had leprosy. That was a terrible disease. He was the Commanding General of the Army, and there was nothing he could do about it. But Naaman’s wife had a little slave girl from Israel, and she said to her mistress: “Why don’t they go to the prophet in Israel? He could heal him.”

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A Sermon on the Lordship of Christ for the Season of Epiphany
What should you do when the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door? (They believe Jesus is less than God.) Engage in a debate with them? No, thank them and send them on their way.
It’s tempting to say to yourself: “I know a Bible verse that will settle it for them.” One such verse is 1 Cor 8:6, which is a kind of creed: “For us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
In this verse God the Father and God the Son are spoken of in perfect parallelism. But, of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses will then say that in the same book, in 1 Cor 15:28, it reads: “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him, that God may be everything to everyone.” Therefore the Son is subordinate to the Father.

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The first Sunday after Epiphany

In this Epiphany season we focus on what is practical. How does God work here and now, concretely, practically, really.

All analogies fail. But when we’re dealing with the Lord, he knows us better than we know ourselves. When we’re dealing with this, we’re dealing with forever. How does God work practically, now?

He works through his Word. It’s not just John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . .” God comes in his Word and dies and rises again. It is as Paul writes in Romans 1:16: “The gospel is the power of God for salvation.” It’s important to realize what this Word is not.

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After Christmas many pastors start planning for Lent. As a consequence, Epiphany becomes an overlooked season. But it could be the perfect season to preach on the Word and sacraments. By doing this every year, congregations would develop a Lutheran identity and a joy in Luther’s rediscovery of the certainty of salvation, outside of us, […]

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A sermon for the Sunday before Epiphany

Ephesians 3:1-12

Every day it is a little lighter. In a few days, January 6th, it will be Epiphany, the coming of the light. Epiphany is a minor festival for those of us in the Western Church, even though for those in the Eastern Church (three hundred million of them), Epiphany is the most important celebration next to Easter. We forget that what we call Christmas did not become a holiday in the Western Church until 336 A.D., more than three hundred years after Christ died and rose again.

What is Epiphany?

When we talk about light and darkness, we know in physics that light is simply that which overcomes darkness. Darkness is simply not having enough light. The same with cold and heat. It’s just a physical thing.

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