John 1:6-8, 19-28

A sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent

This year on the First Sunday of Advent we had the verse from Isaiah that Luther lifted up repeatedly: “All our righteous deeds are filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Then the Second Sunday of Advent we had that Advent message: “Wake, awake for night is flying.” Wake up. But we don’t wake up and we can’t. Rather, God does it. As we can see there is a real progression in this season of Advent – our best works are sinful, we don’t wake up as we should – which means that we are now faced with a huge question: Since God does it, does that mean that everybody is saved? We can quote Scripture, for example, 2 Peter 3:9 that God’s will is that “none should perish.” Or does this mean, as the Psalmist says, that if the Lord would count iniquities, who could stand? None of us. Is there then really no hope?

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2 Peter 3:8-15a

A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

In this rather unusual text in 2 Peter, the question is raised: How come it keeps on going? How come life continues as before? After all, the Lord has come. He has sent his Son to die on the cross to settle the whole thing. How come it keeps on going?
One of the answers the author gives, quoting Psalm 90:4, is that God thinks in different kinds of time. One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).

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A Sermon for Christ the King Sunday

In the church year this Sunday is New Year’s Eve and the new year begins next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. As we typically do on New Year’s Eve, we take stock of what has been and look ahead at what is to come.

Looking back at this past year we see that Christian churches in our country and elsewhere are struggling, as we are individually, due to a volatile world, financial pressures, and a corrosive secularism. On top of all that is the ominous rise of Islamic jihad and a timid, confused response by many Christian leaders.

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1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Here we are one Sunday before Christ the King Sunday, the end of the church year. The texts are stronger in terms of judgment, especially judgment on those who are leaders, and then also the note of hope that we find in 1 Thessalonians.

As we have noted, there are many today, particularly among evangelicals and Baptists, who are caught in end-time thinking. Dallas Theological Seminary, which has over 2,000 students and over 100 faculty, is a major center for study of “the Rapture” and end times. And Dallas Theological Seminary is not alone. There are many such schools, neighborhood Bible studies, and preachers. We ask ourselves: What do we Lutherans say to this?

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