We offer three different sermons for Shepherd Sunday:
They Knew Him in the Breaking of the Bread
Luke 24:35
A sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter
What do we talk about when we get together?
The weather, for sure. And gas prices and grocery prices. We talk about unusual accidents or happenings around town and in the wider world. We avoid politics and religion, except when we are among like-minded friends. For the most part we talk about things that are important to us, that affect us.
When we have particularly good news to share, we are like that woman in the parable in Luke 15, who, when she found the coin she had lost, called together her friends and neighbors and said (15:9): “Rejoice with me for I had found the coin which I had lost!”
Clothed in His Righteousness Alone
1 Peter 1:17-23
A sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter
Last week we looked at Doubting Thomas and learned that everyone is a second generation disciple. There is no advantage to anyone who was there who saw him, touched him, and heard him because this was all God’s choosing and electing, giving them faith, not a super miracle or super proof. Rather, we are all those to whom God gives faith, and we are called to be witnesses and not philosophers who have some kind of proof.
The First and the Last, the Almighty
Rev 1:8, 17-18
A sermon for the First Sunday after Easter
Revelation 1 presents a panorama and we find one theme: Rev 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty.” Again in vs 18: “I am the first and the last, the living one; I died and behold I am alive for evermore. I have the keys of Death and Hades.” Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The chapter is really saying: The Lord is Lord. There is no other lord. The Lord is lord.
How can that be? As we follow the debate about evolution, those who are attacking the idea that there God is involved point out again and again: If God was involved, it didn’t work out very well. There are all kinds of awful things and problems. This is hardly God guiding creation, whether you say in “one day” or in “seven days” or “seven ages.” He didn’t do it very well. Furthermore, if Lord is Lord, how come there’s evil? There are tragedies in our individual lives and tragedies and catastrophes in our country and beyond. Why doesn’t the Lord make it right?
Doubting Thomas
A sermon for the First Sunday after Easter.
“Doubting Thomas.” Doubting Thomas is not the way it’s put in the text. He’s called Thomas the Twin. We call him “Doubting Thomas” because we like him. He’s the one who had the courage to say: “Unless I can actually touch the wounds, how can I know?” We all see that as common sense.
Thomas, doubting Thomas, is a great favorite. The text, however, doesn’t say that he actually did doubt. Just for the sake of discussion, assume that he did. Then he says in a confession: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). There was for him this reality. Miraculous. He was actually able to see, to hear, and to touch.