Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of Jesus of Nazareth. No, that is not the story. Not the real story.

The real story is: Death is dead. Death is over. And it’s all because of him.

What do people commonly think about life and death? Many think: “Eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” Of course, this way of thinking is nothing new.

People today are basically the same as they have always been. Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:32: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.’” In the First Century that’s what people commonly thought. And he is quoting what was said centuries before him, in Isaiah 22:13. “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” Death is the end, that is it.

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Matthew 21:1-11

A Sermon for Palm Sunday

Everybody loves a parade. There is Macy’s Parade on Thanksgiving Day, the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day. Parades all over the country on the Fourth of July. The floats, the horses, the bands, and drum majorettes. It’s fun to be in a parade and watch a parade.

All of that has its place, but there’s something very different about the parade which took place on that first Palm Sunday long ago. It is said by the experts who know the First Century A. D. that a six-year-old girl could carry a sack of gold from Athens to Rome and not be robbed or injured in any way.

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Romans 8:6-11

A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

In Romans 8:1-11 we have the whole of the Christian faith. Well, at least two-thirds of the heart of it. The text for today begins at verse 6; it’s useful, however, to see verses 6-11 in light of what comes before.

The first verse 8:1 announces: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” To put it in our terms today: “There is therefore no death sentence for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Death is dead. That’s the whole ball game.

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John 9:1-41

A sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

“I see,” said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.

We see that kind of contradiction at the end of the text from John for today: “For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (John 9:39).

What is it to see? To be blind? Three examples:

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Romans 5:1-11

A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent

How big is God? We talk about how God is infinite, and yet how he came in Jesus Christ, and he comes to us in his promises and little bits of bread and wine. How can that be? Then we remember that God created infinity itself; suddenly that changes everything. We have these limits. We think we have some kind of God in a box.

To get at this, let’s remember Luther’s journey. He was there in Upper Germany, a bright young man, preparing to be a lawyer. And then one day on his way to Wittenburg he was caught in a storm. Branches were blowing off trees. There was lightning all around, and he was he was going to die. He prayed to St. Anne: “Save me, if you save me, I’ll become a monk.” Then he was saved, and much to his father’s dismay, he turned around and became a monk, and he was determined to do it right.

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