Psalm 103
A sermon for the Season of Lent
Today our text is Psalm 103. We will deal with the first 13 verses. It begins:
1“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”
That “bless” really means “praise” and “O my soul” means with my whole person, as it goes on: “and all that is within me bless his holy name!”
Psalm 130
A sermon for the Season of Lent
Why do we have Lent? For those of us in the Protestant tradition, it is not so obvious. It is important for us to realize why. We don’t have any trouble with Christmas. Christmas was first made a celebration in 346 A.D., 350 years after Jesus was born. We have no trouble getting kids ready for Christmas. But then there is Ash Wednesday, and maybe we should do something more? We don’t want to be like those who say we can’t eat meat on Fridays, that we have to do certain things. There is something about suffering, and maybe we should give up Lent for Lent. What’s it for?
Mark 9:2-9
A sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
During the season of Epiphany, we celebrate the coming of the light. As the Gospel of John states: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). During this winter season the light has been growing stronger. Soon it will explode.
Today is the last Sunday of Epiphany, the Festival of the Transfiguration. In the Gospel text we are brought to the mountaintop. From there we look out over the valley below and look forward to the horrible events to come. What lies below is deep darkness, the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus will be abandoned, betrayed, mocked, suffer, die, and rise again.
1 Cor 9:16-23
A sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
We have noted in this season of Epiphany that the great false religion of our day is spirituality. In fact, we could say spirituality is the heresy of all 2000 years that Christian faith has existed.
What is spirituality? Those who are spiritual are those who are dedicated, those who are devout, who are sincere, who are other worldly. Who knows what all is included?
Mark 1:21-28 (Hebrews 2:3)
A sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
This is the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany; it is also the Sunday before February 2nd, the Festival of Candlemas, which marks the presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:22-24). This is the Mass in which you start to have fewer candles because the light is coming back.
It is a good day for us to remember our Baptism and what it’s about. For those of us who come out of the great Protestant tradition there is a lot of confusion within our circles. That is to say we have a lot of misunderstandings. Some of it is simply a lack of knowledge.