By David R. Maxwell God Has Glorified His Servant Jesus This pericope recounts Peter’s speech to the crowds after he heals a lame beggar. There are at least two “big picture” questions the preacher needs to wrestle with in order to preach on this text. First, what are we to infer from the miracle? Unlike ..
By Erik Herrmann My children love to listen to the songs of Justin Roberts (a virtual “rock star” of the kid music world)—years of minivan rides have engraved most of the lyrics onto my brain. One of his songs is based on the story of the “Three Little Pigs.” Actually, it is sort of a ..
By Richard H. Warneck Easter on the Mountain of the Lord Easter! Begins at graveside. Mary and Mary Magdalene and Joanna to a burial plot. Heavy hearts, heavy steps. We know—death, burial—we have been there. Easter truth—verse 6 Fearful thought on the way— the truth is we all die. Steve Jobs to biographer, Walter Isaacson—life/death—like ..
By Jeffrey A. Oschwald I began this assignment thinking, “Zechariah 9:9–12 is such a beautiful passage, but who would ever preach on it?” Palm/Passion Sunday already presents the preacher with more Gospels than one Sunday can hold; including the Processional Gospel, there are four choices for this Sunday. Moreover, my σπασμωδική αντίδραση (that’s a Greek ..
By Robert Rosin The Grace is in the Details “Have I got a deal for you.” No sooner do we hear those words than we stiffen and step back. Too good to be true? Probably. So often—too often—talk is cheap, and, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. So those who heard ..
By Paul R. Raabe Numbers 21:4–9 is the appointed Old Testament lesson for Lent 4 in series B, where it is paired with John 3:14–21 as the Gospel lesson. It is also appointed for Holy Cross Day (Sept. 14) with John 12:20–33 as the Gospel lesson. Both Gospel lessons appropriately correspond with the Numbers 21 ..
By Robert Kolb Introduction What do we do with the law of God? That is a question critical for human life since God’s law gives us his design for life. He is its creator. His design makes life work right. Because we, however, want to run our own lives, making decisions contrary to his law, ..
By Paul Devantier We have all had some strange requests during our lifetime. Many pastors tell stories of someone in their life who once said to them, “You should consider becoming a pastor.” And at the time, they may have thought the suggestion made no sense at all. And everyone can tell a story of ..
By Robert W Weise From the Impossible to the Possible of God’s Grace Introduction We live in a world that continues to place personal wealth and individualism over and against the word of God and a life a dependent on Christ. Satan tempts us to believe that you can serve two masters: worldly wealth and ..
By Dale Meyer W.I.I.F.M.? That’s the question we always asked when we were preparing scripts for Lutheran Hour Ministries’ TV show, “On Main Street.” What’s in it for me? What’s in this program for the viewer—or in crafting a sermon, what’s in it for the hearer? The question isn’t intended to cater to the selfishness of ..
By Victor Raj “Bending the Rules” The question of divorce is what first meets the eye as one reads this text. To be sure, the OT reading for this day, Genesis 2:18-25, attests to it. The epistle lesson, Hebrews 2:13, however, adds a new perspective to our text. There it clearly states that disobedience of ..
By Kyle Castens “Whose Side, Anyway?” Charles simply figured there must be something wrong with his baseball glove. That was the fifth pop-fly in a row that fell straight out of the sky, right into the pocket of his mitt, and sprang out almost as high, landing on the green summer turf. It was a ..
By David Schmitt Literary and Liturgical Setting Our reading is the second of three passion predictions in Mark. In the literary context of Mark, these three passion predictions are held together. First, they span the period between the Galilean ministry of Jesus (1:14-8:30) and his Passion (11:1-15:47), between the revelation of who Jesus is and ..
By Joel Okamoto Notes on the text 1. For the context, see Propers 13 and 14. 2. At this point Jesus provokes a fresh concern among the people. We might say that their concern shifts from the person of Jesus to his flesh. When Jesus first declares himself the bread of life that came down ..
By Joel Okamoto Notes on the text 1. This passage is an excerpt from Christ’s “Bread of Life” discourse, and forms the middle section of a three-lesson series taken from this same chapter. This pericope’s exchange occurred after Jesus fed the 5,000 (w. 1-13) and after the people failed to discern the sign that he had ..
By David I. Lewis Literary Context Today’s Gospel is the first of a series of three lessons taken from the so called “Bread of Life Discourse” of John 6:22-71. Here Jesus engages in an extended dialogue first with the crowd (6:25-59) and then with his disciples (6:60-71). At several points, this dialogue shifts to monologue/short ..