Grace Lutheran Church and School

Prepare for Delay

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 09:58:54 -0600

Sermon text: Mathew 25: 1-13
As the church year winds down the readings grow as ominous as the latest economic news. The economy, in fact, figured into Amos's dire warning. God was weary with the fixed scales and fine print the "haves" used to fleece the "have nots." They looked forward to the day of the Lord when God will set everything right. "But for you," Amos warns, "It is darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it."   The second reading is perhaps the earliest of all the writings in the New Testament. The people were anticipating Christ's second coming but worried about those who died before Christ's return. Paul writes to assure them that those who died in the faith will be taken with Christ to heaven.  The gospel parable ends with five bridesmaids, standing in the dark, locked out of the wedding, and begging to be let in. Jesus, the bridegroom, peers out and says, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you." The moral of the story is, like the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared. They were prepared for their Lord's advent. What they were not prepared for was his delay. How do we live prepared for that?

Your Net Worth Just Changed

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:54:34 -0500

Sermon text: Romans 3: 22-23
Each Scripture reading today offers a phrase of great promise, well worth taking home and putting to use during the week:
From Jeremiah 31: ‘a new covenant written on your heart"
From Romans 3: "justified by grace - as a gift"
John 8: "the truth will make you free"
And while you're at it, why not take home as well this phrase from today's Psalm 46:  “Be still, and know that I am God."
You could not be better supplied for whatever comes this week.

Rendering Unto Caesar

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:46:19 -0500

Sermon text: Matthew 22:15-22
God's anointed one is God's messiah. How startling it was for the prophet to give the title to Cyrus, the Persian king, who did not know or believe in the God of Israel. Nevertheless, Cyrus was God's king through whom God will rule. Cyrus thought he was king of king. The Psalmist proclaims, "Tell it out among the nations: The Lord is king!"  The Christians of Thessalonica had to figure out what it meant for them to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." What do Christians do when Caesar wants not only our taxes but our worship?

Called to Joy

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:11:11 -0500

Sermon text: Matthew 22:1-14
"Being sad in Jesus' presence is an existential impossibility," observes the theologian Edward Schillebeeck. Unlike John's disciples and the Pharisees, the disciples of Jesus did not fast, for how "can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?" The living presence of Jesus awakens gladness and sets disciples free. The parable of the wedding feast is an invitation to joy. Many called to this feast may decline, for to abandon one's self to joy is to trust in the great mystery of Christendom: that God, for no apparent reason other than love, is waiting for us at the entrance to the feast to escort us into the bright light of the hall. To abandon our selves to joy, as we walk toward the altar, is to leave behind, trailing as mud from our boots, the loss, the regret, the habits, and the secret agonies that keep us enmeshed in the mundane.   In worship, the real presence of Jesus calls us to joy. Step into the wedding garment held out by the host of hosts.

Love for Mission's Sake

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 13:26:53 -0500

Sermon text: Matthew 21:33-46
A vineyard plays a central role in three of the four Scripture texts for this Sunday. Israel is the vineyard according to Isaiah and the psalmist. In Jesus' parable the vineyard is God's kingdom. Jesus' story was a thinly veiled criticism of the leaders of the people. God will take the vineyard away from them and "give it to a people that produces the fruits thereof." According to Isaiah and the psalmist, God planted choice vines and carefully tended the vineyard. The prophet says it yielded worthless, wild grapes. God will abandon it, he warns.  Jesus Christ is the hope for abandoned vineyards. He is the true vine, planted in the earth that was his grave. A new creation came forth in his resurrection. By faith we are grafted into him. We draw on his life's blood to produce the fruit of the new creation.