Sermon for Pentecost 3

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Third Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 8C), June 30, 2019.

Is This Really What I Signed Up For?
1 Kings 19:9b-21 and Luke 9:51-62
(Other Reading Appointed: Galatians 5:1, 13-25)

Often while scrolling through Facebook, one will often find oneself looking at all of the “inspirational” or “thought-provoking” quotes that have been left there by our digital friends. Seeing that many of my friends share the same profession, or are just more “religiously minded”, the quotes I get to read often revolve around things of faith. And I have to admit that sometimes a quote gets put into my mental file, because I think, “That might just be able to find its way into a sermon.”

Reflecting on today’s readings from the Old Testament and Gospel, I was reminded of one such quote which seems to connect to the feelings that some might have as we hear these words from the Scriptures. C.S. Lewis is perhaps one of the most famous Christian writers and apologists of the 20th Century. Once an atheist, he came to faith, and his writings show how his journey from unbelief to belief was very rational and thought-filled, and not just some reaction to events which caused him to become a Christian.

Read Full Post »

Sermon for Pentecost 2

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Second Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 7C), June 23, 2019.

Off the Chain
Luke 8:26-39
(Other Readings Appointed: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23—4:7)

Have you ever noticed the difference between a dog who is on a leash or chained up in a yard and the dog who is able to run around freely? The dog who is say on a walk will always want to go where it wants to go and make that known to its owner by pulling and tugging on the leash with a bit of loud barking that seems to say, “No, I don’t care where you want to go; I want to go this way!” Or then, you have those sad looking dogs, chained up in a yard, laying around with almost resigned looks that seem to say, “I wish that I could go and run around somewhere.” And then, you go by your local dog park, watching the dogs freely running around, and you almost picture them running in slow motion, hearing music, and if they could sing, they might be singing, “Born free.” Clearly, seeing such things, we know that dogs are born to run, and to be “off the chain” is certainly for them a good thing.

These thoughts came to mind as I was reflecting on how I might preach on today’s Gospel. We heard again of Jesus’ healing, or perhaps more appropriately, exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac. There are many things which can grab our attention in this account for which we would like to have questions answered so that we can understand both what is going on here and what it all means. There are the questions around how many demons were possessing this poor man so that they felt that they should collectively call themselves “Legion”—a Roman designation for a military unit of three to six thousand men. Then there is the spectacle of seeing these demons begging Jesus not to be sent back to “the abyss”—their proper and rightful place—but instead to be allowed to “possess” a nearby herd of pigs which they then entered and caused to run to their deaths by drowning in the lake. And then there is the response of the locals who either witnessed this event or heard of it, that they “were seized with great fear” and because of that fear asked Jesus to leave them and that place, seemingly fearing Jesus more than these demons who had possessed this man who had now been set free.

Read Full Post »

Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the First Sunday after Pentecost and the Congregation’s Festival of Title, June 16, 2019.

From Eternity—God
Readings Appointed
(Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Acts 2:14a, 22-36; John 8:48-59)

As today we bring to a close the “festival half” and begin the “non-festival half” of the Church Year, the Church bridges these two parts of our calendar with this Feast Day held in honor of the Holy Trinity. It can be said that of all of the celebrations which the Church keeps, this Feast is the only one of the entire year that is dedicated, not to a person or an event, but to a doctrine. And it is this doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is perhaps rightly said to be the greatest mystery of our faith, especially as we confessed today through the Athanasian Creed: “[T]hat we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.”

Yes, this Trinity—that we believe in and worship one God in three Persons and three Persons in one God—is pretty much a mystery which seems to defy logic, math, and to some even reason. Yet for us, our belief in this God is both an article and an act of faith which adoringly receives and adores this unexplainable mystery as true and holds on to it as the foundation of our life and relationship with this God we worship and follow. So the Church continues and defends her confession: “[T]hat there is one divine essence which is named God and truly is God. But there are three persons in the same one essence, equally powerful, equally eternal: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All these are one divine essence, eternal, undivided, unending, of immeasurable power, wisdom, and goodness, the creator and preserver of all visible and invisible things.” So states the first article of our Lutheran Augsburg Confession.

Read Full Post »

Sermon for The Day of Pentecost

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Day of Pentecost, June 9, 2019.

Speaking the Language of the Spirit
Acts 2:1-21
(Other Readings Appointed: Genesis 11:1-9; John 14:23-31)

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful people,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
Through the diversity of tongues You gathered together the nations
in the unity of the faith. Alleluia, Alleluia!

It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the celebration of Pentecost has its own degree of excitement connected with it. And this is the case because of the excitement which filled that first Christian Day of Pentecost when the Lord God poured out on the disciples of the Lord Jesus the gift and power of the Holy Spirit, which was wonderfully revealed in the signs of wind and fire and speaking in tongues. Even now, as we hear of these great and wonderful events, and of the results that came through them—namely the birth of the Christian Church itself and the beginnings of its exponential growth and expansion, which is related to us in the Acts of the Apostles—it is no wonder that there are some who long for and desire to see God bring about and work another “Day of Pentecost” in the midst of His people in our own day. And what is often behind such a desire is that we would like to have some of that “excitement” again, to feel the very presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst and to know that He is empowering us to be Christ’s Church and to be about His work that we have been commissioned by Him to do.

While I am all for feeling the excitement and power of the Spirit to be at work among the Lord’s people, and must even admit that sometimes I too wonder whether it might just be a good thing for the Lord to work again a “new Pentecost”, it has to be asked, Why do we want to see something similar to what happened on that first Pentecost today? Perhaps it is because we seem to be attracted to the sights and sounds and powerful witness of that day. Yet, while we get caught up in the excitement of what happened, what may sometimes get lost is seeing what the Lord was accomplishing on that day through means which still are available to us today.

Read Full Post »

Sermon for The Ascension of Our Lord

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, Observed, The Seventh Sunday of Easter, June 2, 2019.

Going or Coming?
Acts 1:1-11
(Other Readings Appointed: Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53)

We all know of those moments within the hectic pace of our daily life and living when it just feels that we are just “running in circles”. And with all of our keeping such a frantic pace where we often wonder where we are, where we’re going, and maybe even at times even needing to remind ourselves who we even are, we sometimes just throw up our hands in near bewilderment, having to ask—“Am I coming or going?”

On the 40th day of Easter—or in our case, the 43rd—the Church celebrates the joyous Feast of Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven. It is indeed a joyous moment as we recall that with His work of salvation complete, Jesus now returns to heaven and to the right hand of God the Father, where He now “lives and reigns to all eternity.” Yet, it is sometimes seen as a “bittersweet” moment as well. Even as we rejoice that Jesus ascends to heaven so that He might reign there forever as our Lord and King, we also are faced with the reality which must have faced the disciples as they watched Him pass through the clouds that finally “hid Him from their sight.” And that reality was that Jesus was gone. No longer would they hear his voice. No longer would they break bread with Him. No longer would they be able to see or to touch Him. No, He is not here, but just somewhere, “up there.”

Read Full Post »