Sermon for Lent 1

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the First Sunday in Lent, February 26, 2023. This was the second sermon in the Lenten Sermon Series, “Chronicles of God’s Amazing Grace”, inspired by the 250th Anniversary of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”.

Adam & Eve: Grace for Those Ashamed
Genesis 3:1-21
(Other Readings Appointed: Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11)

On this First Sunday in Lent, we find ourselves fairly firmly entrenched into these days set aside for us to be in penitential reflection on ourselves and our life and living.  And the key word here is “penitential”—discovering and confessing the sin that is so much a part of our lives, either through temptation or through our own “litany of errors”: sins of thought, word, and deed, of things done or left undone.  And to aid us in this reflection, the Church sets before us the Scriptures we have heard today which speak volumes about not only temptation and sin, but also of God’s response to it, namely grace.

As we meditate on sin, we have to ask, “Why are we sinners?”  Certainly, we know that we are sinners because we are people who sin.  But there is more to it than that.  Today’s reading from Genesis takes us to “the beginning” of what is not only the story of our First Parents, Adam and Eve, but what is also our story.  What happened on that fateful day in Eden happened not only to them; its effects have carried on down to us, and are the reason why we must always sadly confess not only our own sins but also their cause: that because of that original sin we are “by nature sinful and unclean.”

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Sermon for Ash Wednesday

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on Ash Wednesday: the First Day of Lent, February 22, 2023. This was the first sermon in the Lenten Sermon Series, “Chronicles of God’s Amazing Grace”, inspired by the 250th Anniversary of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”.

David: Grace for the Humbled
Psalm 51
(Other Readings Appointed: Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)

Many of us know and love the words of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”.  And while we may know that it is an “old hymn”, we may not have known that it is 250 years old this year, and some of us might not know of the story behind these words that fill us with a sense of peace that we all have in being recipients of our God’s great, abundant, and generous grace.  Along with the hymn’s author—John Newton, former dissolute slave ship captain turned convert to the Christian faith and Anglican priest—many who have sung these words have found the story of their own walk with God expressed for them as well.

What is interesting though about this hymn is actually something which I guess I myself had never before thought of or considered.  The words are indeed a moving picture of the work of God’s grace in the life of the one who penned them, but they also never once speak of the Source of this grace—the salvation won for sinners by the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Perhaps it is for this reason that some in the history of the singing of what one author has called “America’s most beloved song” have never really seen it as a “religious” or even “Christian” song, but rather a song telling of personal renewal, change, and perhaps even redemption.

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Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord: The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, February 19, 2023.

The Word Made Sure
2 Peter 1:16-21
(Other Readings Appointed: Exodus 24:8-18; Matthew 17:1-9)

With today’s feast of Our Lord’s Transfiguration, we bring to an end both the Epiphany Season and this part of the Church Year known as “the Time of Christmas”.  So perhaps it is not then strange that the words of a Christmas hymn came to my mind as I thought on today’s Scripture readings.  And what came to mind was the question that is asked by the hymn, “Now Sing We, Now Rejoice”, where as we think upon the events of our Lord Jesus’ birth, we also begin to wonder and ask: “Oh, that we were there!”

Honestly, this is perhaps a question that we might not ask only about the events of our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem, but also of every other event of our Lord’s life which we reflect upon in the Gospels.  Certainly hearing of what our Lord Jesus accomplished for us in His life, death, and resurrection is what both brought us to faith and what also continues to keep and sustain that faith within each of us.  And yet, what would many of us give if we could somehow go back in time and see all of these things take place?  Wouldn’t that be grand indeed?

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Sermon for Epiphany 6

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 12, 2023.

A Hard Mirror to Look At
Matthew 5:21-37
(Other Readings Appointed: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9)

After hearing our Lord Jesus’ speaking to us in the words of today’s Gospel, in my own mind and possibly yours came a need for a little bit of a Catechism review.  But the review that I was thinking of was not so much a review of the Commandments, but rather to remember what was taught to us about the purposes and uses of the Law that God gave to us.  And from our days of Confirmation instruction, we should remember that the Law has three uses which were simply summarized for us in this way: the Law is a curb, a mirror, and a rule or guide.  As a curb, God’s Law is applied equally to everyone in the world, believer and unbeliever alike, showing us in a most basic way how we should and can live in peace together.  And as a rule or guide, God’s Law is used by believers to learn the answer to that often asked question: “How then shall we live?”

But it is this “second use of the Law”—the Law as a mirror—which Jesus’ words to us today cause us to—pun intended—reflect upon.  What does God’s Law show to us?  What does it tell us about both who we are and what we do?  And what should it be moving us to do?

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Sermon for Epiphany 5

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 5, 2023. It was also proclaimed later that day, slightly revised, at Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Landover Hills, MD, as Pastor Schiebel preached and celebrated the Eucharist during a visitation to the congregation.

God’s Great Surprise
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
(Other Readings Appointed: Isaiah 58:3-9a; Matthew 5:13-20)

The Hymn of the Day (“Thy Strong Word”, LSB # 578) that we just sung is certainly among one of my all-time favorite hymns, and yes that list is also a long one.  Even though it was originally written as a hymn for our synod’s “other seminary” in Saint Louis, this Fort Wayne graduate has always liked it for its great “sung theology”, and for the wonderful Welsh tune that carries the text.  And for this Epiphany Season Sunday especially, its words about light and how that light shows us the “wisdom of God” through the cross of Jesus Christ is very reflective of the Scriptures we have heard today.

It is this idea of the “wisdom of God” which Saint Paul speaks of in this morning’s Epistle which made me reflect on the words of another hymn which we also could have sung today.  “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform” (LSB 765:1).  God and His wisdom are presented to us in Paul’s words as something which are mysterious in that they cannot be understood by “the world”.  And what we discover is that God, His purposes, and His will are truly surprising, even to us who have faith in Him, because we also have the tendency to seek to understand “what in the world God is doing” from our own human perspective, rather than through eyes and minds which are enlightened by Him.

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