Sermon for Pentecost 4

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 7A), June 25, 2023

You Got to Serve Somebody
Romans 6:12-23
(Other Readings Appointed: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Matthew 10:5a, 21-33)

When one reads through Paul’s Letter to the Romans, there are several chapters which believers gravitate towards because of the Apostle’s sublime teachings that confirm our faith and encourage us to live out our lives according to it.  And one case in point is this sixth chapter of Romans, as Paul both asks and answers two profound questions about us and our lives of faith, namely, “Who are we?” and “Whose are we?”

In the opening verses of this chapter, which we did not hear today as they were appointed earlier in the Church Year to be used on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, Paul teaches us that these two questions are linked to what Baptism is and does in the lives of those who are brought to a life of believing in Christ.  Baptism takes those who go through it from being lost and condemned sinners to being new creatures whose lives have been redeemed and now lived in, with, and through Jesus Christ in whose death and resurrection they have now shared in those Baptismal Waters.  And this then leads us to know that since this is who Baptism has made us, we also come to know that through Baptism we are a people whose lives no longer simply belong to ourselves alone, but that as we live out our lives in Christ, we belong to the God who has both created and redeemed us to be His very own for both time and eternity.

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Sermon for Pentecost 3

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Third Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 6A), June 18, 2023.

How Much More
Romans 5:6-15
(Other Readings Appointed: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Matthew 9:35—10:20)

It’s a little hard at times for me to believe how quickly it seems that time has passed by when you stop to measure it.  28 years have come and gone since my final months as a Vicar at Saint Paul Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.  And today’s Epistle reading brought those days back to my memories.  Within today’s text are words which served as a motto used by the congregation: “Christ died for us”.

This motto is a pure distillation of the Gospel message, and even more so when we hear the full version of it: “But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  In many ways, a preacher could speak these words and just stop there; end of sermon.  Because how much more really needs to be said?

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Sermon for Pentecost 2

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Second Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 5A), June 11, 2023.

It’s a Matter of Trust
Romans 4:13-25
(Other Readings Appointed: Hosea 5:15-6:6; Matthew 9:9-13

As we enter the “long, green season” of our liturgical year, the Church provides us in the Lectionary readings from both the Epistles and the Gospels which are semi-continuous, allowing us the chance to hear from these writings as they are found in the Scriptures and to learn from them as more or less whole units and not just as “snippets” from here and there.  This year as I prepared for our worship and preaching in this season, I decided to follow the course of readings from Paul’s Letter to the Romans which we will be hearing together through this summer as the source for our sermon texts for the next few months.  While this will not be a “sermon series” as such, our reflecting together on these appointed readings will allow us to follow Paul’s line of thought, especially as he teaches both the teaching of our salvation by grace through faith and how this salvation we have been brought to believe in shapes our life and living as the children of God.

Because of the date of Easter this year, we are beginning our hearing of the Letter to the Romans midway into chapter four.  And as a bit of encouragement, I do invite you to read through the opening chapters of Romans as you are able, just to be able to “catch up” to where we are in Paul’s “train of thought”.  In these first three chapters, Paul introduces the major theme of the Letter, which is summarized beautifully in verse 28 of chapter 3: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”  Whether one follows the laws of nature as a Gentile, or the law of Moses as a Jew, the law and whatever obedience to the law is cannot save a person.  If anything, trying to keep these laws constantly shows us to be lawbreakers who are left without a hope for something better.  Where then are we to turn for some measure of hope and peace?  We must turn to God who extends this hope to us by believing in the salvation He has sent and given through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

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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 Congregational Festival of Title, June 4, 2023. It was also preached at Lamb of God Lutheran in Landover Hills, MD as Pastor Schiebel served them as Preacher and Celebrant during their worship on this day.

How Are You Named?
Matthew 28:16-20
(Other Readings Appointed: Genesis 1:1—2:4a; Acts 2:14a, 22-36)

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Trinity.  Of all of the celebrations in our Christian Church Year, it is unique in that rather than recalling an event in the life of our Lord Jesus or of His saints, it calls us to reflect upon what many might call a doctrine of the faith.  And this is perhaps what makes preaching on this day a little more challenging.  Unless you are a Pastor or a student in the seminary, hearing and learning about what is a rather nuanced doctrine which even our language and understanding fails to grasp, is not something which is overly “exciting”.  No matter how hard we try to express what we know about the Holy Trinity, we are still left with the realization that trying to fully understand the Triune God is ultimately an inexpressible Mystery.

While it is often pointed out correctly by some that the word “Trinity” is not to be found in the pages of Scripture; it cannot be said though that the Trinity is not taught and confessed by the words we have received in Holy Scripture.  Today’s readings point us to this truth, both in what we have heard and in what we know from the rest of the Word of God.  In the creation of the visible world, we see the whole of the Godhead at work.  God the Holy Spirit is present hovering over the watery chaos out of which God the Father speaks the creation into existence through His word: “Let there be”.  And Saint John in the beginning of his Gospel, reminds us that this word spoken by God is none other than His Son, the Word, the One through whom the creation was made.  Then in the reading from Acts recounting the Apostle Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, we learn again how the Holy Trinity worked together in bringing about our redemption and salvation—that God the Son was crucified for our sins, raised to life again by God the Father, and through the message of the Gospel inspired by God the Holy Spirit, those who believe receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

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