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“Wisdom for Your Walk” (Proverbs 9:1-10; Ephesians 5:6-21; John 6:51-69)If I had to sum up a theme running through our lessons for today, and one that will be helpful for you, it is that here you will find “Wisdom for Your Walk.” You see, the Old Testament lesson from Proverbs is the call of wisdom to walk in the way of insight. The Epistle reading from Ephesians calls us to walk as children of the light and to look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise. And in the Holy Gospel for today, from John 6, we...

“Receiving God’s Gifts: Grumbling or Grateful?” (Exodus 16:2-15; John 6:22-35; Ephesians 4:1-16)There is a theme that runs through all three of our lessons today. Did you spot it? It is the theme of God’s gifts. In the reading from Exodus, in the reading from Ephesians, and in the reading from John--in each of those readings, God is busy giving gifts to his people. Our God is a gracious and giving God, there is no doubt about that. But how God’s people receive his gifts--how we receive the gifts God gives to us--now that can be quite another question. Do we...

“God’s Building Project” (Ephesians 2:11-22) “Built on the Rock the Church shall stand.” “Christ is our cornerstone.” “The Church’s one foundation.” These hymns that we’re singing this morning--they’re all drawing on the imagery of our text today, the Epistle reading from Ephesians 2, specifically, from verses 19-22: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in...

“Blessings in Christ: Past, Present, and Future” (Ephesians 1:3-14)Today is the beginning of eight straight weeks in which the Epistle reading is a portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. And at the same time, as soon as we wrap up our study of Mark, I plan to start Ephesians for our Bible class on Sunday mornings. So I encourage you to read through this wonderful epistle, perhaps even a couple of times, over these coming weeks. If I had to choose my favorite epistle in the New Testament, I just might pick Ephesians. There is so much here,...

“The Past, Present, and Future of the Ascension” (Luke 24:44-53; Ephesians 1:15-23; Acts 1:1-11)“He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.” That’s what we just confessed about our Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it? This portion of the Apostles’ Creed captures what this day, Ascension Day, is all about. These three things: He ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will come again. A past act. A present reality. And a future hope. And all...

“By Grace You Have Been Saved” (Ephesians 2:1-10) Our Epistle reading for today is one of the outstanding passages in all of Scripture for putting together in one package several important realities. And they are: man’s natural condition; God’s great love and kindness in saving us; how that salvation comes to us as a gift; and then the result of what God has done for us in how we lead our lives. And there’s a key phrase that is repeated in this passage and that sums all this up, and it will serve as our theme this morning: “By Grace...

On Monday, Michael Eric Dyson appeared on The ED Show on MSNBC, this time hosted by Joy Reid. He was introduced as someone knowledgeable in American history and Biblical theology. Dyson, a professor at Georgetown, then insinuated that the Bible's teaching regarding loving Jesus is “interestingly homoerotic.” Dyson said: Look through the Bible, there's a lot of interesting things. The same men who sat up in a church of all men -- 'I put my God, Jesus over all women, I love Him more than I love her!' -- Hmmm... do you really? That sounds interestingly homoerotic to people who...

“Singing and Making Melody to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18b-20)For our sermon text today I’m using a portion of one of next week’s readings, actually. But since I won’t be here next week, and the reading has what I want to preach on today, and it flows right of this week’s reading from Ephesians, I’ll exercise a little liberty now and use part of next week’s Epistle for our text today. It’s printed there in your bulletin, Ephesians 5:18b-20, as follows: “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to...

“Rooted and Grounded in Love” (Ephesians 3:14-21)On this day when we have the confirmation of our two adult catechumens, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of us of how we have been “Rooted and Grounded in Love.” “Rooted and grounded in love.” This phrase comes to us from our Epistle lesson for today, from Ephesians chapter 3. It describes what it true for all of us who have been baptized into Christ and instructed in the Christian faith. We are rooted and grounded in love, God’s great love for us in Christ, that “love divine, all loves...

"Whatever the case, Bachmann's answer in Ames Thursday night was by far the most human moment of her appearance in the debate -- a far cry from her tough exchanges with former Minnesota Gov. (and now former candidate) Tim Pawlenty. At their best, debates tell us new things about candidates and allow us to learn more about aspects of their personalities we haven't seen before. Is there any doubt that moment in Ames on Thursday night did just that for Michele Bachmann?"

“Adopted as Sons” (Ephesians 1:3-14)It is a terrible thing to be rootless, family-less, fatherless, not having a father. I can tell you from personal experience. My father died when I was one year old, and I can tell you that growing up without a father was no fun. All the other kids had dads; why didn’t I? There was this big gap in my life. This state of fatherlessness always weighed on my mind, and I’m pretty sure it held me back in life. On the other hand, one of the greatest joys I’ve had in life is being a...

Not so long ago, I noticed something very strange. Each day about the same time, I would start to get a feeling of fear. I would begin to worry and no matter how good of a day I was having, I would find myself feeling down until the feeling finally passed. Sometimes it passed quickly; sometimes it went on for the remainder of the day or night. The only way I can describe it is that it felt as though chains were being wrapped around my chest and slowly tightened. The fear and worry I was experiencing was not allowing...

In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory. (1:13-14) For a moment, paint the picture in your mind of Golgotha's hill. Our Blessed Lord and the two criminals hung for hours on their respective crosses, ravaged by thirst, and mocked by the mob. And for hours, the two watched the One in the middle. Nothing escaped their notice. They heard His...

“Prepare for Battle!” (Ephesians 6:10-20)Today I get to speak to the troops in the midst of a battle. And guess what? You are the troops, and the battle is on! The battle is raging, and there are no deferments, there is no going AWOL, if you are a Christian. No, you are in the battle, automatically, and it is a fight to the finish, a life-or-death conflict. So the wise thing now is to heed the cry, “Prepare for Battle!” Today as we wrap up our eight-part series on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, our text is the famous...

“God’s Good Order of--and in--Marriage” (Ephesians 5:22-33)You know, it’s really kind of stupid when we think we know better than our Creator. I mean, think about it: Doesn’t it make sense that the God who created us would know what is best for us? Yet somehow we think we’re smarter than he is. Pretty stupid, really. That’s the case with a lot of things in life, but especially do we direct our attention today to the matter of marriage. In the face of a world that has lost its mind and thrown marriage to the winds, and has even spread...

“Walk as Children of Light” (Ephesians 5:6-21)Now that we are Christians, how shall we live? That, in summary, is the question St. Paul addresses in the second half of his Letter to the Ephesians. What difference does being a Christian make in the way we live our lives? In our text last week, Paul put it in terms of putting off your old self--what not to wear--and putting on the new self, the new you, created in Christ Jesus. In today’s text, Paul continues this general theme, but he changes the imagery. Instead of using the image of taking off...

“What Not to Wear” (Ephesians 4:17 - 5:2)One of my daughter’s favorite TV shows is a program called “What Not to Wear.” On this show the hosts take a woman whose clothes do not flatter her looks (let’s put it that way), and they get her to radically reevaluate her wardrobe. They tell her, “What you’ve been wearing--this is what not to wear!” Sometimes it takes a little convincing to get her to see that. When they finally do, though, the woman usually goes along with them in throwing out pretty much all of her wardrobe. Then the hosts guide...

“Unity and Growth, through Unified Doctrine and Practice” (Ephesians 4:1-16)Today in our series on Ephesians we move into the second half of the epistle. In the first half of this letter, St. Paul has laid down the foundation of our life in Christ, that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, according to the riches of his grace. Now in the second half of the letter, Paul moves into the practical implications of this for our life together as church and our life as individual Christians. Our text today emphasizes the churchly dimension of our life together,...

“Paul’s Prayer: The Reason, the Request, and the Results” (Ephesians 3:14-21)Today we continue with the third in a series of eight straight sermons on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. We began in chapter 1 with “The Big Picture,” God’s grand plan and purpose for the ages, and that within that plan we are “Chosen by God, Redeemed in Christ, and Sealed with the Spirit.” Then last week, in chapter 2, we saw St. Paul paint a vivid contrast before our eyes, the contrast between “The Way We Were,” our sad state before Christ, and “The Way We Are,” our...

“The Way We Were and the Way We Are” (Ephesians 2:11-22)Last week we began a series of eight straight Sundays in which the Epistle reading comes from Ephesians. Last week it was Ephesians 1; today it is Ephesians 2. But notice, our reading today is the second half of that chapter, verses 11-22. What happened to verses 1-10? After all, Ephesians 2:1-10 is probably the most familiar section of the whole epistle. It’s the part that repeats the famous phrase, “by grace you have been saved,” and so on. That whole section sets up a tremendous contrast between the way...