While Lent focuses on Christ’s suffering and upcoming death, this week’s readings turn to the resurrection and life. Ezekiel takes us to the valley of the dry bones, and we hear the promise, “You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves” (Ezek 37:13). The Romans 8 reading finishes with the promise “He…
In the season of Lent, we follow Jesus, moving ever closer to His Passion and cross. By listening to His Word and receiving the Sacrament of His body and blood, we learn to see Him rightly: as not merely a good man, not only a prophet and miracle-worker, not even simply God, but the God who is a man and was crucified…
Exodus 17 finds Israel on their journey from the Red Sea, where the Lord triumphed over the Egyptian host, to Mount Sinai, where the Lord will show His glory and give His Law. Israel has been redeemed by the blood of the Passover Lamb, washed and claimed in the waters of the Red Sea, and soon they will be brought into a…
As we gather for worship we will to study and proclaim the magnificent truth that God’s love for the world counts us righteous through faith (believing in His only-begotten Son)—the ancient promise to Abraham, articulated by Paul, and the only way of salvation for us. “My help comes from the Lord” (Psalm 121:2), not by any of my own works of the…
The First Sunday in Lent appropriately begins with the reason for penitence: the fall (Old Testament Reading). Then the Psalm declares the blessedness of acknowledging our own sin. The Gospel narrates the primary focus of this day, the active obedience of Christ. The Epistle, our preaching text, explains the theological significance of all this by comparing and contrasting Adam with Christ. We…
Transfiguration Sunday bookends Epiphany, from the Baptism of Christ, when the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17), to “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him” (Mt 17:5), which we now hear. It is a time of joy and revelation of Christ before the more somber season…
This year, Epiphany 5 is the Sunday before Transfiguration, the last Sunday before Lent. In the Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples “the light of the world” (Mt 5:14). But their light can only shine if their outward religious life is matched by an inward life of faith. Therefore, Jesus pierces through the veil of hypocrisy that many of the Pharisees had put…
As we gather today on this Lutheran Schools Sunday, we celebrate the blessings of our Lutheran Schools; for our students and families past, present and future. We celebrate all our teachers who have served and are serving the students of our God-given school! Link to Service video on Vimeo Link to service bulletin
This is the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, the season of the church year during which Christ is revealed as Savior of all. The hope expressed through Isaiah begins to be expressed in the work and ministry of Jesus as He proclaims the coming of the kingdom and reigning of God. He does this by calling the disciples to service as fishers…
Paul begins this letter not by discounting the gifts of God but by reminding the Corinthians who they are: saints called by God into the fellowship of His church. Link to Service video on Vimeo Link to service bulletin