St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

Our readings tonight are from Malachi and Matthew. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. Between those books, in that one blank page in between, is 400 years. Back to the beginning of creation, 6000 years ago, God spoke through prophets – the patriarchs, Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph. He spoke through Moses wh...

Disciples are asking Jesus about the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem. He tells them about this, but after this destruction in 70 AD will come the end. Here Jesus gives us the signs for us of the end of the world and His Second Coming.

Andrew is the apostle with the feast day first in the church year, because he is the first of all the apostles to be called. That first calling is not our gospel today from Matthew 4, but is mentioned in John 1. We know from John that Andrew was a disciple of the John the Baptist, and John pointed Andrew to Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Andrew then tells his brother...

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of Advent, and the first day of the church year. We go back to the beginning - but not the very beginning, but the beginning like your dad telling a story – the first really important part, the part he really wants to tell. 

There might not be many things more American than Thanksgiving. Every nation has its special days, independence days, national days, so the fourth of July really comes in second place here. Neither is a day of giving thanks to God a particularly American thing, or particularly new at all. The story we tell around Thanksgiving is so completely American. A group of pilgrims leave their land, face a...

Last week, we heard about the vision of Daniel, the beasts which are over the empires of this world, and the fact that it is the Lord, the Ancient of Days who truly rules over them. The Son of Man, our Savior Jesus Christ, is truly ruling today over heaven and earth. All dominion and pwer has been given to him, therefore we need not worry about the rulers of the world, for Jesus has the ultimate a...

You probably remember Daniel from the story of the lions’ den, maybe Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace which we heard about on Easter Vigil. This Daniel also spoke many prophecies of the times to come. He lived with the exiles of Judah in Babylon, a land that did not generally recognize God. Much like our land, it was the most powerful empire on earth and hosted people from ma...

In the lesson we heard from 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul says, we do not want you to be uninformed brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as those who have no hope. When Paul is talking about those who are asleep, he means those who have died. We know that Lorraine is not merely asleep, she has died. Nor is she is some sort of soul sleep, her soul is with Christ now. By asleep,...

You have probably heard the common sentiment that “we are all God’s children.” In a way, it is true. God is the creator of all, so we all have our life and origin in Him, and in Him alone, whether we realize it or not. This is a limited way to view us as God’s children, for it really just makes us creations of an impersonal God, an absentee father. There is so much more to the one to whom we pray,...

Happy Reformation Sunday! Today’s first lesson comes from the book of Revelation, chapter 14, where an angel is flying overhead declaring an eternal gospel to the whole world. Many Lutheran reformers interpreted this angel as Martin Luther in his rediscovery of the gospel which he proclaimed to the world. So that is the historical reason why this seemingly out of place reading is one of our lesson...

Today our worship is on the occasion of the feast of James, brother of Jesus. There are many Jameses in the New Testament, so it is necessary to clear things up a little. This is not James the Greater, the brother of John and son of Zebedee, one of the three core disciples. Nor are we speaking about James the son of Alphaeus, who is another one of the twelve disciples, but less-known. The James we...

Jesus is teaching in the temple and the Pharisees have converged on him like vultures looking for the kill. The Sadducees have already come up and tried to beat Jesus, but were soundly defeated. The Sadducees were the main power group in Jerusalem, many of them priests, and though they were part of the Jewish people they were very critical of scripture and didn’t believe in the resurrection. They...

THE CHRISTIAN LIVES IN HOPE OF THE PROMISE THAT THE EXALTED WILL BE HUMBLED AND THE HUMBLE WILL BE EXALTED

Jesus tells us in the gospel lesson today, “Do not worry.” If you notice, there is no threat of punishment here for worrying. Worry is the punishment in itself. Jesus is showing us that life in Him grants a relief from worry. Whatever worry Christians have is not due to the new life we have received in baptism. It is holding on to that secondary trust – it is putting something else above God that...

One the way to Jerusalem, Jesus is passing between Samaria and Galilee, the land of the Samaritans and a land of mostly Jews. Into his way come ten lepers, calling out to him to have mercy on them. So we have these desperate men who find that the way they were going did not work, they have come into the way which Jesus walks. They see and know that it is the only way of life, and this is what heal...

Guest sermon by Rev. Dan Gensch

Jesus has come into this region and we know from Matthew that all the crowds are gathering around to have people healed. Here we also see there is a crowd, that the benefits of Jesus are for all, for the whole world. Here, more importantly, Jesus takes the deaf man aside, privately by himself. Jesus does not work automatically or in a general way, he is a person and not only cares for the whole wo...

Jesus’ friend and cousin, John the Baptist, was put in prison for a long time. King Herod put John there for no good reason – his wife was mad that John’s preaching had called her and her husband out on their sinful relationship. John was a preacher well-liked by many and was willing to speak truth to power. This put him into prison. So he sent messengers to Jesus, asking if he really was the Mess...

Jesus presents the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector and it is not difficult to understand. The reason for the parable gives the explanation – there are those like the pharisee, who trust in their own righteousness and disregard others, and these will not be justified. They will not be declared righteous by God. Only those like the tax collector who humble themselves before God will be...

Guest sermon by Rev. Daniel Gensch

We are very concerned about things regarding our physical health. We have heard a lot in the last couple years about public health. How do we look at our spiritual health? What are we being fed? If our spiritual health is kept up by Christ, by the Word of God preached and the sacraments, then false teaching, a false word, is the most deadly poison. Jesus tells us to beware of false teachers, that...

The eyes of all look to you, O Lord, and you give them your food in due season. You open your hand you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:15-16 Martin Luther begins his table prayer from Psalm 145 with this promise. Those things which we need to fulfill our desires both physical and spiritual come from the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian knows and expects Christ to p...

Jesus says “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” We want to enter the kingdom of heaven, to be a part of what Jesus is doing, his reign in the world. How do we exceed the the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Is it quantity? Is it quality?

The amazing thing is that Simon, James, and John do it. To all appearances, Jesus is just a man, a teacher, with no particular fishing insight. Yet knowing that He is divine, or maybe just understanding the power of God is with him at least – they heed his word, even when reason and experience tell them this would make absolutely no difference. This is true faith – to see everything which would sp...

These words Jesus is saying right after he has called the disciples in Luke. Jesus lifts his eyes upon the disciples and says these things. This is central to being a disciple, being one of those blessed in the beatitudes. It is not just tangential to the life of the Christ to not judge, not condemn, to forgive.