St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

Guest sermon by Rev. Jim Kress, Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Englewood, Florida.

In Proverbs, King Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman who has prepared a great banquet. She has set out a feast for honored guests, but it is not an exclusive party. She in fact calls out to all people to come to her feast, even the gullible and the senseless. The fine things which she has to offer are for those who need it most. Wisdom here is a personification of God, in the same way that the...

Our gospel lesson today presents a rich man, but the Old Testament reading also has a rich man, Abraham. These two men could not be more different. Abraham, though wealthy, lives by faith in God. The rich man in Jesus’ story does not. While Jesus’ story contrasts the rich and poor man, we can see with comparison to Abraham that it is not wealth, but faith, that makes the difference in salvation.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! That’s how St. Peter begins his epistle reading for us today. Here we remember Marlene and what Christ has done for her, and for that we bless God for what he has done. I will tell you, I did not know Marlene well, though we have met. Yet what is important is that all who trust in Christ will see Marlene again in the resurrection of the livin...

The Feast of the Holy Trinity is a day where we commemorate a doctrine of the faith, theology. Maybe theology sounds a little intimidating to you. Theology is not for big brains in academia. Real Christian theology is found in the church. It is for you to know and to cherish. Don’t let others take theology away from you.

Pentecost means fifty, an Old Testament harvest feast that occurred fifty days after the Passover, also the Feast of Weeks, for it is a week of weeks, seven weeks. Luke begins the account in Acts with “when the day of Pentecost arrived,” as in this translation, but more literally, “In the day of the fulfillment of Pentecost.” Often the way a day comes in Greek and Hebrew is literally understood as...

Jesus says, “Truly truly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you…Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” What does it mean to ask the Father in Jesus’ name? You have probably prayed many times in Jesus’ name. It’s not just a thing we make sure to say. We can pray to the Father without saying in Jesus name. Even the Lord’s prayer does not include t...

Jesus compares his death and resurrection for you to the necessary and difficult work of becoming a mother. When a woman is pregnant, especially for the first time, she knows and hopes for the future child, but does not completely understand what having the child will be like. She sees the effect on herself in bearing the child, but will not fully see the child until he is born. Then when the time...

Sometimes the common description of Jesus as our Good Shepherd is more sentimental than it needs to be. Maybe this is because outside of rural communities we are more familiar with animals as beloved pets than anything else, and so when we think of Jesus as our shepherd, we see him doting on us as a beloved dog or cat. Certainly Jesus does speak of caring for the sheep, seeking and saving the lost...

Truly today we continue to celebrate that Christ is risen from the dead. Our Lord has died and risen again for our salvation. Not only have our sins been taken away on the cross, but our Lord has sealed our salvation by rising from the dead, so we too, believing in Him, will rise. Certainly the Sunday of Easter is a great celebration of our Lord’s victory, and many were here to celebrate. But you...

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! It is amazing how everyone in the gospel accounts of the resurrection seems completely floored that Jesus actually rose from the dead. They heard his promise many times, he openly told them in three days he would rise, and still when he actually does it they are filled with fear and wonder. Maybe they weren’t sure what to believe. The three women come to the tomb to anoi...

Sermon for the Vigil of Easter, preached April 16, 2022.

What’s the point of the Lord’s Supper? Why do we come here and partake? We know this bread is the very body of the Lord, and this wine is the very blood of the Lord. We know that in these we have forgiveness of sins, that is life and salvation. Jesus gives this to us not out of our merit, but out of his love for us. We receive in faith, trusting that what he says about His Supper is true.

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” If the people of the city of Jerusalem had known scripture, they would have known what was happening when Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey. Jesus comes into the city as a great king, with the acclamations of a king. The people shout hosanna – “Save...

Many events, especially in the last two years, have served to challenge our normalcy bias. It is possible, with wars and rumors of wars, that it will be challenged even more in the future. Normalcy bias is when we assume that things will just continue as normal, what seems to be a coming threat or catastrophe is no big deal. Like ignoring a tornado warning, thinking, “well I’ve been in dozens of t...

It’s hard to consider that people may not like us. We generally want to be liked. We assume that if someone doesn’t like us it’s a misunderstanding on their part, or maybe a bad impression. If they really knew me, they would like me. Well, this was not the case with Jesus. The more the Jews knew him, the less they liked him. Once he fully told him who he was, they wanted to kill him. Sometimes in...

We heard several weeks ago, at the end of Epiphany, about our Lord’s Transfiguration. To refresh your memory, Jesus had taken three disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain, and then was changed before them as his face and clothes shone with a bright light. Moses and Elijah also appeared and spoke to him, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased...

Paintings and movies don’t usually do justice to what it was probably like at the feeding of the 5000. Usually it seems to be depicted as everyone sitting or standing all orderly and quiet around Jesus. Yet how many groups of 5000 have you seen that are orderly and quiet? There was probably yelling, pushing, screaming children, people talking among themselves, all sorts of chaos. In the midst of t...

Monarchies have a singular worry that we never experience in our modern democracies – the stress over the king’s heir - especially traditionally when the birth of a son was needed to continue the family line. When no child is found to inherit, there is a great degree of uncertainty and stress. In our democracy, we do not have this issue, because our leaders are chosen by merit, not heredity. What...

The Christian life is a life of humility. This is a fundamental part of the Christian life, for to be Christian is to be like Christ. Christians are “little Christs” and as St. Peter says we follow “in His steps.” The Son of God became man and humbled himself, not coming in power, but as a poor infant. He grew up and lived generally holding back his divine power. He came not to overthrow kingdoms,...

Jesus drives a demon out of a mute man, a great work of healing, and yet some of the people accuse him of working by the power of Beelzebub. Who is Beelzebub? He is their name for the prince of demons, or Satan. The name Beelzebub literally means “lord of the flies.” It was the name the ancient Israelites gave to one of the pagan gods but given that all pagan gods are really demons in disguise, it...

We have all heard the story of Noah’s ark and seen children’s books with the cute animals and such. God flooded the earth because of man’s wickedness, but preserved righteous Noah and his family in the ark, along with two of every animal on earth. As Noah and his family were the only people to survive, Noah, like Adam, is a father of all people today. We are all descended from Noah. More important...

St. Paul speaks to the Thessalonians about their sanctification, that they become holy as God is holy. Many of the Thessalonians were Gentiles and did not grow up with the Old Testament or the Law of Moses. Among these Gentiles who followed pagan religions, there was no sense of being holy in the way God commands us to be holy through the Ten Commandments. So while believing Paul and becoming Chri...

St. Peter calls us Christians “sojourners and exiles.” We are not in the place where we are truly from, where we are supposed to be. He recalls the memory of the ancient Judahites who went into exile in Babylon because of their sin. These people were held far from their homes as second-class citizens, with no temple to worship God. They wept at the fact of their exile, even as their captors mocked...

The first lesson in the catechism is the First Commandment, and hopefully all the confirmation students here should have this learned by heart, “You shall have no other Gods.” As you know from the explanation, this means, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” The story of God and humanity is wrapped up in the first commandment. We have a God who is worthy of fear, love, and tr...