Wedding Sermon: Strength and Song, Salvation and Confession

Preached on 1 Timothy 6:12 and Isaiah 12:2
The Marriage of Laura M. Snyder and Kyle L. Molitor
10 June AD 2017

Title: Strength and Song, Salvation and Confession (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Besides the Scriptures included in the wedding rite, a pastor has many options when choosing a sermon text. When Laura and Kyle asked me to preach, I looked through the “usual suspects” and had an idea: The union of this man and this woman would include a joining of all they carried with them, including their confirmation verses.

With that in mind, I asked Laura to find out Kyle’s verse to see if it would work in unity with hers as a joint text. I was quite pleased when I discovered that his from 1 Timothy nicely complemented hers from Isaiah 12. Both confess that we have salvation and eternal life only through God in Christ Jesus.

Kyle and Laura completely agree that the most important love isn’t that between people but the love God has for fallen humanity. As I wove the themes of the two verses together, the Father’s boundless love and unconditional forgiveness through Jesus remained the unifying strand.

They will best live together and love together as they live in faith. They will forgive each other most completely as they realize how completely God forgives them. And they will most wholeheartedly sacrifice their own desires for each other as they embrace the sacrifice Christ made for them.

Note that the bulletin cover art I reference in the sermon is this Coptic illustration to the right. This vision of the Marriage at Cana beautifully shows our Savior sheltering husband and wife “under his wings.”

Texts: Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Strength and Song, Salvation and Confession.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Genesis 2:7, 18-24; Colossians 3:1-4, 12-17; Matthew 19:4-6

Advent 1A Sermon: Peace Within You

Preached on Psalm 122
The First Sunday in Advent
27 November AD 2016

Title: Peace Within You.

Summary: Peace within the walls of Christ’s Church, the new Jerusalem, means peace within her inhabitants. Conflict from without should be expected since devil and world rebel against His rule. But woe to us who willfully stir up internal strife or who withhold this peace from those who need it.

Christians pray for the peace from above “which surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:7)” The Lord works among us, leading us to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)”

Text: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem — built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”

For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. Psalm 122

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Peace Within You

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:(8-10) 11-14; Matthew 21:1-11 (alternate Gospel Matthew 24:36-44)

Illustration: Zion Lutheran Church, Saint Louis, Missouri.

Pentecost 7 Sermon: Safe in Mother’s Arms

Preached on Isaiah 66:10-14
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost — Proper 9C
3 July AD 2016

Title: Safe in Mother’s Arms (MP3 Audio)

Summary: While awaiting the fulfillment of the new Jerusalem, we still live in Christ’s Church, the Jerusalem of faith. She is the mother who wraps herself around us — holding, comforting, and consoling. She bore us in the womb of the font and gathers us to her breast to hear God’s forgiving Word and to feed on Jesus’ body and blood.

As long as we live, we’ll never outgrow our need to nurse upon her pure spiritual milk, to rest in the lap of Christian worship. We must continue having our soiled garments cleansed, our hunger fed, our thirst slaked, and our fears calmed.

Whether held tightly to the Church’s breast or dandled joyfully on her lap, we receive the nurture we need throughout all our earthly days.

Text: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.”

For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.” Isaiah 66:10-14

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Safe in Mother’s Arms.

Illustrations: Detail of Maternity by Pablo Picasso (1905) and Mary Cassatt’s Mother Berthe Holding Her Baby (1900).

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 66:1-7; Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18; Luke 10:1-20

Lent 2C Sermon: The Lord Will Relent

Preached on Jeremiah 26:8-15
The Second Sunday in Lent, Series C
21 February AD 2016

Title: The Lord Will Relent (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Unfortunately, God’s Word finds some of its strongest resistance in His Church, among His people. In today’s Gospel, Jesus pointed out Jerusalem’s sorry record of murdering the Lord’s messengers. Yet neither He nor His Father had given up on Israel and soon He would join the Holy City’s martyred prophets, shedding His blood to pay for Israel’s sins and the sins of all mankind.

Jeremiah clearly show that ignoring the Word and assaulting its proclaimers wasn’t a problem new to Jesus. The prophet came to rebuke and chastise the city and the nation, directly accusing Judah’s inhabitants of all manner of wickedness. From the greatest to the least, none escaped the Law’s condemnations.

Yet Jeremiah wasn’t there only to condemn but also to proclaim full forgiveness from a gracious Lord — a Lord who was eager to “repent of the disaster” at hand. He longed to relent of His judgment. He desired a vibrant, active Church. He wanted a population of forgiven, joyous children filling the nation.

To this day, sinners — both within and without Christendom — resist the Word. They reject God’s judgments and scorn His mercy. Individuals, congregations, and entire church bodies find ways to substitute their own thoughts and wishes for the will of the Lord. Even pew-sitting, offering-giving, congregation-serving Christians — even you and I — may find ourselves at odds with God’s Word and in conflict with His messengers.

Thanks be to God that Christ didn’t turn His back on going up to Jerusalem to be the next of the slain prophets. For the same forgiveness that He won for those who crucified Him belonged also to those who rejected and killed His prophets, who rebelled in the Wilderness, who sinned in the garden. And yes, Jesus’ forgiveness also belongs to us modern-day rebels. For the sake of His Son, the Lord relents of our judgment and gives us His pardon and His peace.

God grant that we unworthy outlaws continue to believe in Christ’s sacrifice, receive His forgiveness, and — by the power of the Holy Spirit — live lives of faith toward God and fervent love toward one another.

Text: And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.

“But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” Jeremiah 26:8-15

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear MP3 of The Lord Will Relent

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 4; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35