Proper 15A Sermon: Gathered by God

Preached on Isaiah 56:1, 6–8
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
16 August AD 2020

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Audio: Alternatively, choose Gathered by God to hear the MP3.

Summary: The Lord speaks of “foreigners who join themselves to God.” He promises those who love and serve Him full access to Him on His “holy mountain” in his “house of prayer for all peoples.”

Because we cannot love and serve Him fully — as His Law demands — we wouldn’t be able to claim the promise. However, the Lord God who “gathers the outcasts of Israel” also gathers us, reaching out through Christ to forgive, reconcile, and kindle faith in people of every nation so that we might live, love, and serve in His holy presence.

Text: Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” Isaiah 56: 1, 6–8

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Gathered by God.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Gathered by God to hear the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 67; Romans 11:1–2a, 13–15, 28–32; Matthew 15:21–28

Proper 12A Sermon: Treasured

Preached on Deuteronomy 7:6–9
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
26 July AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Treasured.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Treasured to hear the MP3.

Summary: Even as Israel in the Wilderness was “a people holy to the Lord” and His “treasured possession,” so today is the Christian Church — that is all who believe in Jesus as their Savior.

Text: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations....” Deuteronomy 7:6–9

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Treasured.

Audio: Click Treasured to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 125; Romans 8:28–39; Matthew 13:44–52

Proper 6A Sermon: On Eagles’ Wings

Preached on Exodus 19:2–8
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
14 June AD 2020

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Summary: As the Lord bore Israel from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land “on eagles’ wings,” so He carries us from sin and death into everlasting life through His Son.

Text: They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God.

The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Exodus 19:2–8

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of On Eagles’ Wings.

Audio: Click On Eagles’ Wings to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 100; Romans 5:6–15; Matthew 9:35–10:8

Pentecost A Sermon: Eldad, Medad, and You

Preached on Numbers 11:24–30
The Feast of Pentecost
31 May AD 2020

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Summary: When Moses led Israel’s elders out to the Tabernacle, two of them chose, for whatever reason, to remain in the camp. When the Lord set His Spirit on the men around the tent, He also reached into the encampment for these two, choosing them also to prophecy in His name.

God reaches out to us as He did Eldad and Medad, ignoring boundaries and borders. He sets the Holy Spirit on us, creating and strengthening faith and leading us to believe, live, and love as His people in word and deed.

Text: So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.

And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”

But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Numbers 11:24–30

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Eldad, Medad, and You.

Audio: Click Eldad, Medad, and You to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 25:1–15; Acts 2:1–21; John 7:37–39

Pentecost 19 Sermon: Wrestling for a Blessing

Preached on Genesis 32:22–30
19th Sunday After Pentecost — Proper 24C
20 October AD 2019

Title: Click to hear the MP3 of Wrestling for a Blessing.

Summary: God allowed — or forced — Jacob to struggle with Him throughout the night before easily taking the budding patriarch out of the fight. Yet even though a dislocated hip would prevent a physical victory, Jacob clung on for a blessing.

He received more than that, for the Lord also gave him a new name. Instead of being known as the Heel Grabbing Trickster, he was now the God Wrestler. We don’t know the exact text of the blessing but we know that it was be Israel’s new name, not Abraham’s, by which God’s chosen people would be called.

God also renames us as He blesses us. In Baptism, while we keep the names given by our parents, we receive a new family name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As God’s children, our new selves still struggle with Him, not in competition but rather cooperation. He moves us to strive against our own sinful desires, the allure of the world, and Satan’s temptations.

During our days of wrestling on earth, Peniel* times come as we meet God face to face in Word and Sacrament. Still, though, we only see Him in part. The fulness of this revelation must wait until our resurrection into eternal life.

*Peniel is Hebrew for “face of God.”

Text: The same night [Jacob] arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

And he said to him, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Jacob.”

Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” Genesis 32:22-30

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 Wrestling for a Blessing.

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 121; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8

Sermon: Rebels Redeemed

Preached on Ezekiel 2:1-5
Proper 9B/Pentecost 6
5 July AD 2015

Title: Rebels Redeemed (MP3 Audio)

Summary: We’re in no condition to stand in judgment upon the Ezekiel’s hearers. We are no less rebellious than was Israel when God sent His the prophets to His people. We are every bit as hard-hearted as were the most shameful sinners to whom Christ’s apostles spoke.

There’s no real difference between us and the Germans of Luther’s time, of whom he wrote in the Preface to the Small Catechism, “The deplorable, miserable condition that I discovered ... has forced and urged me to prepare this catechism.... Mercy! Dear God, what great misery I beheld! The common person, especially in the villages, has no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine....

“Yet, everyone says that they are Christians, have been baptized, and receive the holy Sacraments, even though they cannot even recite the Lord’s Prayer or the Creed or the Ten Commandments. They live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs.”

We continue to need the rebuke and correction of the Law but even more desperately need the words of hope and promise proclaimed by prophets and apostles, that God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins by winning full forgiveness on the cross.

We need pastors to preach the Word with power so that we will know that we have heard the voices of the prophets and the apostles — indeed, of God Himself. And hearing, we pray that we are convicted, cleansed, and comforted as the Holy Spirit works through the Word on our hearts and minds.

Text: And [the Lord] said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” Ezekiel 2:1-5

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.

Martin Luther, “Small Catechism,” Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, ed. P. T. McCain (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House), 313.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Rebels Redeemed

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 123; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Mark 6:1-13

Illustrations: The Call of Ezekiel from Die Bibel in Bildern by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Text art generated by the Visual Copy tool of Logos Bible Software.