Sermons on Luke
Pentecost 23C Building on the Promises of God Part 14: Your redemption Is Drawing Near
Luke 21:5-28 It may seem rather strange to us the way that Jesus places violence and troubled times before our eyes with his words in Luke 21. They can be difficult to hear and we would rather dwell on positive themes. However, a closer look at the passage indicates that Jesus’ purpose is to help us so that we don’t get stuck in the scenes of violence but can see through them to our redemption that is drawing near. Sermon…
Pentecost 19C Building on the Promises of God Part 11: Justice Will Prevail
Luke 18:1-8 Somewhere along the line of our days we have all learned that life is not always fair. In fact, there is a whole lot of injustice in this world. We work for justice and God has given us government to help bring about greater justice among us. But sometimes it remains. As we say, “Life isn’t always fair.” In Luke 18 Jesus tells us a parable that helps us deal with the injustice we may experience. The parable…
Pentecost10C Building on the Promises of God Part 3: God Hears and Answers Your Prayers
Luke 11:1-13 We pray, but not nearly as much or as insistently as we should. Jesus’ teaching on prayer and his parable of the impudent neighbor gives us three reasons to pray more diligently; 1) the example of Jesus’ own prayer life, 2) God’s eagerness to hear our prayers, and 3) God answers us with good gifts. Sermon Date: August 18, 2019
Pentecost 2C What Have You to Do with Us Jesus?
Luke 8 26-39 What if you could talk with someone from the community of the Gerasenes where Jesus cast demons out of a man? What would he say and what insights might you gain for your own life? At its core it is a story of tragedy, salvation, and new life. Sermon Date: June 23, 2019
Lent 3C …… An Entire Life of Repentance
Luke 13:1-9 “Have you heard the news?” they asked Jesus. A terrible thing had happened. Jesus added another tragic event to their concern. But the question looming behind the question was “Why? What does this mean?” Like them, we want to connect the dots. We want answers. Jesus’ answer is helpful not only in what he says but also in what he does not say. In the end it all comes down to repentance. In fact, as Luther teaches us,…
Lent 2C …….. I Would yet You Would Not
Luke 13:31-35 Jerusalem is a wonderful city. Yet when you are there looking down at it from the Mount of Olives, the absence of the temple is a reminder of Jesus’ words regarding the desolation that would happen. Jesus’ desire was to gather the people of Jerusalem to himself but in so many cases they would not go to him. This gives us pause today to reflect on our own openness or resistance to Jesus. Are there ways in which…
Lent 1C…….. Suffering Before Glory
Luke 4:1-13 The season of Lent is not easy nor is it meant to be. It calls for discipline and devotion. And sometimes that can reveal in us a desire to take the easy way and even bypass discipline or suffering. Lent then teaches us and trains us in the way of the kingdom which is suffering before glory. It was that way with God’s Old Testament people and with Jesus as demonstrated in both his passive and active obedience.…
Transfiguration: The Theology and Experience of Transfiguration
Luke 9:28-36 The account of the Transfiguration is full of wonderful theology. The questions that you naturally ask as you read this account lead into deep theological thinking and meaning. Seven of them readily surface starting with the somewhat unusual phrase “after about eight days”. But we are not done when we have reflected theologically. For theology rightly leads us into experience. Here is how theology leads to experience. Sermon Date: March 3, 2019
Epiphany 7C Life as Gift Giving
Luke 6:27-38 Being always proceeds doing! So Jesus teaches us it is for his disciples in this sermon. This text is just a long string of imperatives presenting a high standard of conduct for his disciples. Yet we also understand that this conduct proceeds from who we are, the blessed in Christ (see Epiphany 6C sermon). Since Christ lives in us we can do better that the world’s principle of reciprocity (the Golden Rule). We live by the Golden Rule…
Epiphany 6C “The Two Ways”
Luke 6:17-26 “The Two Ways” is a didactic technique that stretches all the ways back to Moses in Deuteronomy where he sets before the people the way of life and the way of death; two paths. In this tradition, Jesus in the first part of his teaching to his disciples sets forth two paths; those of blessing and woe. The blessings express the being of his disciples. This is who they are in him, they are the blessed. It is…
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