God is with us in Word and Sacrament

Sermons on 1 Thessalonians

The Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27)

Those wise virgins fell asleep, the same as the fools. They were not saved because they were good or better than the others. They were not good. They were not better. But they believed and trusted, nonetheless, that the Bridegroom was coming for them. They believed and trusted that He was good and merciful, that His Word was true, and He would bring them in. So He did. So He will also for you – whether you are awake or asleep, He has not destined you for wrath but for Himself. He has set a bound to everything – nations, earthquakes, family squabbles. Come home to the Altar – to your Lord and your God. Here find nourishment for the wait and a foretaste of the Feast to come.

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Ours is a faith built upon history, the historic fact of Christ crucified, the innocent and pure desolated as an abomination for the vile offenders and sinners who deserved what He endured. Let us gather around that reality like vultures around a corpse. Let it draw us like cream draws kittens. The cross is the source of our Life in Christ. Look the cross. Leave everything else behind. And don’t look back.