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Sermons by Rev. Jason M. Braaten (Page 54)

Midweek Advent II

Faith in Christ is sufficient for salvation because Christ’s atoning work is sufficient. For we confess that we cannot be justified before God by our own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe that we are received into God’s favor and that our sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God reckons to us as righteousness. Thus we receive the righteousness of Christ are seen as righteous in God’s sight by faith, by trust in Christ’s atoning work. We are saved and forgiven on account of Christ and we receive this by faith alone.

The Second Sunday in Advent

Ironically, though, our Lord does not instruct us to watch and look for these signs in the world. He doesn’t tell us to keep an eye out for the signs of the end times, to look for messages in the sun, the moon, and the stars, to watch for the distress of nations, etc. He instructs us, rather, to watch ourselves, so that we are not weighed down with dissipation, that is with self-indulgence, and drunkenness and the cares of this life.

Midweek of Advent I

When we speak of grace, we must first ask the question: What is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners. Grace is God’s unmerited good intention, His loving disposition toward those who have gone astray and are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1, 3). Grace, then, is something that resides in God and not in man.

The First Sunday in Advent

And as you continue to struggle against your flesh and this world, remember that your King is coming to you. For He did not just come once in the past. He is coming for you in the future, even as He continually comes to you now in His Word and Sacrament. He rides into your presence every Lord’s Day upon humble means to forgive you sins, to speak you righteous, to give you strength for today and courage and hope for tomorrow. He is your king. A new day is dawned.

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.

The Feast of All Saints

Who are these arrayed in white? They are those declared saints by God, all of them; kin and kith, children we never met, grandparents we barely remember, loved ones and yet to meet ones, all saints, and they wait for us. They are our people. This is their festival. It is our festival. For the “all” in All Saints means that we too, by grace, are in that number.

The Commemoration of the Reformation

And thus we celebrate today, that despite the anxiety we feel from our enemies—from the devil and the world—who attack us, and despite the feeling of hopelessness that comes from our enemy within, we, in fact, have every reason to hope. We have every reason to be confident. We have every reason to rejoice. For Jesus Christ, who was crucified for our transgressions, is raised for our justification.