The lutheransermons's Podcast

Preparing for Worship - January 18, 2026

The Epiphany season continues this week, with the light of Christ Jesus shining forth with His first great “sign,” or miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana, in the Gospel lesson, John 2:1-11. There are two choices for the Old Testament lesson, for the psalm, and for the Epistle lesson that relate to the Gospel. I can’t go into all those readings in detail and don’t know which reading you will hear in your particular church, but I’ll try to focus mostly on one of them in each case. I encourage you to look at both readings, if you have the time.

The first choice for the Old Testament lesson is Exodus 33:12-23. The children of Israel had rebelled and built a golden calf to worship, instead of the One True God. Moses had pleaded for God’s mercy and forgiveness for them. There is some judgment, but God shows mercy, too. Moses prays that God would give him a glimpse of His glory to sustain him in dealing with the difficult people of Israel. God gives him a glimpse, but only a glimpse, for sinful man cannot see the face of God in all His glory, in this life.

The other Old Testament reading is Amos 9:11-15. The Lord had predicted through Amos the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel because of its great sinfulness. There is still hope, though, for a remnant of God’s people, from the line of King David. There will be abundant crops and grapes and sweet wine and vineyards and wine to drink. This is a picture of the New Israel, with people of “all the nations who are called by the Lord’s Name,” with God doing His rescuing work through our Lord Jesus. This will be a true everlasting kingdom.

The psalm could be Psalm 111, which we heard on December 20th, where the focus is on the great works of our faithful Lord, as He remembers His covenant promises and sends redemption to His people through the coming of our Lord Jesus. The psalm could also be Psalm 67, where the Lord promises to be gracious to us and bless and let His face shine upon us in the Person of His own Son, Jesus. There would be increased blessings on earth, through the saving power of Jesus, for all nations, as the Savior who died and rose again for all. People on all the ends of the earth could fear and trust in Him. For He is the way to eternal life for all who are brought to faith in Him. (John 3:16 and 14:6). (See also Acts 9:2, 18:25, 19:9,23, 24:22, and 28:26-28.)

The Gospel lesson is John 2:1-11, when Jesus goes to a wedding at Cana. When the wine runs out, sooner than expected, His mother is there, too, and tells Him about this problem. Jesus does not identify her by name and seems to speak strangely and says, "Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” Jesus knew that He had to speak and act according to His heavenly Father’s way and plan and will. His mother trusts him, at this point, and tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” When the time was right, Jesus had the servants fill to the brim six stone water jars with water. He tells them then to take some of the liquid, now turned into wine, and take it to the master of the wedding feast. The master is amazed and calls the bridegroom and says, “Everyone serves the good wine first… but you have kept the good wine until now.” Then we hear the closing statement, “This was the first of the signs, the miracles, of Jesus, and manifested His glory” as the promised Savior. And what a sign it was - as much as 180 gallons of water turned into wine! The goal of all that Jesus did was that his disciples would believe in Him and that as many others as possible would believe in Him, too.

People might say, though, “Why didn’t Jesus do something much more spectacular, as the first of His signs, His miracles?” This was exactly what was predicted in the Amos nine passage when the promised Savior would come. There would be good, sweet wine in abundance. This same picture of great abundance is used in other places in prophecy in the Old Testament, too. See Isaiah 25:6-9, where the Lord is promised to save His people and swallow up death forever, and provide well-aged wine and rich food in eternal life for His people. See the words of Joel 3:18-19, 24, 26, too. The Lord Jesus would do many more dramatic signs and miracles, through His ministry and sacrificial death and resurrection, to forgive our sins and count us acceptable to Him for salvation. But this miracle also affirmed our Lord’s care for us in our daily lives with marriage and family and joys together.

The Scriptures also affirm the importance of love and care in marriage and families, in one of the possible Epistle lessons for today, Ephesians 5:22-33. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us and His cleansing us through baptism, the washing of water with Word, and His counting us holy and without blemish through what He has done for us are all demonstrations of His amazing grace and love for us. In the same way, husbands and wives are to live in love and commitment to each other and be willing to live sacrificially for each other and their families.

This is true also for us as we seek to live together in the body of Christ, the church, as Paul describes in Romans 12:6-16, the other possible Epistle lesson. We have the same faith in Christ, but we have different gifts and abilities, as God has blessed us, and we are called to use what we have, not just for ourselves, but for each other and others around us. “Let love be genuine,” Paul says. “Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good.” Paul then provides a long list of what qualities might be shown in that love. “Be fervent in Spirit, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer; show hospitality to strangers. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Don’t be haughty, but associate with the lowly” … and on and on. Of course, the church is not perfect, and neither are we. So we live by the grace and mercy of God and Christ’s perfect love and forgiveness for us, and seek to show that love with one another, too, as best we can.

Preparing for Worship - January 11, 2026

We are now in the Epiphany season, where we think of the light of Christ shining forth through the Word of God and through His own Words and deeds for us, as our Savior. It is also a time for thinking about sharing our Christian faith with others in whatever ways we can. We continually need God and His Word, as the psalmist reminds us in Psalm 42:1-7. When our souls are cast down and troubled by the cares of this life, we can hear the unbelieving world say, “Where is your God?” and we can become discouraged. Three times the psalmist says this, in Psalms 42 and 43. But each time the psalmist finally realizes that he needs to “hope in God,” for He is our “Living” Lord and our salvation, most especially in Christ Jesus, in His Word and Sacraments, as the New Testament makes clear. We need to keep reading and hearing the Word, to quench our spiritual thirst, and to come when we can and are able “in procession to the house of God.”

The Old Testament lesson is 1 Kings 8:6-13. We hear of how Solomon was able to build the temple in Jerusalem and then made sure that the ark of the covenant was moved from David’s tent of meeting into the Most Holy Place of the temple, where God would appear to His people in a cloud of glory. In the Ark were only the two tablets of stone given at Mt. Sinai by God, representing all of His Word and will and promises He gave to His people. How important that Word of God is to us, still, now found completed in the Scriptures of the New Covenant, New Testament, as well as those of the Old Testament, centered in salvation in Christ.

The Gospel lesson is Luke 2:41-52. We hear of Jesus as a 12-year-old, accompanying Joseph and Mary to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. This is the only Scripture in the Bible about Jesus in his youth, from the time He returned from Egypt as a little boy until He began His public ministry and was baptized at about age 30. Joseph and Mary seemed to be faithful in following Jewish tradition through the years and in teaching Jesus the same. This year, though, when Passover days were ended, and the family started home in a caravan of people, Jesus did not go with them, but stayed behind in Jerusalem. When they realized that He was not with their group, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for Him. They finally found Him in the temple with the teachers, listening and asking questions. “And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding  and His answers.” Also astonished, Mary asked Him, in a kind of rebuke, “Child, why have you treated us this way? Your father and I have  been searching for you in great “distress.” (The only other time in Luke’s Gospel that this word is used is when Jesus uses this word  in describing the rich man’s “anguish” in hell in Luke 16:24-25.) Jesus responds with a question. “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” Joseph and Mary do not understand what He is saying and meaning. Already at age 12, though, Jesus knows that He is the Son of God and must do His Father’s will and be about His Father’s work, but He also must be submissive to His Heavenly Father’s plans and timetable and to Joseph and Mary. He returned home and was a faithful child. He increased in wisdom and favor with God and man and grew in stature, too, to be a man. Mary kept all these things in her heart and pondered them, as she had done earlier, with the birth of Christ and the words of the shepherds, in Luke 2:19. She did not understand everything, though, and was not perfect. Early in His ministry, we read that Jesus didn’t even have time to eat, and when his family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, “He is out of His mind” (Mark 3:20-21). And soon after, in Mark 3:31-34, Mary and His brothers came and called out to Him. Jesus ignored them and said to those listening to His teaching: “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” John 7:5 also says that “not even Jesus’ brothers believed in Him.” Mary seemed to have her ups and downs, but she was saved by faith through God’s saving grace for her, as were Jesus’ brothers. See Luke 1:46-47 and Acts 1:14. (Most think that Joseph died and that Jesus, as the oldest son, had learned and practiced Joseph’s skill and worked as a carpenter, thus caring for His family, until His public ministry began. See what is said of Him, as He goes to His hometown of Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue in Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him.) Yet He faithfully carried out His Father’s will and finally went willingly to the cross to pay for our sins and save us, too, through the gift of faith in Him.

The Epistle Lesson is Romans 12:1-5. For eleven chapters, Paul has been writing the Good News of Christ as Savior to people in Rome. He appeals to God’s mercies for them, now, that they may, by the grace of God, have their minds transformed and renewed and may worship and trust the Lord Jesus and His saving work for them. As he had written early in this letter, “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” as “the righteousness of God is revealed and given to us,” not by what we do, but by what Christ has done for us, and “our living now by faith in Him” (Romans 1:15-17). Paul knew that he lived only by the grace of God given to him in Christ. And he encourages the believers in Rome also not to think highly of themselves, but to think about the measure of faith that God had given and assigned to each of them, and how they can serve Christ together. Every Christian is a part of one body in Christ. We have different gifts and abilities, given by God’s Spirit, but the same faith and confidence, not in ourselves, but in our Savior. In Him we trust, because of what He has already done and accomplished for us, and we ask Him to conform us more and more to Him and His Word. That is our spiritual worship, as He works in us and strengthens us through His Word and the blessings of our own baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And we can keep reading and studying that Word on our own, for the strength our Lord provides in that way, too.

Preparing for Worship - January 4, 2026

This Second Sunday after Christmas continues the Christmas season and the early days of our Lord Jesus. It has nothing to do with the popular song about The 12 Days of Christmas: “On the first day of Christmas… etc.” The Scriptures continue to tell the story of the early days of Jesus and His family and how they endured danger and suffering and had to make long journeys to Egypt and then back to Nazareth. We hear of others in their challenges and journeys, and how the Lord will help and carry us, too, whatever the days ahead will bring for us.

The Psalm is Psalm 77:11-20, a psalm of Asaph. Asaph was a musician serving David and God’s people. See 1 Chronicles 15:16-19 and 16:4-5,7. Asaph also wrote Psalm 50 and Psalms 73-83. Read the first 10 verses of Psalm 77 to see how discouraged and troubled Asaph was, at times, wondering if God had forgotten to be gracious to him and his people. Finally, he wakes up to his need to listen to the Scriptures and to God’s Words and promises. In v.11ff, he remembers the holy way and the mighty deeds of the Lord and how He had redeemed His people from slavery in the Exodus from Egypt. He had carried His people through stormy times and great waters and led His people like a flock, through Moses and Aaron and others. This is prophetic of Jesus, too, when He came as the Good Shepherd and Savior and made His way through the stormy sea, walking on water and showing no footprints, and rescuing his disciples and Peter. See Matthew 14:24-33, for example, and Christ’s preparing for us an unshakeable Kingdom, as spoken of in Hebrews 12:26-28.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 46:1-7. Jacob (Israel) and his family had been through many troubles, including the seeming death of his son, Joseph. Now he is told that Joseph is alive and is a leader in Egypt, and that he and his family will be blessed and become a great nation there, by God’s grace. The Lord God Himself told Jacob this in a vision and promised that He would be with His people in Egypt and would make sure that Jacob would be buried in a place prepared for him in Canaan. (The Lord kept His promises and later on, of course, rescued His people from slavery in Egypt and brought them back to the Promised Land, through Moses and then Joshua. You can also read comments on this made by Stephen in his speech to Jewish religious leaders in the New Testament in Acts 7:14-17.)

The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 2:13-23. Once again, there is danger and trouble, this time for Jesus Himself and His family. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and warns him to take Jesus and His mother with him to Egypt, because Herod wants to find Jesus and kill him. The family quickly left and stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod. (The family could, in this way, fulfill the prophecy of Hosea 11:1, when they returned from Egypt to Israel, after Herod died.) The wise men were to report back to Herod after they located Jesus, but they were warned not to do so. Herod is furious that the wise men did not tell him the location of Jesus, and as a very cruel man, he decides to take no chances that he would miss killing Jesus and orders that every baby boy in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, two years old and younger, should be killed. (This is totally in character for Herod, for other sources report that Herod had several of his own family members murdered because he feared that they might be a threat to him.) This event also fulfilled a prophecy of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:15, connected with the sorrow and weeping by Rachel, wife of Jacob, who dies in childbirth, during the birth of Benjamin, the “son of her troubles.” (At the time of Jeremiah, many mothers would weep at the death of their children, at the hands of the Babylonians. At the birth of Christ, others would weep at the death of their children at the hands of Herod, very near where Rachel had wept, long before.) After Herod died, an angel appeared again to Joseph in a dream and told him to take the child and his mother and return to the land of Israel. Since Herod’s son, Archelaus, was now reigning in Judea and having received another warning in a dream, Joseph did not go to Bethlehem or near Jerusalem, but settled in Nazareth, since that was his hometown and the hometown of Mary. (See Luke 1:26ff.) Jesus grew up in Nazareth and is referred to as a Nazarene in this passage and in Mark 14:67. Since this northern area of Israel was also known as the District of Galilee, Peter was sometimes called a Galilean. (See Mark 14:70.) Galileans were often looked down upon by Jews from the Jerusalem area. When told of Jesus, Nathanael said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). This location, where Jesus grew up, was something of a barrier between Jesus and the Jews in Judea and Jerusalem, but it was where God the Father wanted Him, for much of His ministry.

The Epistle lesson is 1 Peter 4:12-19. We have already heard in our other readings of the changes and challenges and troubles that come at times for those following the Lord. Jesus experienced those things in the fullest way, as our Savior, doing His Father’s will in a perfect way in this sinful world. Peter had talked about this again and again in this letter. In 1 Peter 3:17-18, he wrote, by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.” In 4:1, Peter also wrote, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought.” Now in this passage, 4:12ff.,  Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you.” This is not “something strange,” but what Christ went through for you and me in the fullest way. We may be “insulted for the name of Christ,” but we can rejoice in that, for the Spirit of God is keeping us in faith, for eternal life. We are not to do evil, bringing on consequences we deserve, though that happens at times to us because we are struggling sinners. However, if we suffer for being a Christian, God is glorified in the name of Christ. Such suffering can happen “in the household of God,” as it did with Peter (and Paul) and other early Christians. James wrote, in his letter, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” The Lord will carry us through to salvation, though, unlike the ungodly, who have no one to save them. So, Peter says, “Those who suffer, according to God’s will, submit their souls to a faithful Creator” while still seeking “to do what is good.”  Our future is secure in Christ.

Preparing for Worship - December 28, 2025

The psalm for this Sunday, the First Sunday after Christmas, is Psalm 89:1-8. The author, Ethan the Ezrahite, seems to be the Ethan who, together with Heman, worked with temple music, and is mentioned in 1 Kings 4:31 and 1 Chronicles 2:6. This psalmist sings of the steadfast love of the Lord, who will be faithful forever. The Lord made covenant promises to King David and to his offspring that would last for all generations. The Lord reigns from heaven, above all the holy ones, the angels. Yet He cares about us on earth, and He faithfully kept His promises in sending a particular Offspring of David, our Lord Jesus, as Savior, with good new for all people. In the Christmas story, an angel announced His birth to shepherds, and the angels , the heavenly host, give Him praise and glory. (In Psalm 89:24, this Offspring of David is called the Lord’s powerful “Horn,” “the Horn of our salvation,” as predicted also by Zechariah, in Luke 1:68-69 and 76-79. The closing verses of Psalm 89:50-51, again after our reading, also predict how this Anointed One, the Christ, would be “mocked and insulted” by many, along with the mockery against His servants, His followers. Yet in His suffering and death and resurrection, the Lord and we who trust in Christ Jesus, will be blessed forever. Amen and Amen! This is most certainly true (Psalm 89:52).)

In the Old Testament lesson, 2 Samuel 7:1-16, this same promise of an everlasting kingdom is given to David and to a particular Descendant of His, Jesus the Christ, and all who trust in Him. David will not be able to do all he wished, including building a temple for the Lord. His son, Solomon, and other descendants would be blessed with a kingdom in Israel that would last for several hundred year. When they committed iniquity and sin, though, there would be discipline and judgment, often brought at the hands of their enemies. Yet the Lord would still fulfill His steadfast love, with the coming of an everlasting kingdom in Christ Jesus.  The alternate Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 11:1-5, is also a prediction of the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus, coming from the line of Jesse and King David. The Spirit of the Lord would be upon Him, from His birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, through His growth in the Word of God by the same Spirit, and His baptism, when the Holy Spirit came upon Him in a very visible way. He was called to fulfill all righteousness by His perfect life, in place of our very imperfect lives, and His faithfulness in doing His Father’s will and suffering and dying in our place, paying the penalty for all our sins. He would battle sin and evil for us and eventually will do away with all the wicked and bring His believers to eternal joy. (See Scriptures like Luke 1:32-35, 2:40, Matthew 3:13-17, 4:1-11, Hebrews 2:9-10, Romans 6:3-5, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, etc.)

This Kingdom of God was predicted to the virgin Mary, of the house of David, by an angel also, in Luke 1:26-38. By the miracle of God’s Holy Spirit, she would give birth to the Son of God, true God and a true man. This One would receive and reign over the everlasting Kingdom “not of this world” (John 18:36). The Christmas story tells of the birth of Jesus Christ; and when He was brought to the temple in Jerusalem, soon after, we hear our Gospel lesson, Luke 2:(22-32) 33-40. Two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, had been waiting in faith for the coming of this promised Savior, who would be the Consolation (the Comforter) and the Redeemer of His people, bringing the forgiveness of sins. God brings Simeon to recognize Jesus as “the Lord’s Christ” and the Savior of the world, for all peoples, both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). Simeon speaks the words of what is often used in worship, the Nunc Dimittis. God’s Word was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, and now Simeon could die in peace, but he predicted that Jesus would also be a person whom many would oppose. He came to be the Savior of all, but many would resist and reject Him, too. Those who were brought to believe in Him would be raised to eternal life, but many would stumble and fall and lose the eternal Kingdom of God, which would only come through Jesus. The thoughts of all hearts would thus be revealed as being with Christ Jesus or against Him. Mary’s own soul would be pierced with sorrow at the suffering and death of her Son. But through God’s grace, she would still believe in Him and receive the gift of eternal life, as well. Elderly Anna had been a widow for many years, but continued in worship and prayer, trusting her Lord, even in difficult times. It was revealed to her that the Savior had come. She, too, could depart in peace at her death, to eternal life in heaven. She knew, though, that even though she was very old, she still had work to do for her Lord. She began to thank God and to tell others who were waiting for their Redeemer that He had finally arrived, in the birth of Jesus, so that they might have the same joy and peace in their Redeemer as she had. Are there people with whom we could share this Good News of Jesus, too, no matter what our age is?

In our Epistle lesson, Galatians 4:1-7, Paul speaks of the fact that when we were children, we were all under the supervision of our parents and enslaved to the elementary principles of this world.  Paul, as a Jew, was caught up in all sorts of rules and regulations, many of them humanly-made, which he could not do and keep. (See Colossians 2:20-23, for example.) Others, following false gods and false religions, lived far from the true God and His will, and served other creatures, including themselves and their ideas, instead of the Creator. (See the dramatic description of this is Romans 1:18-32.) God knew our sinful human condition and yet had a plan of rescue for us. When the time was just right, He sent forth His own Son, Jesus, born of a woman by a miraculous virgin birth. He was a true man, as well as the Son of God. He was under the Law, yet followed it perfectly, in our place, and redeemed us by paying the price of His own sacrificial death for all our sins and failings. He rose in victory and through His Spirit has been bringing people to faith in Him and making them (and us also who trust in Him by that gift of faith) the children of God. That means that we are no longer slaves to our old lives, but are heirs of eternal life when we die. (See Romans 8:9, 14-17.) This was God’s rescue plan for us, finally fulfilled for us in the Saving work of Christ, beginning with His coming and being born in Bethlehem. (See Paul’s description of all this also in Ephesians 1:5-9.) What a great future we have, now and eternally, as the adopted children of God, through the Christmas miracle and all that followed, by God’s grace.

Preparing for Worship - December 21, 2025

The Psalm for this 4th Sunday in Advent is Psalm 111. It is a psalm for God’s people to sing in praise and thanksgiving to God, especially as they gather as a congregation. This psalm focuses on the works and deeds of the Lord, while other psalms focus more on the Words of the Lord. We know that the Lord is great and righteous and gracious and merciful and faithful and just and trustworthy because of what He has done for us, in keeping His covenant promises for us, and in sending redemption to us. There was the redemption from slavery in Egypt and so many other times when God rescued His Old Testament people, even when they had been sinful and rebellious against Him, too often, as we have been. We especially grow in wisdom and gain a deeper understanding of His love as we see the saving work of His Son, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament. We then try to honor His Name and seek to fear and trust in Him in our own lives. We pray that His praise endures forever, in our own hearts, by His grace and the gift of faith worked in us.

In the Old Testament lesson, Deuteronomy 18:15-20, God promises through the prophet Moses that there would one day be a prophet like Moses, but even greater than he. The Lord would put His words in this prophet’s mouth, and He would speak God’s Word faithfully, and everyone should be listening to Him. This is a reference to Christ Jesus and His preaching and teaching and work. Peter says that this prophet is Jesus in Acts 3:20-26. Stephen also quotes this passage and refers to Jesus in Acts 7:39ff. See how John the Baptist, in John 1:21-34, explains that he is not the Christ, the great prophet, but rather prepares the way for Jesus and is not worthy even to untie the sandals of Jesus. He identifies Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and was “before him,” though John was born before Him. Jesus, He says, was “the Son of God.” In Deuteronomy 18:20, God warns through Moses that there will be false prophets, to whom people must not listen, and that what these prophets say will not always come true. Furthermore, people must not, above all, listen to those who speak in the name of other gods. People must listen to the Words of this one true Prophet predicted by Moses, though, and He is clearly identified as Jesus in the New Testament. See Hebrews 1:1-2: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world.” (See also Matthew 17:5 and many other such Scriptures.)

The Gospel lesson is John 1:19-28, already referred to in the previous passage. The testimony of John the Baptist was that he was not the Christ, nor Elijah come back to life, nor the great Prophet predicted by Moses, but rather John was the one to make straight the way for the greatest Prophet, Jesus. Right after this Scripture, John also speaks of the baptism of Jesus and how the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus like a dove and remained on Him, identifying Him as the Promised One and the Savior, who could bring the gift of faith through water and the Spirit in the New Testament Sacrament of Baptism. See also John 3:1-7 and Acts 2:38-39 and Matthew 28:18-20, and Paul combining the Word with the Gift of baptism in Acts 16:29-34 and in Mark 16:14-16.

The Epistle lesson is Philippians 4:4-7. Paul had already written in Philippians 3:1, in his Epistle of Joy: “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” And so again, two more times, Paul says, in Chapter 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Why should God’s people be rejoicing? Because, Paul says, the Lord is at hand, and He is living in every believer in Christ with all the gifts He has provided for us in Christ as our Savior. We are not perfect and cannot rid ourselves of all our anxieties. Paul could not, as he admits in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the church. Who is weak, and I am not weak?” Yet in everything, even our worries, we can bring our requests to the Lord by prayer and supplication, asking the Lord to supply what we really need, and we can be thankful for what the Lord has already provided for us, so richly. So, Paul says, we can seek to let our gentleness and graciousness be known to others, in building our relationships with others. Paul put it this way in Titus 3:1-2: “to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” It is the peace, forgiveness, and hope that God has given us that guard and protect our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and encourage us to be confident in Him and His Word and to seek to be Christlike in our dealings with others. See the words of Jesus Himself in John 14:25-27. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But when the Helper (the Comforter), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” That teaching still goes on for us, as we listen, even today, to what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit says and does for us in and through the Scriptures.

Preparing for Worship - December 14, 2025

The Psalm for this Third Sunday in Advent (One Year Series) is Psalm 85. The psalm begins with the recognition that the Lord has forgiven and covered over the sins of His people and restored their fortunes, probably referring to the return to their homeland of a remnant of the people, after the Babylonian captivity. Things were not going well for them, though. The people now living in the land did not want them around and did not want them rebuilding a temple and the walls of Jerusalem. Read Ezra 4:1-4 and 23-24 and Nehemiah 1:3. The Jewish people themselves were more eager to build houses for themselves than to rebuild the temple and parts of Jerusalem that were destroyed. Read Haggai 1:3-11. In v. 4ff in Psalm 85, the psalmist calls upon the Lord to turn the people again to Him and revive them, make them alive again to Him, and His steadfast love and saving work for them. The psalmist is confident that the Lord would again “speak peace“ to His people and prays that they would not again turn to folly, away from the Lord and His will. Then the psalmist speaks of steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace, and these gifts of God are combined together in the Person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. (See John 1:14, Matthew 3:15, and 1 Corinthians 1:18-21, for example.) We do not produce these gifts, but the Lord will give what is good and bring His salvation near in Christ the Savior, the psalmist says. Righteousness will go before Him, and His footsteps become the way of life and eternal life for us. (See James 1:17-18 and
1 Peter 2:21-25 and 5:12.)

The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 40:1-8 (9-11). Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will not give up on His people, but will speak tenderly to them and bring them comfort and pardon. In fact, the glory of the Lord would be revealed. He has spoken, and His Word will stand forever. (See also Mark 13:31 and 1 Peter 1:23-25.) The Lord God will come, in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, who will tend His flock, His people, as a Good Shepherd, and who will bring Good News, the Gospel, to all, including His little lambs and those who are with young. We will see that so clearly in just a few weeks, with the birth of Christ and the Good News to lowly shepherds and influential wise men, and the Lord’s care for His own Son, in danger from Herod and Satan and so many others. John the Baptist would also prepare the way for Him. (See Matthew 2:1-17 and Luke 3:4-6 and Luke 4:1-13, etc.)

The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 11:2-10. The coming of Jesus does not mean, of course, that everything will be easy for everyone. John the Baptist has done the right things on behalf of Christ, and yet he has been thrown into prison. John sends some of his disciples for assurances that Jesus truly was the Promised One. Jesus tells them to report to John what they were hearing and seeing. (Luke tells us that John’s disciples were able to be eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus, in Luke 7:18-23.) Both Luke and Matthew record the Words of Jesus, showing that He, as the Savior, was doing exactly what Old Testament prophecy predicted. Blind people can see, and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed, and deaf people can hear. Even some dead people are raised to life, and the poor have the Good News preached to them. (See Isaiah 35:4-7, 26:19, 29:18-19, and 61:1, for example.) Jesus adds these Words: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.” (John was in prison and soon would die, and his disciples would hear of all this. It would be easy for them to wonder why Jesus would allow all this to happen to a faithful follower like John if He, Jesus, really was the Messiah. We struggle with the same questions at times, don’t we, especially when we see things happen that we don’t understand and don’t seem to be fair or right to us in this life?)

Jesus assures John’s disciples that John the Baptist had done faithfully what he was called to do, preparing the way for Jesus Himself, the Savior, even though John would not have an easy life and would not wear fancy, soft clothing or live in a king’s palace. He would, in fact, suffer and die, and his soul would then be taken to everlasting life. Jesus was also, in a sense, predicting His own much greater suffering and death, in payment for the sins of the world, though He was King of the universe, and then be raised to life and ascend and return to eternal life in heaven. And Jesus knew that many would take offense at Him and what He said and did, not trusting in Him and endangering their own salvation, unless they were brought to forgiveness and faith in Him. Simeon had predicted this in Luke 2:34, and Jesus warned about this in Luke 11:23 and John 6:60-63 and 16:1-4. There are many other examples of this offense being taken about Jesus. See Matthew 13:53-58 and 26:31-35 and 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, for example. That is why the Scriptures say, again and again, as in John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.” That is also why, in Matthew 11:9-10, Jesus affirms again that John the Baptist was a genuine prophet of God and was the messenger sent from God to prepare the way for Jesus as Savior, as predicted in Malachi 3:1 and in our Old Testament lesson in Isaiah 40:1-3 and 9-11, and in the New Testament in Luke 1:15-17 and 1:76-79.

Paul also affirms, in our Epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, that he and the other early Christian apostles were also servants of Christ and stewards, managers sharing the Good News of Christ, centered in the mysteries of God’s plan of salvation through Christ alone as Savior, for the sake of the whole world. See how Paul describes this mystery of God’s grace granted to him and for him to share, in Ephesians 3:1-12, “This mystery is that the Gentiles (non-Jews) are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel… This was according to the eternal purpose that He, the Lord, has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in Whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.” Paul then needed to be a faithful steward and sharer of this Good News of Christ for all. It did not matter what others thought of Paul. See how Peter described the same for himself and all who were “stewards of God’s varied grace,” in 1 Peter 4:10-11. It is finally God’s Work of grace in and through believers, for His glory, as described also in Ephesians 3:17-21 and in 1 Thessalonians 2:4,13. And Jesus Himself called all of His disciples, including us, to be ready by continuing faith and trust in Him as Savior and His Work through them, until He called them to eternal life or until He returned on the last day. See Luke 12:35-43. Our future is then secure in Christ Jesus, the Son of Man and our Savior, now and eternally.

Preparing for Worship - December 7, 2025

This is the 2nd Sunday in Advent, as we continue to hear of the “comings” of Christ for us in His saving work, first in Old Testament prophecy and then in His redeeming sacrifice for us and bringing us to faith through His Holy Spirit, and continually guiding us through His Word and Sacraments, and then finally His promise to return on the last day. We had the Old Testament lesson, Malachi 4:1-6, just a few weeks ago, on November 16, and so I will just repeat much of what I wrote about that lesson at that time. A fire of judgment is coming, when all arrogant and evildoers, who have rejected the Lord, will be stubble, with neither root nor branch. For those who fear and trust the Name of the Lord, though, and his Word through Moses (and others), the Sun of Righteousness will come with healing, and the wicked, apart from the Lord, will be like ashes under the feet of God’s people. (See Romans 16:20.) Someone like Elijah will come and turn the hearts of many back to the Lord and to fellow believers, before a day of utter destruction comes. (See Luke 1:13-17, where John the Baptist is clearly identified as the prophet who would come in the Spirit and power of Elijah to do this preparatory work for the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus. See also Luke 1:67-79, and consider Matthew 3, where John preaches of the judgment to come while also proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior. See how Jesus also identifies John the Baptist as “the Elijah who is to come,” in Matthew 11:2-15.)

The psalm is Psalm 50:1-15. God the Lord comes, and He does not keep silence. He speaks and summons the whole earth to listen. He speaks to His own people of Israel and says that he will testify against them. They have been making sacrifices to Him, but acting as if they were earning God’s favor, and, as Martin Luther wrote, thought that “God must surely be thankful and indebted to them.” Instead, God reminds them that He is their God and the Creator of all things and owns everything. They could only offer what was already His, and with which he had blessed them. He did not get hungry and did not eat and drink of what they offered Him. Instead, they were living by His grace and mercy for them and should realize how indebted they were to Him. They should offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise to Him for His goodness and mercy to them and serve Him with gratitude, and they needed to realize how much they needed His help in days of trouble and glorify Him for His deliverance, again and again. As the psalm ends in v. 23, God says, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me.”

The Gospel lesson is Luke 21:25-36. Jesus speaks of the end times, and “distress of nations in perplexity” and “people fainting with fear and with foreboding on what is coming on the world,” when they do not have hope in “the Son of Man,” Jesus Himself. If people trust solely in themselves and their purely human answers and efforts, they will have no genuine hope. Doesn’t that sound like the situation of so many in our troubled world today? However, Jesus says that He came into the world to bring the Kingdom of God near and to accomplish the work of redemption for us through His death and resurrection, as other Scriptures clearly indicate. We are called to faith in Him as our Savior and to trust His Word of promise and salvation, which will not pass away. We are called by His grace and power, not to be weighed down by evil or by the cares of this troubled life, but to “straighten up and raise our heads high,” standing confident before “the Son of Man,” our Lord and Savior, and His Word. We will receive the fullness of our redemption either when we die and are taken in faith to eternal life in heaven, or when we and all living believers are caught up to be with Christ, body and soul, on the last day.

The Epistle lesson, Romans 15:4-13, also calls us to have confidence in “the living and abiding Word of God, which will not pass away.” (See the Words of 1 Peter 1:23-25, also.) Paul reminds us that “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we have hope and can endure in faith in Christ,” as we glorify God with our fellow believers. Paul also reminds us that Jesus “became a servant to the circumcised,” to His fellow Jews, in His Words and deeds and saving work for them on the cross, to confirm His Old Testament promises. Then Paul quotes from numerous other Old Testament promises, showing that the Gospel was also for non-Jews, the Gentiles, for whom Jesus also died. Gentiles can glorify God for His mercy, which is also extended to them, as they are brought to trust in Christ Jesus. Note passage after passage from the Old Testament that Paul quotes to show that Gentiles also can rejoice in Christ and find eternal hope by faith in Him and His saving work for them, too. (See Psalm 18:49 and 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 117:1, Isaiah 11:1-10, Isaiah 42:6-10, and in the New Testament, Revelation 5:9 and 7:9-10, etc.) Paul concludes this passage, then, with Words of great hope in Christ for Jews in Rome and many more Gentiles there, as well,  as Christ “gave Himself as a ransom for all” and “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” through faith in Him. (See 1 Timothy 2:3-8.) Here is Paul’s wish and promises for each of you reading or hearing this, too. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” - in this life and in eternal life to come.

Preparing for Worship - November 30, 2025

This marks the beginning of a new church year, with the Advent season, as we prepare for the prophecies of and then the coming and birth of Christ, our Savior. This year, we will use the One Year Historic Series of readings, with long-standing Epistle and Gospel readings, and Old Testament and Psalm readings added more recently.

The Psalm is Psalm 24, a psalm of David. David knows that the earth and everything in it are the Lord’s, and He founded and established it all. The Lord wishes David and us to seek to approach Him with pure hearts and not in false and deceitful ways. We cannot do this on our own, but we receive blessings from Him and His righteousness and His saving forgiveness and mercy. David ends the psalm with a song of praise to the Lord, the King of Glory, who comes to us with His glory and might and blessings, as we gather to worship Him.

The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 23:5-8. The Lord has condemned false shepherds who have led God’s people astray and scattered them and left them in captivity to others (Jeremiah 23:1-2). The Lord now promises that He will gather the remnant of His flock and provide better shepherds for them (23:3,7-8), as they return to their homeland, after the Babylonian captivity. And the days are coming when God will provide “a righteous Branch” from the line of King David, who will be a just and righteous King. In fact, He will be the Lord Himself coming to be our righteousness and provide salvation and security for us always. See similar prophecies about this “Branch,” our Lord Jesus, in Isaiah 4:2 and 11:1-5,10 and Revelation 22:16-17.

The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 21:1-9. This is the familiar story of Palm Sunday and Jesus riding into Jerusalem. He comes as a King, in fulfillment of another direct prophecy from Zechariah 9:9ff, and yet in a humble way, riding on a donkey’s colt, and coming to suffer and die, in payment for the sins of the world, including our own. At this point, though, the people are making a carpet of cloaks and branches and honoring Jesus as the Son of David, coming in the name of the Lord. Some even call Jesus the prophet from Nazareth. This is also fulfillment of our Psalm, Psalm 24, as Jesus truly is “the King of glory.” See how Psalm 118:14-27 is fulfilled that day as well.

The Epistle lesson is from Romans 13: (8-10) 11-14. Paul reminds us to seek to love one another and how loving our neighbor fulfills many of the other commandments of God. We owe the greatest debt to Christ our Savior, though, and the salvation He has come and brought near to us, in His saving work for us. We are called to remain spiritually awake and to continue to trust in Christ, just as when we first believed and were baptized and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and His robe of righteousness. See Galatians 3:27-29 and Isaiah 61:10-11 also.

The Advent/Christmas season brings all this and so much more to us, in Christ. Advent means “to come to.” Jesus came to and was born in Bethlehem to be our Savior. He continues to come to our hearts and strengthen us in faith, as we remember our own baptism and His promises to us. He comes to us through His Word and in the miracle of the Lord’s Supper. And as we heard last week, Jesus also promises to us at the moment of our death, “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). And he even promises our own resurrection of the body on the last day. How confident we can be as we begin another year of God’s grace for us, this Sunday, too!

Preparing for Worship - November 23, 2025

On this Last Sunday of the Church Year, we are reminded again of the Victory that is ours in Christ, even in what looks like His Defeat, in His suffering and death for us. The psalm is a familiar one for us, Psalm 46, Luther’s Reformation psalm. Even in the midst of great trouble, God is our Refuge and Strength, and is a very present Help for us, even when chaos and disturbance surround us. The psalmist refers to the River in verse 4, which is associated with the Garden of Eden in its perfect beginning, as described in Genesis 2:10. The fall into sin destroyed that perfection and created numerous problems for God’s people, as described in Jeremiah 2:11-13. Yet God still cared for His people and called them back to faithfulness, seeking to restore them in His love with His river of delights and His Fountain of Life and Light. See Psalm 36:7-9 and Isaiah 41:17-18, as well as later prophecies like Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:5-9, which point to Jesus and His saving work, as well as eternal life with Christ in heaven. See how these prophecies tie in with the vision John sees in Revelation 22:1-5ff. The psalmist is willing, then, to “be still,” and trust in the Lord and His exalted ways, however He chooses to work them out in a troubled world, by His mercy and love in the Savior to come.

The Old Testament lesson is from Malachi 3:13-18. People in Malachi’s day were saying that it was vain, worthless, to try to serve God, because the arrogant and evildoers prosper and escape God’s judgment and seem to be better off. Then we hear that faithful believers gathered and spoke with one another and encouraged one another. The Lord heard them and renewed His promises to them. He knows those who are truly His by faith, and they are His treasured possession, and one day the distinction between the righteous by faith and the wicked will be clear, in everlasting life, for those saved by His grace. (We need to remember to get together and talk with one another in faith, too, as much as we can.)

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 23:27-43, Jesus and two criminals have been condemned to die by crucifixion. Some were lamenting the death of Jesus as unjust, but Jesus tells them to weep not for Him, but for the many who will suffer judgment in days to come for rejecting Him, their Savior. Jesus is taken to Golgotha, the place of the Skull, to be crucified with the two others. Many make fun of him and ridicule Him. If He really were the Chosen One of God, the Christ, the King, then He could and should save Himself. But Jesus prays that the Father would forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing, and that at least some would eventually be brought to faith and be forgiven. One of the criminals knows and confesses his sins and asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His Kingdom. Both died that day, but Jesus promised the forgiven sinner that “Today you will be with Me in paradise. “ It looked to so many that Jesus had lost, but He was the actual Victor, earning eternal life for all who trusted in Him by faith, and showing that in His mighty resurrection. At our death, too, Jesus says, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

The Epistle lesson is Colossians 1:13-20. It is a beautiful description of just what Christ has done for us, too, through His suffering and death and bringing us to faith in Him. God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God… and in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell… and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, making peace by the blood of the cross. In Him all things hold together, and He is the head of the church and Preeminent.” Our confidence is in Him always, as our Lord and Savior, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Preparing for Worship - November 16, 2025

As the end of the church year is coming soon, our readings tell us more of God’s plan for us and for our world. The Psalm is Psalm 98 and speaks of singing a new song of the Lord Himself working out salvation for the house of Israel and revealing His righteousness and steadfast love and faithfulness and salvation also in the sight of the nations all over the earth. A time of judgment is coming, but there can be a joyful noise and songs, all over the earth, instead, as people trust the Lord and His plan of salvation in Christ.

The Old Testament lesson, Malachi 4:1-6, is also a prophecy of what is to come. A fire of judgment is coming, when all arrogant and evildoers will be stubble, with neither root nor branch. For those who fear and trust the Name of the Lord, though, and His Word through Moses (and others), the Sun of Righteousness will come with healing, and the wicked will be like ashes under the feet of God’s people. (See Romans 16:20.) Someone like Elijah will come and turn the hearts of many back to the Lord and to fellow believers, before a decree of utter destruction comes. (See Luke 1:13-17, where John the Baptist is clearly identified as the prophet who would come in the Spirit and power of Elijah to do this preparatory work for the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus. See also Luke 1:67-79, and look at Matthew 3, where John preaches of the judgment to come and yet also tells of Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior. See how Jesus also identifies John the Baptist as “the Elijah who is to come,” in Matthew 11:2-15.)

The Gospel lesson is Luke 21:5-28 (29-35), where Jesus predicts a time of judgment, during which the temple in Jerusalem and Jerusalem itself will be destroyed. He gives His people who trust in Him and His saving Name a way to recognize and flee from Jerusalem when that terrible time comes (as it did in 70AD). None of this is the actual end, though. Faithful believers in Jesus will keep on sharing the Good News of salvation through Him, even though there will be great opposition at times. There will be the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms, and numerous natural disasters, but the Good News will continue to be spread wherever possible, as it still is today. This is “the times of the Gentiles,” when many more non-Jews will come to faith, though God still wants all people to come to faith in Christ, and the witness to Jewish people of God’s love in Christ Jesus needs to continue, too. Near the end, if we are still alive at that time, there will be “signs” in the skies and “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” and “distress” on earth. We don’t know what all that means or will be, but we are called to be ready, by faith in Christ and His Word. This is not to be a time of great fear, but we are called to trust the Lord, day by day, and straighten up and hold our heads high, because the time of the final redemption from this troubled world is near. “The Son of Man, our Lord Jesus, is coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Then, “Heaven and earth, the physical universe as we know it, will pass away, but the Words of Jesus will not pass away," and there will be new heavens and a new earth, whatever that fully means (2 Peter 3:13 and 1 John 3:2-3), in which righteousness dwells and all is in perfection and all believers will continue to be with the Triune God and the angels forever in perfect peace and joy.

In the Epistle lesson, 2 Thessalonians 3:(1-5) 6-13, Paul reminds us again of what we are to be doing, until the return of Christ on the last day. We are to pray “that the Word of the Lord would speed ahead and be honored” among many more people, and that the Lord would “direct our hearts to His love and to the steadfastness of Christ,” to keep us going in good and difficult times. Paul also warns about people in the church living in idleness and has that famous saying, “If anyone is not willing to work (who could work), let him not eat.” Paul even advises trying to keep away from such people for a time, in the hope that they will wake up and repent. All who can should “work quietly and earn their own living” and not become weary in doing good. Paul uses himself as an example to the church. He had the right to expect to be paid for his work for the believers in Thessalonica. (See 1 Corinthians 9:9-12,18 and 1 Timothy 5:18, for example.) Instead Paul worked night and day as a tentmaker, to show that the Gospel is a free gift of God (1 Corinthians 9:16-18)  and that he was not preaching and teaching for his own profit (1 Thessalonians 2:9) and so that he could be an example for others to follow (2 Thessalonians 3:7,9). Above all, Paul prays that the Lord of peace would give the believers peace at all times in every way, for He promises to be with us always, to the end of the age. (See the words of Jesus also in Matthew 28:20 and His Word of promise that the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, would be with us, in John 14:25-27.) There is our hope, in Christ, always.