Trinity 11 Service
You have shame and regret just like St. Paul had, and just like the tax collector in the parable had. You might describe yourself similarly to how Paul did, considering Christ to have appeared last of all to you, as to one untimely born—the least of all those who have been called, unworthy to be such because of your sins. But then, knowing that, why would you hold onto those things as if God hasn’t already provided the solution to them? Why would you try to make a Pharisaical claim before Him, as if pointing out others’ sins would be of any help to you?
Christ is the answer. Go before Him along with the tax collector and simply say, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ And then along with him go away justified. Go away knowing that (as Paul says in the epistle), by the grace of God you are what you are—a citizen of God’s eternal kingdom—that place filled with forgiven sinners who have forsaken their own righteousness and put themselves at God’s mercy in Christ. That mercy is for you and any person who wants it. You are forgiven because of Christ. To Him be all glory and honor, both now and forevermore.
Trinity 10 Service
In this place—this house of prayer, this temple of the Lord, this place where God causes His Name to be remembered—we hang on Jesus’ Words, because in Him we have forgiveness and salvation. In His Words we come to know the things that make for peace.
Trinity 9 Service
While there is no shortage of charges that could be brought against all of us, they come to nothing in the presence of Christ. He is the One Who is unfailing in His faithfulness. Nothing about His service could be questioned. And His service is what stands in the place of yours before God. In Him, your accounting before God is a perfect accounting. It is the accounting that considers your sins entirely and freely forgiven.
Trinity 7 Service
So, as you are sent away today, you need not be hungering as far as your relationship with God is concerned. You have been nourished with what God has provided—His Spirit-filled powerful Word and Supper. You need not faint under the burden of guilt. You need not languish under the harassment of Satan with his threats of the consequences to come from your sins. You have come to Jesus and had all of it removed as the free gift of God.
Trinity 6 Service
We could only be reconciled with God in Christ, Who lived perfectly in our place, and Who made payment for our sins with His innocent sacrifice. In Him your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. In Him you are fit to enter God’s kingdom. In Him there is no one to accuse you. He has taken every accusation of yours, suffered every penalty. The issue of sin in your relationship to God is forever solved in Jesus.
Trinity 5 Service
As important as it was for the men in our text to catch fish, even more important was following Jesus. At a certain point the last fish will have been caught, the last meal prepared, the last payment made for goods in this world. Our last breath will be breathed too. None of the things we toil at and concern ourselves with will be important then. But God’s kingdom remains. It doesn’t (like this world) move on toward an end. It truly lasts. Jesus is the One Who is worth leaving everything else to follow.
Festival of the Holy Trinity Service
God is able and willing to see you before Him apart from your sins. He will see you as having put on the garment of Christ’s righteousness instead. And when He sees you that way He only sees the perfect life that Jesus lived for you. He only sees someone who has done good. You are represented by Christ before Him through faith.
Pentecost Service
God addressed the problem of our hard hearts that would ignore His salvation with the Holy Ghost’s work through the Word and Baptism. We can’t make ourselves believe in God’s love and mercy in Christ; but He can. He comes to us through the ministry of His Word that took on a new urgency on a special day of Pentecost. He teaches us of our need—showing us our sins, and then our Savior Who removed them. See that Savior today, Whom the Holy Ghost proclaims in Word and Sacrament.
Ascension Sunday Service
If you imagine yourself among the disciples who were present on that day, you don’t look intently up into the sky in confusion or uncertainty; you look there in anticipation of what you are to inherit on whatever day God has in mind. It is yours because your Savior is there, and has prepared it for you. He is working there continually for you, as the One Who calls you His own.
Easter 6 Service
We ask the Father in His name, and we receive. We receive to the extent that our joy is full. We anticipate the inheritance of God’s kingdom. The Father loves us for Christ’s sake. He loves you. He forgives you your sins. He forgives you in Jesus’ Name.