Shows
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Christian Memorial of Susanna Antonetti Memorial service for Susanna Joy Anastasia Antonetti, unborn daughter of Pastor and Karin Antonetti. Sermon by Rev. Dan Greg, Zion Lutheran Church, Bensenville, Illinois.
2025-10-1214 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsWhat's in a Name? Sermon for the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of JESUSAnd at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.What’s in a name? Now that my wife is pregnant with our third child, we are, of course, going through the exciting discussion of what to name the child. We know names are important – often we choose them to honor people we love – we can avoid certain names when it rem...
2023-12-3119 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Lent Midweek 1 St. Peter calls us Christians “sojourners and exiles.” We are not in the place where we are truly from, where we are supposed to be. He recalls the memory of the ancient Judahites who went into exile in Babylon because of their sin. These people were held far from their homes as second-class citizens, with no temple to worship God. They wept at the fact of their exile, even as their captors mocked them. This is the image we have of our life on earth as Christians. We are not yet in the place we should be. Baptized and beli...
2022-03-0911 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Invocabit, the First Sunday in Lent The first lesson in the catechism is the First Commandment, and hopefully all the confirmation students here should have this learned by heart, “You shall have no other Gods.” As you know from the explanation, this means, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” The story of God and humanity is wrapped up in the first commandment. We have a God who is worthy of fear, love, and trust, because there is nothing and no one greater, more loving, more trustworthy. Everything we have comes from him. The history of the human response is to fear, lo...
2022-03-0617 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Ash Wednesday Why not be a hypocrite when you fast? Of course, no one wants to be known as a hypocrite, but Jesus doesn’t give instructions about hypocrisy for everything. Matthew speaks about hypocrisy in prayer, fasting, and judging others without your own repentance. The pharises are often called hypocrites for this kind of judgment. Jesus says they outwardly want to be seen as keeping the law but break it in practice.
2022-03-0213 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Sexagesima Jesus tells a parable of the sower who sows one seed in four different places. Only in the good soil does the seed grow into a plant that yields a harvest, but in the good soil it yields a great harvest. In the other soils, the plant dies, or does not grow at all. As Jesus says, the seed is the word of God. It does not change, the same message of repentance and faith is broadcast to all. All people are characterized by the four different soils. While the word is good, the people may resist or fall...
2022-02-2017 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Septuagesima Jesus Christ has given you good work to do, and all by grace. While you did not deserve to do anything but idle without any meaning, He has brought you into his vineyard to work, to do something that really eternally matters.
2022-02-1313 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus is made manifest in His Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is the final Epiphany on the final Sunday of the Epiphany season. Peter, James, and John, led to the top of the high mountain, see Jesus in His glory as the Son of God. His face shines like the sun and his clothes become as white as the light. Though Jesus is often portrayed in paintings with a sort of angelic look, there would have been a great contrast. Jesus, scripture says, was not a man who was much to look at. The vision the three disciples receive at the...
2022-02-0613 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Faith is trust in Jesus, and you should be careful not to hear this passage outside of faith. Outside of faith, the eyes are the ruler. The eyes say, I see everything is good and fine in my life, therefore God loves me, or, I see terrible storms and problems in my life, therefore there is no God, or He doesn’t care for me. If you look at Jesus calming the storm outside of faith, you would think it means that Jesus will make your life easy. Maybe you have heard misguided teachers say such things, that Jesus is...
2022-01-3014 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany In football, a long pass to the endzone, usually end of the game is called a “hail Mary” or sometimes “throwing up a prayer.” The idea is that of taking one last shot to win, looking more to providence or luck than skill or strategy. Of course, rarely is such a play done at the beginning of the game, when the coaches rely on their skill of their players and play calling, and no team would throw a hail Mary for every play of the game.
2022-01-2313 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany The miracle of the water into wine may be one of Jesus’ strangest miracles. It is completely unnecessary for Jesus to do. This isn’t Jesus cleansing a leper who has been suffering his entire life, or bringing sight to the blind, or raising a dead daughter. If the wine had run out and they were unable to get more for the wedding, nothing much would have been lost. It’s extravagant. It’s unnecessary. And that’s the point. Jesus is made manifest in his extravagant work for you.
2022-01-1612 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Baptism of Our Lord JESUS comes to John in the wilderness to be baptized by him. John refuses. He has been giving a baptism for repentance of sins. John knows that Jesus has no sins to repent of. John knows that Jesus has no reason to be washed clean. Jesus is already clean. In comparison, John is the one who is sinful and unclean. They should switch places. Yet Jesus answers him, “Let it be so now, for this it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.”
2022-01-0912 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas Has God forgotten us? The Magi’s visit to the Christ child is great with their expensive gifts, but it means that now Jesus, the true King of the Jews, has come under jealous Herod’s radar. It seems every time things are going well Satan comes to throw up a brick wall. Is this all for nothing, the travel, the manger, the shepherds, the Magi? Will Joseph and Mary’s family end so soon?
2022-01-0212 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Eve of the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus Tonight’s sermon, is the last sermon you will probably hear in the year of our Lord 2021, as tomorrow begins the year of our Lord 2022. That is what A.D. means on our calendar, the Year of Our Lord. For these are the years after the coming of Christ, when God became man and dwelt among us. Secularists may try to erase the religious aspect of our years by calling them C.E., or Common Era, instead of A.D. Yet the years do not change, nor can they change the fact that Jesus Christ, God and Man, come to...
2021-12-3112 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Feast of St. Stephen The problem when we read a great martyrdom account like that of St. Stephen, is that we think we cannot relate, as we have never been persecuted for our faith. Our lives can seem petty and insignificant in comparison. This not true, persecution is not just the glorious death by stoning of St. Stephen or a Bible smuggler imprisoned by communists. Persecution is a spectrum, it is a wide array of attacks by the world which tempt us to abandon or compromise our faith.
2021-12-2614 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Christmas Day In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This creation of God in the very beginning, God’s absolute creation from nothing, was formless, empty, and dark. It was uninhabitable by anything – plant, animal, angel or man. The human mind cannot comprehend the first undifferentiated creation, without distinction of matter or energy. Yet God was there, and the Spirit of God hovered over this undifferentiated mass, this empty deep. And God said “Let there be light” and there was light. By the Word of God the very glory of the Spirit of God shone into creation.
2021-12-2516 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Christmas Eve After 400 years of silence, 400 years of no words from the prophets, the Savior is here, Christ the Lord. This Christ was foretold from the very beginning, the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head, the Son of David who would sit on the throne forever, the Ruler who would come from Bethlehem. This King is Son of God and born of Mary, both God and man, but He does not come into the world in a way that is impressive. For Jesus Christ has not come to establish a throne and kingdom in the world, bu...
2021-12-2415 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Rorate Coeli, the Fourth Sunday in Advent In modern American Christianity, a testimony is often what one person tells another person, usually a friend or acquaintance, about what God has done for them. Sometimes it can be a long story about how they lived a riotous and dissolute life as a younger person and now have come to a moral life of faith in Jesus. Sometimes these can be self-serving and more about the person than about Jesus. If you look at a Biblical testimony, the testimony of John, you don’t see anything about a change in his life. Rather, John defines both who he is...
2021-12-1914 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Advent Midweek 3 Who is a God like you? As we hear the final sermon this Advent season from the prophet Micah, we end with Micah’s statement, who is a God like you? He is the God who forgives sin of those who repent and trust in Him.
2021-12-1512 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Gaudete, the Third Sunday in Advent Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice! So begins the introit today on the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete – or, Rejoice! All you blind, rejoice, for you will see! All you lame rejoice, for you will walk! All you sick rejoice, for you will be cleansed! All you deaf rejoice, for you will hear! All you dead rejoice, for you will be raised! All you poor rejoice, for you will have the good news preached to you! If Jesus is truly the coming one, the Christ, then this is what we believe. When yo...
2021-12-1215 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Advent Midweek 2 Why Bethlehem? Of course, you’ve heard the Christmas songs, you’ve heard of Bethlehem, the place where Jesus is born. What is so special about Bethlehem? Well, outwardly, it’s about as special as Tampico, Illinois. It’s a town so small that it wasn’t even worth mentioning when the cities were given out to the tribes of Israel as they entered the promised land. Like, Tampico, the birthplace of Ronald Reagan, its importance comes from whom it is associated with.
2021-12-0811 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Populus Zion, the Second Sunday in Advent You heard last week that Advent is not only about the coming of Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem, but the coming of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom came when Jesus was born, comes to you now through Word and Sacrament, and will come fully when Jesus returns. It should be no surprise then that while our church is now festively decorated, thank you Hannah Guild, we hear Jesus speak about the end of the world, his final coming.
2021-12-0512 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Advent Midweek 1 At a time about 250 years after Solomon and 700 years before Christ, the people of God are divided into two kingdoms – Israel and Judah. While Judah has Jerusalem, the temple, and thus the place of true worship of God, Israel has made idols of golden calves to worship God by their own devising. This could lead one to believe by appearances that Israel is bad, while Judah is good. If you have read Micah up to this point, you know this is not true. Both have fallen away from God. Both worship idols and do evil in the sight of Go...
2021-12-0110 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Ad Te Levavi, the First Sunday in Advent Happy New Year! Today begins a new church year. It is the first Sunday of Advent. The world looks at this as the Christmas season, but for the church, that starts on Christmas day. Advent means “coming” and one of the “comings” the church looks forward to is the advent of Jesus Christ being born in the manger at Bethlehem. There is certainly nothing wrong with starting to put up decorations now and listening to Christmas music all December long. Yet as Christians, Advent does give us the opportunity to examine how we are celebrating Christmas. Do we understand what it...
2021-11-2812 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Day of Thanksgiving Four hundred years ago this year the Pilgrims at Plymouth colony held their harvest feast which came to be known as the first Thanksgiving. With the help of the local Indians, their settlement began to thrive, and their shared their bounty with their native friends. Yet this happened only after the hard winter of 1620-21, when half of the settlers died. Despite terrible hardship, these Pilgrims persevered and even saw fit to give thanks to God and share what they had been given with others.
2021-11-2512 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year “Wake, awake for night is flying!” the watchmen on the heights are crying, “Awake, Jerusalem arise!” Wake, and be watchful, for the bridegroom is coming! Get ready! This is what Jesus’ parable tells you today. Jesus is coming soon, and all those who are ready will enter with him into the feast, into eternal life. Yet those who are not ready will be shut out as Jesus says, “I never knew you.”
2021-11-2114 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Last Sunday of the Church Year When Jesus, the Son of Man, returns in glory at the end of time there will be a final judgment of all the nations. The dead will rise and everyone who has ever lived will be separated as sheep from the goats. Those sheep on his right will go to eternal life, and those goats on his left will be sent to eternal punishment. For both, the judgment is eternal, there is no appeal and no parole. There is no taking back the life and no end to the punishment. Therefore, it is critically important that you find yourself...
2021-11-1413 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Feast of All Saints Today we remember all those who have died in Christ and passed from this valley of sorrow into the arms of their savior.
2021-11-0714 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity What would you do to help a friend? What lengths would you go to for a loved one if you knew you could help them? In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus is teaching and healing in the city of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. He has just returned from the other side of the sea, where people told him to leave when he healed two demon-possessed men by driving the demons into a herd of pigs which ran off a cliff. Unlike that region, the people of Capernaum are clamoring for the healing Jesus brings.
2021-10-1012 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity If I had a nickel for every church tagline or mission statement that said “love God, love people,” I would be able to end the national coin shortage single-handedly. There is something particularly appealing in Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s question – which is the greatest commandment in the law? Yet the four-word phrase, “love God, love people,” while very catchy and memorable, doesn’t supply much meaning. What gives it broad appeal is that the meaning can be provided by whoever reads it. “Love God, love people” – what god? The god I want to love. What people? The people I want to love...
2021-10-0316 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity We know hypocrisy in others when we see it. We see it in the TV preacher who acts holy but seems most interesting in getting his viewers’ money. We see it in the politician who rails against the rich and goes to dinner galas where the plates cost more than an average car. We even see it close in home in false friends who betray us to look good in front of others. No one likes hypocrisy in other people. To say one thing and do another seems so unthinkable and cold.
2021-09-2616 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Funeral of Ronald Schoenbeck As often happens in death, Mary and Martha grieved differently for their brother. People came from all around to console them. It wasn’t until Jesus came that they really moved. At least Martha moved. Mary stayed home. Martha went because she was the kind of person who could not sit in grief.
2021-09-2014 min
2021-09-1218 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Imagine being the deaf mute man who is brought to Jesus by his friends. Your world is silent, you cannot speak rightly, then Jesus takes you aside privately and comes up close to you. He sticks his fingers in your ears and you see him spit and touch your tongue. You see Jesus look up to heaven and sigh and then “Ephphatha.” Ephphatha. Be opened. Not just a word, but the first word you ever hear. And the first word you hear is the word by which you hear.
2021-08-2218 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord As Jesus taught, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27). This, from the words of Christ in Luke, is why we remember St. Mary today. It would be truly wonderful to be the one who bore and nursed Jesus, the Son of God who became man. Mary is truly blessed among all women for this honor. Yet we are not pointed to look at Mary...
2021-08-1517 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Have you cared about a place so much you would weep to see it go? Jesus, having entered the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, now weeps over it. Jerusalem was never His home. He was not born there, that was Bethlehem. He did not grow up there, that was far north in Nazareth. Yet Jesus has been to Jerusalem many times. It was where the temple was, and for those who believed in God in the Old Testament, the temple was the place where God was present for salvation. Yet Jesus knew that this place where the faithful...
2021-08-0818 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Guest sermon by Rev. John Bucka.
2021-07-1816 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity Guest sermon by Rev. Charles Kittel
2021-07-1115 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity “The country isn’t what it used to be. Everyone has abandoned their faith in God. No one follows the truth. Everyone follows those who say evil things, and those who speak the truth are ignored or canceled. The government is completely corrupt, the worst it has ever been. Even those who worship God are lukewarm and idolatrous,” so said Elijah the prophet, adding, “I am the only true believer left, and everyone wants me dead.” How broken down and despondent the prophet Elijah was! Even Old Testament Israel, the nation founded by God, could fall into deep idolatry and sin. E...
2021-07-0415 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity There are quite a few teachers and former teachers in this congregation, as well as many parents, who are the first and primary teachers in a child’s life. So many of you understand first hand that as a teacher you desire to form your student to whatever you are teaching. Especially for parents, you desire your child to learn from you and become more like you, at least in the good things you wish to impart, and not in your shortcomings. Even though no one expects the student to become a clone of the teacher, for a student to...
2021-06-2714 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity When Jesus comes, everything gets cleaned up. When something is not getting done which needs to be done, you take it into your own hands. That’s what Jesus does. This is what makes the Pharisees grumble against Him. Jesus is calling sinners to himself. He seeks and saves the lost. The Pharisees and the scribes, the leaders of Israel, the ones who knew the law, were supposed to be doing this.
2021-06-2012 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Sunday after Trinity A man prepared a party and no one showed up. What a terrible circumstance, it’s one that people have stressful dreams about. It’s one thing to ask for a favor, like helping you move, and no one wants to come. To refuse a free party must really put that host low on their priorities list. The man had even invited the guests already, he was just telling them everything was set and it was time to come. This parable could seem harsh, but if you put yourself in the place of the host of the banquet, you can...
2021-06-1313 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the First Sunday after Trinity Jesus presents this story of two men, the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man has what the world would consider the perfect life. Lazarus has what the world would consider a wretched, awful life. One might say Lazarus pulled the short straw, that chance worked against him. The rich man lucked out, won the lottery of life. Or maybe the rich man deserved it because he was such a great guy, and no one really liked Lazarus’ personality. Or Lazarus was the victim or an oppressive system that the rich man benefited from. Call it chance or karma or...
2021-06-0614 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Holy Trinity Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity! While every other feast of the church year refers to an event – Jesus’ birth, baptism, resurrection, etc., the day of the Holy Trinity is one where we commemorate a doctrine. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is that we worship one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the reality of God which Scripture reveals to us, but we cannot rationally understand, because it means that 1 equals 3. In the Trinity we see how God is much greater than us and beyond our understanding. If we could full...
2021-05-3013 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Feast of Pentecost You are probably familiar with the story of Noah, that God sent a flood to destroy the earth, but preserved Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, on the ark, along with pairs of every kind of animal on earth. After the waters receded and the ark rested on dry land, Noah’s family along with all the animals were commanded to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Humanity after Noah was intended by God to spread over the whole world.
2021-05-2315 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Exaudi, the Sunday after the Ascension Who is the Holy Spirit? He is not an impersonal force. He is not just some aspect of the Father and the Son. He is the Third Person of the Trinity, equally God to the Father and the Son. We confess in the Nicene Creed that He proceeds from the Father and the Son, as we read in our gospel lesson today. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is one, “whom I will send to you from the Father…who proceeds from the Father.” This is the Biblical way we distinguish the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from one another – the Fath...
2021-05-1614 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus was not the first man to ascend into heaven. As we heard in our office hymn this evening, a man named Enoch was translated into heaven. As Genesis tells us, after walking with God for 365 years this great-grandfather of Noah then was not, for God took him. Elijah also, as we heard in the Old Testament lesson, was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. This greatest of the Old Testament prophets by the works God did through him was allowed to enter into heavenly glory without dying. So ascending into heaven is not new with...
2021-05-1315 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Rogate, the Sixth Sunday of Easter In our gospel lesson, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us very clear and precious promises concerning prayer. While the Gospel of St. John does not contain the Lord’s Prayer, as do Matthew and Luke, Jesus speaks in detail about the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer after His own resurrection and ascension. Think of these words of Jesus along with the Lord’s Prayer, that prayer He gave to us, the perfect prayer which asks for all things that we will need from God.
2021-05-0913 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Cantate, the Fifth Sunday of Easter The Christian life means a life lived in dependence on Christ, who gives us the Helper, the Holy Spirit. This is what our epistle lesson from James teaches us today. This is good to know not only for those new to the church, as Dan, who will be confirmed today, or those who return like Penny, who will be received by confession of faith. This work of the Holy Spirit is begun at the baptism of all Christians. It is strengthened and fed as the Holy Spirit works through the Word of the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper.
2021-05-0212 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Jubilate, the Fourth Sunday of Easter Something you may have wondered now in the Easter season is why we so quickly in our gospel readings move from the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection to words that He spoke before the resurrection. The women at the tomb make sense, the appearance to the twelve and Thomas make sense, but what does this teaching from before Jesus’ death have to do with Easter? Remember, the gospels are not a documentary or someone taking play-by-play notes of Jesus’ life. The Gospel of John and the other gospels were written after the resurrection. All of these gospels speak of the empty...
2021-04-2513 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Misericordias Domini, the Third Sunday of Easter Five hundred years ago today, April 18, 1521, also Misericordias Domini, the Third Sunday of Easter, Martin Luther made his “here I stand” statement. At the Diet of Worms, Luther confessed before the bishops, princes, and emperor that he would not take back any of his writings or teaching about justification by grace alone through faith alone unless he was shown his error by clear scripture. He heroically stood firm with the confession of scripture, God’s Word, even when many powerful men were against him and his life was on the line. As a result of this, the true gospel of Chr...
2021-04-1813 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Quasimodo Geniti, the Second Sunday of Easter Alleluia. Christ is risen!John always has a theological point he is trying to make in his gospel. One of John’s trademarks that the other gospel writers don’t do is to jump in and “take the mic” so to speak in order to explain the significance of what he is describing. Jesus will say “destroy this temple and I will build it in three days” and John will jump in and explain: he means the temple of His body. He does the same in this lesson. Here the sum of what Easter means, your salvation, is expressed...
2021-04-1114 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Easter Sunday Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Hear the words of David from Psalm 30: “Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:4-5). This is most true on this morning, Easter morning.
2021-04-0413 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Good Friday King David, from his palace in Jerusalem, heard that his eldest son, Absalom, had betrayed him. Angry with his father, Absalom had raised up many supporters for his own kingship and the people of Israel turned from David. Hearing reports of Absalom coming to Jerusalem, David had no choice but to leave. Leaving the city, David crossed the brook Kidron with his household and loyal foreign troops, and his loyal people wept as he left. He went up the mount of Olives and prayed that the Lord would restore him and turn the counsel of those who betrayed him...
2021-04-0215 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSaint John's Passion of Our Lord Passion of Our Lord according to Saint John, read at noon Good Friday service, April 2, 2021. From the English Standard Version.
2021-04-0212 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Maundy Thursday Memorials are an important part of our lives. It is not an exaggeration to say that the practice of gathering to remember, to memorialize things has been devastated in the past year. Perhaps this has helped you to realize how important these gatherings are in your life. These range from the common and personal, like birthdays, to one-time and personal, like funerals, to the community-wide events, like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Without these remembrances you can feel disconnected from time and history, the rhythm is life is lost and becomes a little more dull. Memorials focus...
2021-04-0113 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSaint Luke's Passion of Our Lord Reading of the Passion of Our Lord from the Gospel according to St. Luke from the English Standard Version. Read at Holy Wednesday Matins, March 31, 2021.
2021-03-3113 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSt. Mark's Passion of Our Lord Passion of Our Lord according to St. Mark, from the English Standard Version, recorded at Holy Tuesday Matins service.
2021-03-3013 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Palm Sunday Today begins Holy Week. Why is it holy? It is holy because we set this week apart to hear and remember Jesus’ suffering and death for our sins, His Passion. This so we can look forward to and understand all the more the joy of Easter, Christ’s resurrection. So why is it a week? Well, for one thing these events did take place over a week. Jesus’ triumphal entry was on Sunday, His Last Supper the following Thursday, crucified Friday, and then rose again very early Sunday morning the next week.
2021-03-2811 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSt. Matthew's Passion of Our Lord Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew, read from the English Standard Version.
2021-03-2817 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Annunciation of Our Lord In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This creation of God in the very beginning, God’s absolute creation from nothing, was formless, empty, and dark. It was a formless mass uninhabitable by anything – plant, animal, angel or man. The human mind cannot comprehend the first undifferentiated creation, without distinction of matter or energy. Yet God was there, and the Spirit of God hovered over this undifferentiated mass, this empty deep. And God said “Let there be light” and there was light. By the Word of God the very glory of the Spirit of God shined light in...
2021-03-2507 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Lent Midweek 5 Often in life we have to make compromises. Sometimes this is to reach an agreement with an equal, sometimes in love of someone who we care for, but the hardest compromises come when we are forced to do so by someone who holds power over us. This last one was the case for the three young men in our reading tonight. Along with their friend Daniel, and most of the nation of Judah, these three men were prisoners of war, deported from their homeland in Palestine to the city of Babylon. God had allowed this deportation, this exile of...
2021-03-2415 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Judica, Fifth Sunday in Lent The great blessing of having the Bible, the Word of God, so accessible to us is that we can come back to it again and again to re-orient ourselves in the midst of life. To be ‘oriented’ is to be faced east, the way that our churches face, even if they face north like ours. It is to be set in the direction of Jesus Christ, our Sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings. In his life, death, and resurrection He is primarily our gift, but also our example, for He lived a perfect human life. So a...
2021-03-2116 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Lent Midweek 4 When God saves there are always winners and losers. We sing every week to God in the Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” Sabaoth means hosts, armies, massive groups of soldiers. Our Lord is a Man of War, as the Song of Moses says. When God saves his people from evil, He truly does defeat evil. Those who oppose God, who oppress God’s people, will be on the receiving end of God’s mighty right hand.
2021-03-1713 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Laetare, Fourth Sunday in Lent This Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Lent, is traditionally seen as a little lighter than the rest of Lent. In some places the colors are changed to rose instead of violet to show the lightness of the week. The name of the Sunday, Laetare, means “Rejoice!” as we heard in the beginning of the introit today from Isaiah 66. Rejoicing isn’t something we usually associate with Lent, the time of repentance and fasting. Yet we need to know that even in repentance, even in fasting and preparation and sorrow for our sins, there is rejoicing. We rejoice because we have a...
2021-03-1414 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Lent Midweek 3 For one hundred years Noah preached to his neighbors to repent, for God was going to destroy the earth by water. The world was incredibly wicked, and no one but Noah and his family would survive. Noah was righteous before God and blameless among his generation, yet the least effective evangelist of all time. How did the world get to this point? Why was Noah’s message not heeded?
2021-03-1015 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Oculi, Third Sunday in Lent A popular ethical point of view today is that “the ends justifies the means.” That is to say that any action taken is ok as long as it is working toward a good end. Coupled with this is the common view that something is ok if “their heart was in the right place.” The supposed Christian version of this is “God knows my heart.” All of these statements take something that is objectively wrong and justify it by saying it serves some good end or goal. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus eliminates this type of thinking. For there is only good a...
2021-03-0713 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Lent Midweek 2 Now one way to sum up the message of the Bible in six words could be, “Kill the dragon, get the girl.” Now this implies that Someone is doing the work of killing and getting, and we’ll get to that, but certainly this theme comes through most clearly here in the beginning of the Bible and secondly at the end in Revelation. There’s certainly a reason for that as all things made good and innocent in the beginning will be remade and restored to perfection in the end in Christ.
2021-03-0314 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Reminiscere, Second Sunday in Lent Lent comes before Easter. Advent comes before Christmas. In the church calendar this fact is built in – God never gives anyone great fortune without first giving great hardship. We try hard to remove the curse of Adam, that all our work must involve toil and hardship. We want the benefit without the work. We want feasting without fasting. This is why we fall so often for the temptation of the devil – fall down and worship me, and all the kingdoms of the world will be yours. If there’s an opportunity to get ahead, to make things easier, to make l...
2021-02-2815 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Feast of St. Matthias (Lent Midweek 1) We often think of Peter’s first sermon as the one at Pentecost. After the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, they see tongues of fire above them and begin to speak in many languages. Peter then preaches powerfully to the Jews who have gathered in Jerusalem and three thousand are baptized that day. What we hear in our lesson from Acts is before that. This is truly Peter’s first sermon, after Jesus’ ascension, but before Pentecost. Imagine the state these first 120 Christians were in. Jesus rose from the dead to their great joy. Forty days later, and he has...
2021-02-2413 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Invocabit, First Sunday in Lent Sometimes when we think of Jesus as our God and Lord, which He is, we put Him into a place so beyond ourselves that it seems hard to relate to Him. When we view Jesus as one who is far beyond us in power, majesty, and glory, it is certainly easy to understand that He can do things for us. He rules for us, he died for us, he answers our prayer for us. This is good, but we cannot forget that Jesus is God and man, and therefore is with us. As it says in Hebrews, “For we do...
2021-02-2115 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Ash Wednesday Some of the best stories in the Bible involve fasting and ashes. In the book of Esther, before Esther goes to speak to her husband, the king, she fasts, and her cousin Mordecai sits in sackcloth and ashes when he hears the Jews are going to be destroyed. Esther successfully convinces the king to save her people. In the book of Jonah, after Jonah gets spit out by the fish, he goes to Nineveh to preach to the pagan Assyrians, “Repent, or in 40 days you will be overthrown.” This short sermon brings the brutal Assyrians to repentance, and the whol...
2021-02-1714 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Quinquagesima Everyone has heard of Valentine’s Day, despite not being a government holiday, though depending on your relationship status and expectations of your significant other it can be a day look forward to with joy, fear and dread, or simple acknowledgement. Saint Valentine seems to be generally known, as the day is often called “St. Valentine’s Day” References to various legends about him saving Christian married couples or writing notes from prison fill various children’s books. Yet despite being one of the most well-known saints by name, we actually know very little about him. We know he was a past...
2021-02-1414 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Sexagesima “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.” (1 Peter 1:24a) One doesn’t have to have been alive very long or very perceptive to recognize that almost nothing in this world lasts. Things that are extremely popular one day are forgotten the next. The newest tech item that is impossible to buy anywhere one day is found on shelves at Goodwill a few years later. The popular singer who attracts millions to stadium concerts is doing the county fair circuit in a few years. Things fall in and out of fashion seemingly from day to...
2021-02-0714 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Purification of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord The Feast of the Purification of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord may be one of the longest names for a feast day in the church year calendar, if not the longest. For many years in English-speaking churches it has been also known as Candlemas, like Christmas, but with candles, because it was the day the new candles were dedicated in the church, remembering Jesus as the “light to lighten the Gentiles.” This day, exactly forty days after Christmas, brings us a great lesson capping off the very end of the Christmas season. In this final account of Jesus’ birth...
2021-02-0211 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Septuagesima The people of Israel may have been the most forgetful people ever. Four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, and God sends Moses to deliver them from it. They see the great work of God in the ten plagues, bringing the mightiest empire in the world to its knees while they remain secure in God’s care. Freed from Egypt, God leads them to the Red Sea, where He parts the waters so they can cross and drowns Pharaoh’s mighty army. In the wilderness, God makes bitter water sweet. God provides bread from heaven for them to eat. They...
2021-01-3112 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord After six days, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to a high mountain by themselves. Like the six days which led to the culmination of creation, this sixth day leads to the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry. This is the peak, the highest he will go in glory in his ministry. After this, he heads to Jerusalem to suffer and die for our sins. As it was in Jesus’ life, so this Sunday celebrating the Transfiguration comes at the perfect time at the end of Epiphany and before Lent. We have heard of Jesus’ birth, the glorious angel hosts announ...
2021-01-2413 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” In this final sentence of our gospel reading, we get the full summary of this lesson and why Jesus performed this miracle. Jesus, coming in humility, being God in human flesh, had not performed any miracle before this or shown his divine nature. Here at Cana he did so to show His glory – make manifest, give an epiphany. Therefore, his disciples believed in Him. Ultimately Jesus does this work to create faith, that we may be saved.
2021-01-1713 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Baptism of Our Lord The baptism of Jesus is recounted in three of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in John it is mentioned after already having happened. You can be sure that when an event in Jesus’ life is in all four gospels, it is important. Obviously it’s an important enough event that we have a whole Sunday dedicated to it. The Baptism of Our Lord is a key day that has many aspects that connect the other parts of the church year as well. We are brought back to the work of John the Baptist that we heard about in A...
2021-01-1014 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord Who were the wise men? Well, traditions around the wise men seem to have filled in a lot more of the story than we actually hear in scripture. The Bible calls them “magi” meaning magicians or astrologers. The idea of them being “we three kings” came about 500 years after their lives and is influenced by our Old Testament reading in Isaiah 60:3 “And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” They fulfill the roles of these kings of nations who were to come bow to the promised Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament. I...
2021-01-0612 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas While you should not consider this a law from God, it is usually best to baptize a child as soon as he is able to come to church. His need is great – despite innocent appearance every child born is corrupted by original sin and under the dominion of death and the devil unless Christ frees him. The good news is that Christ has died for us and taken away all our sin. In baptism, all the benefits of Christ are given to him - It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to...
2021-01-0312 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of JESUS There is no need to dwell on such things that we hear every day, but no doubt practically everyone here had some kind of disappointment or loss this year, if not just stress from the constant bad news that people love to report in the media and social media. Along with this, there is an odd trend of people treating the year 2020 itself as if it were a person who brought about all these problems. As if something inherent in the year brought about the various troubles, and if we just get to 2021, we will be ok. It is...
2020-12-3117 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Christmas Eve “Fear not!” Cries the angel appearing before the shepherds. Why does the angel cry this? What is there to fear with angels? Aren’t they pretty feminine creatures in robes? Or cute chubby babies? Aren’t they just the spirits of our lost loved ones?
2020-12-2414 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Rorate Coeli, Fourth Sunday in Advent God sent a man named John to bear witness about Jesus. He was not Jesus, but he came to bear witness about Jesus. God sent John into the wilderness to preach and to baptize. John preached, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” Many came to John. They repented of their sins and were baptized. John gained a following. He preached and baptized. He did not waver in his mission.
2020-12-2013 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Advent 3 Midweek Service Here in Isaiah we have the Law and the Gospel given in clear terms as the Lord speaks through the prophet. As we just spoke in the Ten Commandments, the Law tells us what we should do and what God’s eternal will for us is. The Gospel, as we spoke in the Creed, tells us the Good News of what God has done for us, especially that He has forgiven us, as we cannot keep the Ten Commandments on our own. How is this possible? What is the connection between the law and the gospel? The very death an...
2020-12-1613 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Gaudete, Third Sunday in Advent “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Why does John the Baptist send his disciples to ask Jesus this question? It is a question of doubt from the very one who was sent to prepare the way for Jesus. Could the very one who baptized Jesus, who saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descend like a dove, who heard a voice from heaven saying “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17) really be wondering if Jesus is the Coming One? Or is John sending these disciple...
2020-12-1314 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Day of Thanksgiving On a Day of Thanksgiving unlike any in recent years, when many of us may not be able to gather with family and friends as we wished, it may be hard to get into the thankful mood. When old traditions stop it can make us uncomfortable. So here’s something traditional, something always associated with Thanksgiving – the Pilgrims - those hardy Englishmen and women who came to the new world seeking religious freedom and a new way of life. Especially appropriate this year, since it is the 400th anniversary of their landing at Plymouth Rock.
2020-11-2614 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year On this last Sunday of the church year, we hear about the last things – Jesus Christ returning in glory to judge the living and the dead. In the last two weeks, we heard of the parables of the ten virgins and the talents, to know we need to be watchful for Christ’s return, and that to everyone who has, more will be given, and an abundance. Today’s reading from Matthew is often called the parable of the sheep and the goats, but it isn’t really a parable. It is a description of Jesus’ real judgment at the end of...
2020-11-2213 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost Our world is full of distrust. We don’t have to look around much to see that trust seems to be at an all time low. Divided, polarized, split – all these terms are constantly used to describe the state of our society. Every election is the most important ever, more critical than the last, which was also the most important ever. Every change seems like it will bring doom, or every time things don’t change doom will come faster. What is the cause of this fear, division, and strife? Distrust. Distrust fuels division, it fuels contempt for others, it fue...
2020-11-1515 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost On the night he was betrayed, after the last supper, Jesus led his disciples out to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. Going a littler farther, he took Peter, James, and John with him and asked them to keep watch with him. Then Jesus went on his own to pray. Knowing that he must suffer and die for the sins of the world, Jesus prayed to his Father that this cup may pass from him, but ultimately that the Father’s will be done. When Jesus returned to the disciples, they were asleep, not keeping watch, for “the Spirit is w...
2020-11-0815 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for All Saints Day All Saints Day is the most comprehensive of all commemorations in the church year. While most feast days remember a moment in Jesus’ earthly life, or the people who knew him, All Saints Day remembers all the faithfully departed in the church, that great cloud of witnesses – Christians who have died and are now with Christ. This is a day of great comfort, for we see that Christ our Good Shepherd cares individually for each Christian, and in the end those who are sealed by his Word shall never again face suffering, but worship our God, Father, Son, and Holy...
2020-11-0115 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for Reformation Sunday “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is probably Luther’s best-known hymn across all denominations and one of the most well-loved by Lutherans. We identify it with Reformation Day, calling it “The Battle-Hymn of the Reformation.” No one is completely sure when Luther wrote it. One of the most dramatic and appealing theories is that it was written for the Lutheran princes to sing as they came to present the Augsburg Confession – the core Lutheran beliefs – to the emperor.
2020-10-2516 min
St. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost Sermon Text: Matthew 22:15-22 If you’ve been paying attention the past few weeks as we hear from Matthew 21 and 22, you should notice that the Pharisees and the leaders of the Jewish people have been taking a pummeling from Jesus. He has spoken parable after parable showing that they have not been faithful in the leadership position they are in. They have instead been hurting their own flock by trying to hinder them from the one thing they really need – Jesus. Instead of repenting and turning to Jesus, the very message that John the Baptist had been prea...
2020-10-1811 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sermon Text: Matthew 22:1-14Several hundred years before the time of Christ, in the land of Persia, the Jews had a great feast because a man had been hanged. That man’s name was Haman. Haman was a high-ranking official in Persia with an extremely high view of himself. He expected everyone to bow down when he went down the street. One day a man named Mordechai, a Jew, didn’t bow down. This ticked off Haman, so he tricked the king of Persia into making a decree that all Jews be killed for treason. Yet Mordechai was...
2020-10-1115 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sermon Text: Matthew 21:33-46The sunk cost fallacy is a principle in business and economics where investment is continued in something simply on account of the amount already put into it. The sunk cost is the amount that has already been invested, and cannot be recovered, which is compared to the prospective costs, which may be added in the future if no action is taken. Say you have a car, which you have owned for 20 years and have put hundreds of thousands of miles on it. The last few years you have been putting more and more...
2020-10-0412 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost 2020 Sermon Text: Matthew 21:23-32“We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” (Small Catchecism I.2) This is Luther’s explanation of the First Commandment in the Small Catechism. God says “you shall have no other Gods” (Exodus 20:3) and Luther deftly explains what a false god means in a way much more broad than merely talking about Allah, Shiva, or Zeus. A god is whatever we put our fear, love, and trust in above all things. This could be some false god, made of wood or stone, but more often in our time gods are things lik...
2020-09-2714 minSt. Paul's Lockport SermonsSermon for the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sermon Text: Matthew 20:1-6When I was teaching on today’s gospel lesson in seminary, someone asked me, “If the first men who were called to work didn’t get good pay, why did they even go? I would have gone to work somewhere else.” I thought that was a legitimate question. Questions like this that dig into the meaning of the parables are great. Too often we just take parables, or any scripture text, as is and in a sort of piety say, “mmm…hmm…yes, very true. Very wise. Nice lesson.” We act as if since we are Chr...
2020-09-2014 min2020-09-1314 min2020-09-0611 min2020-08-1616 min