Our readings today, Isaiah 5:1-7 and the Gospel, Matthew 21:33-46 reflect the ancient cultural connection to the cultivation of grapes for wines. Both testaments offer the vineyard as symbol of God’s desire for us to yield good fruit. Now, there’s a pretty good vineyard story, before...
Psalm 25 is a beautiful statement of faith, confession of sin, reminder of God’s grace and faithfulness – and also complex literature. It is an acrostic, that is, each successive verse begins with the succeeding consonant of the Hebrew alphabet, verse one with aleph, verse...
King David begins Psalm 27 by proclaiming: “The Lord is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?” The Lord is the true light and strength in our...
Interesting to me how important in Scripture is the concept, and the action, of forgiveness. It begins early in His-story: in Genesis 3 God forgives the first sinners, does not condemn them, but clothes them to withstand the world outside the Garden. God is a...
Today, together, we speak much of Psalm 51, David’s heart-felt prayer of confession, and of confidence in God’s forgiving grace. You know the story: Nathan came to David to confront him with the terrible sin to which David had fallen, resulting in the death of...
Paul’s letter to the church at Rome is many things – as complete an exposition of God’s grace through faith for the sake of Jesus Christ as can be found in scripture; it is also Paul’s admonition as to how those Roman Christians might behave...
The gospel reading for this day is Matthew 16: 13-20. You might want to have that handy to follow as we walk through this lesson together. Jesus and the apostles are once again found away from their northern Israel homeland, perhaps 25 miles north of the...
Jesus, true man while true God, can be seen in scripture to react like a true man, remember? He wept before restoring Lazarus. Clearing the temple of dishonest money changers perhaps we see some temper alongside his desire to purge His Father’s house of apostasy....
Our opening hymn this weekend is “Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty,” an oldie but a goodie you likely know pretty well. The hymn was written by Benjamin Smolck, he born 1672 in what is now Poland, becoming a Lutheran pastor. More influential than Smolck...
Welcome to a little different service this weekend! We have, in the Sanctuary, hundreds of bees. That’s right, God’s little creatures, intended by Him to serve his creation as pollinators, have chosen to inhabit our roof structure. Hundreds of the poor dears are flying into, somehow,...