St. Michael and All Angels 2024

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Demons are real. One-third of the spirits, or angels, rebelled along with Lucifer, the “light-bearer.” The light-bearer turned to the darkness. Some of these demons in the course of time gained a very strong influence over certain nations and governments. By mastering the rulers, they control the governments. In antiquity, they developed rituals to worship the demons, which we call idolatry. In the modern Western world, the worship of demons takes a different form. The demons have turned mankind to celebrate in our own destruction. And that demonic influence is at work in the government and primary cultural institutions of our nation....

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Robert Kreinheder Funeral

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What impressed me immediately when I first met Bob were the books. Shelves and shelves of glorious books, and more piled nearby. Yet while Bob was a reader, he didn’t boast about what he’d read or what he knew. He asked questions.

He cared about this city. What it is supposed to do and be, what it represented, and who played baseball for it. Retired more than a decade by the time I met him, he and Hazel both had careers protecting the interests of our nation. He wouldn’t talk about it, despite my occasional prodding. He also didn’t like to talk about himself. But we should note he was a graduate with honors from Cornell, and that same year went to work for the NSA as a cryptologist and language analyst. He was humble; he loved and was proud of his family, and he cared about America, the shining city on the hill....

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Trinity 17, 2024

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Do you want to be the donkey, or the master? Turned in on ourselves, we don’t merely want to be the master of one donkey. We would like to own a thousand donkeys, a thousand beasts of burden to do my work – a valet to prepare my clothing, an army of lawyers to solve my problems. But in the language of today’s parable, we are not the master. We are the donkey, the one in the pit.

“Which of you,” Jesus addresses the Pharisees at their Sabbath dinner, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” We are the donkey fallen into a pit. Look at your life! We’re in a pit of problems, sins of our own and the world’s corruption pushing us down. To adapt the story of Sisyphus, we try and try and try to climb out, but just as we reach the top, slide back down again. ...

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Trinity 16, 2024

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We cannot say, “Mine is the true religion; yours isn’t true.” That’s what the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, said on Friday. He continued,

All religions are a path to reach God. They are, to use a comparison, like different languages, different dialects to get there…. There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths.

To assert one’s religion is true, the Pope said, this leads to destruction. With these words, the pope places himself outside the Christian faith. It’s a tragedy that goes back nearly a thousand years. The claims of the bishop of Rome split the church in two in 1054, and Rome’s continued false teachings led to the fragmentation of Christianity in the West in the sixteenth century. This is a tragedy, and we must long for unity. But we cannot allow false teaching about salvation. That is not loving. Truth matters. The Word of God matters. The Gospel matters. ...

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LCMS International Center Matins Sermon

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The day we brought him home, I began a routine every night at my son’s bedtime. After our prayers and before the blessing, I say to him, “James Julius, you are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” It’s adapted from the words of the Father at Christ’s baptism. Today’s Bible reading says the Father now identifies us with His beloved Son: The Father qualifies us, or makes us sufficient, to share in Christ’s inheritance; He transfers us into His beloved Son’s kingdom.

Well it’s a great thought, and they’re easy words to say to an infant: “James Julius, you are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” A long time goes by, night after night after night, and I remain well pleased. But of course the time inevitably came when the Old Adam gained the upper hand. It had been a rough evening. Rebellion, and raised voices. I was disappointed in him. I was angry. I was not well-pleased. Did you ever see The Incredibles? Great movie. “I’m not happy, Bob. NOT HAPPY!”

What then? Do you still say the words? ...

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The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 2024

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Jonathan Haidt’s important book The Anxious Generation demonstrates that smartphones and social media multiply anxiety. This is particularly true for adolescents. He’s right. Yet the problem of anxiety is not new. Tolstoy in the 19th century said, “Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.”

Election years exacerbate anxiety. But anxiety haunts the human experience. A little 4 year old spent Tuesday morning crying through morning prayer on the first day of school, right over there. Perhaps the mother was also weeping. Letting go of your child, whether for JK or her freshman year out of state, is fraught with worry....

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The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity 2024

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“Dear God.” With these words many prayers begin. But when the desired outcome is achieved, God is no longer so dear. He was a means to an end.

Many people treat each other like that. Relationships are transactional. So long as one gets something valuable from the relationship, he’ll maintain the pretext of friendship. It’s painful to learn someone was never truly your friend.

What about the ten lepers in today’s Gospel? They cry out to Jesus in their need. When the need is met, they skedaddle....

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Trinity 13, 2024

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Man was made in the image of God. When man rebelled, his own hubris damaged the image. Man, steward of the world, was wounded, throwing the world into disarray. Creation’s harmony was disrupted. If we think of harmony in musical terms, what we get now is dissonance. It grates, and unresolved, it drives us to madness. So the world is filled with insanity, corruption, and death. It is disordered, and man—who was intended to maintain the world’s order and harmony—fulfills not the task God gave us. All this, some of the fathers called trauma. ...

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Free Speech and the Culture of the Therapeutic

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The increasing attacks on freedom of speech in America are well-documented. Gov. Walz’s recent assertion against this constitutional right is unsurprising. This trend is part of the larger movement of the therapeutic-based ideology that has captured Western politics and education….

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