The Festival of the Reformation 2024

in

The history in Europe is of church decline through tyrannical governments.

But the church in America has declined with only mild hostility from the state. What has caused the decline here? Americans view church membership with less loyalty than a gym, supermarket, or airline preference. Convenience and amenities triumph over doctrine. The politics of the community matter more than the confession of faith. In the middle ages, backs were whipped in penance, and we call it darkness. Today votes are whipped, and we call it democracy. This is not reformation.

We cannot celebrate the Reformation today without acknowledging the need for reformation in our own congregation, and for each of us to confess the need for reformation in his own life….

Read More

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 2022

in

There are two men in today’s parable. Both believe in God. One is saved; the other is damned. Why? Because one is a better person? Not so! In today’s parable, the condemned man is honest and fair; he is faithful to his wife; he tithes (i.e., he gives 10%) to the church; he prays to the one true God. Yet despite all his good works, and his belief in God, Jesus says that this man was not justified.

Justification is the central doctrine of Christianity. Justification is the article by which the Church stands or falls. Justification was the number one issue in the Reformation. More than indulgences, or the papacy, or monks howling masses for money, justification was the central issue. Take away the Bible’s teaching of justification, and you end up with an entirely different religion….

Read More

Tenth Sunday after Trinity 2022

in

Our church stands in the line of the church catholic of the West. As the power of the papacy became tyrannical and heretical, and scholastic theology drifted further and further from Holy Scripture, a reformation was necessary. The temple needed to be cleansed. We are heirs of that reformation.

One of the major issues needing reform in the sixteenth century was the idea that Mass—what we call Divine Service—was a sacrifice. Go to any local Roman church and you will hear the priest invite the people to pray “that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.” This idea—that the mass is our sacrifice to and for God—is the heart of why we still must remain separated from our friends in the Roman church….

Read More

Rogate 2022

in

Sometimes you’ll hear folks slander Luther by saying things like, “He took James out of the Bible.” That’s nonsense. He included James, and the entire apocrypha, in his German translation of the Bible. But even if he had removed a book from the Bible, one of the great things about being Lutheran is we don’t have to regard him, or any man, as infallible. But did Luther in his later years keep saying the same things about James? …

Read More

Invocation for the Investiture of the Honorable Liam P. Hardy

in

The honorable Liam Hardy is indeed an honorable man. A devoted husband and father, he is also deeply devoted to the mission of this court to balance the needs of the military with an impartial application of constitutional protections to those who appear before this bench. He gave me a certain liberty to give a few remarks prior to our prayer of invocation. As a Lutheran, I’d like to very briefly reflect on the nature and source of law through the lens of a Reformation controversy….

Read More

New Jersey District Convention Sermon

in

“Repent!” That’s the first word John the Baptist preaches. It is also the first word when our Lord Jesus begins to preach. So it is to be with our own preaching.

But before we can preach, we must hear that word spoken to us. Repent!

Read More

Reformation Sermon

in

Lady Gaga tweeted on Friday, “Fame is prison.” I believe her.

“We … have never been enslaved” said the Jews to Jesus. I don’t believe them.

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons.

Perhaps you’ve struggled with an addiction. Alcohol. Video games. Porn. Social media. Gazing into the electronic abyss, fondling your phone.

Maybe you’re mired in what seems an inescapable situation. A job; a marriage; a mental construct that tyrannizes your mind and desolates your soul.

For Luther, he saw he was imprisoned by his sin. He knew God demanded righteousness. And Luther knew he was not good, no matter how hard he tried…

Read More

Reformation Sunday 2018

in

Justification happened on the cross. But justification is never past event but always present reality. Baptism delivers to us justification, and the entire Christian life is the living out of that justification. The name “Luther” is not important. The Bible that Luther gave to people in their own language is. The Bible teaching of justification, the free forgiveness of sins, that’s what is important. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

Read More