κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

Who are you? What are you looking for?  I know all of you know I know who you are. But today in light of our reading from Genesis 32, we really do need to ask ourselves these questions.  Who are you? What is your name? What are you looking for?  I’ll start by saying my name is William, and I am the pastor here at Trinity Lutheran Church. Of course, you all know that. My name has a Germanic origin, but has been popular since the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The name itself is a compound of two words ... will or desire and helmet ... Wilhelm. My name is not the most common one in America. James, John, Robert, and Michael all top me. Can you believe that the five of us ... James, John, Robert, Michael, and William ... make up six percent of the U.S. population? I guess that means we rule.  You ladies are far more diverse and creative. The top five women’s names are Mary, Patricia, Jennifer, Linda, and Elizabeth, but together you make up less than 3 percent of the...

David writes: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me (Ps 139:7-10).   Even knowing all of that, Jonah still tried to flee from God. He heard the word of God, it came to him, but he put it behind him, ignored it ... and ran from it. He became determined to do the impossible ... escape the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, ever-present, self-existent, self-sufficient, holy, just, gracious, merciful God.  When the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying “Arise; Go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has arisen before me,” Jonah arose to flee (vv. 1-2a). What was he thinking? The prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, lived nearly 3,000 years ago. You might think times...

I love reading the book of Genesis. I marvel at all that God did with his Word ... How he spoke and it was done ... how he created the paradise of delight ... the place where heaven and earth meet.  It is amazing and astonishing to look at and hear about God’s wonderful, gracious love and care for us, for the world, and for all of creation, of how his word provided peace ... of how his word nourished us and provided for us ... of how we never had to worry about freezing or roasting to death ... of how we had it made in the shade, all because of what he really said in the Word.  It is also astonishing how quickly it was gone ... with just a word of what everyone thinks God did say. Why would the serpent twist what God did say? How could Adam and Eve be so foolish and stupid by adding to what God did say? Why would they listen to even one word of that shady snake? How could they toss it all away for a lie? And why would they doubt for even one second how good they really had it?...

The Gospel reading from Matthew chapter 6 is the traditional Ash Wednesday reading about alms and fasting and prayer ... a lesson from the sermon on the mount in which Jesus warns us not to make a show of our piety “as the hypocrites do.”  Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them (v.1). ... When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you (v.2) ... When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others (v.16). These are particularly good warnings for us today as we begin the season of Lent because we are tempted to do all of that this season more than in any other as we receive the signs of our repentance on our foreheads + ... as we vow to return to the Lord, our God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:13). 3.    Most of us are conditioned to think that Lent is the season we set aside to ...

  Are you tired? Are you so tired that you don’t even realize you’re tired? Are you “reTIRED” ... working too hard for too long too often, “reTIRING” yourselves after tiring yourselves out after a lifetime of work?  Truth is, I know we’re tired. Our children are tired. Our mothers and fathers are tired. Our husbands are tired. Our wives are tired. Our world is tired. We’re constantly confronted by bickering and unrest ... upheaval and tension ... pressure and anxiety. And it’s downright tiring. We long for good rest. Some of this is just the world’s doing, but most of it is our own. We sweat the small stuff and the big stuff. It strains our marriages and relationships, which wears us from the inside out. Meanwhile, our world wrestles with psychoses, and neuroses, and simply strained nerves. Time is always at a premium, then we waste time trying to find our rest. Even the people of God have been towed under by the tides of busyness and unhappiness. We long for leisure and the L...