κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

[Introduction] Maybe you’ve seen the videos on YouTube or Facebook ... videos of babies and children and teens and adults alike all hearing sound for the first time in their life through a device called a cochlear implant. Their reactions are priceless and overwhelming. They are left with WIDE eyes, HUGE smiles, and tears of pure joy as they HEAR the word of their loved ones for the first time. If you’ve never seen one of these videos, let me tell you, when you watch, you can’t help but cry.  What must it be like not to be able to hear a Word ... or anything at all ... ever?  I know many of you have hearing aids, and if you turn them off, you might have a sense of what the man in our Gospel reading experienced when Jesus said Ephphatha . But what would it be like to live years and years never hearing anything? How disorienting would that be? In our Gospel reading, Jesus healed a man such as this. Because he could hardly speak, I suspect that means there was at least a time in ...

[Introduction] If only I had been there. That’s what we tell ourselves. If only I had seen the empty tomb. If only I had heard the angel’s announcement. If only I heard the voice of Jesus call me by name in the garden. If only I had been with the disciples in the upper room on the Sundays of Easter when Jesus appeared in their midst. If only Jesus had opened my mind to the Scriptures during the walk to Emmaus. If only I had recognized that he was with me in the breaking of the bread. If only I had been Thomas eight days later and was afforded the opportunity to put my hand in the mark of the nails. If only I had gone fishing with Peter and the boys so that I could eat breakfast on the beach with the Lord. If only I saw him ascend into heaven.  Yes ... if only ... Because then it would be so much easier to believe ... that Hallelujah! He is Risen! ... and that ... THE GOSPEL ERASES ALL DOUBT I. But wouldn’t you know it, for the first 40 days of Easter, the disciples had their doub...

[Introduction] Hallelujah! He is risen! If you attended our midweek Lenten services, you heard many Sounds of Our Lord’s Passion. The season began with cloth being ripped, a sound of repentance. We heard the chime of silver coins, a sound of betrayal. We heard weeping as tears fell from our Lord’s face, the sound of True Man and True God confronting sin. We heard water sloshing as it was poured into a basin, and Jesus reminded us to love one another. We heard the sound of trampling feet as soldiers seized Jesus in the garden and led him to the cross. We heard the rooster’s crow that reminded us not only of Peter’s denials, but ours too. We heard a mob that had been singing for joy on Palm Sunday cry out for blood on Good Friday. And we heard the pounding of the nails as Jesus was pierced for your transgressions. This morning the Sounds of Our Lord’s Passion have reached a crescendo with the Good News of an Angel wearing a white robe ... You seek Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. H...

How strange is it that today ... for the greatest and most joyful feast of the year ... the Feast of Victory of Our God ... that Saint Mark would announce the Good News of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ by noting that the women fled the tomb trembling and ecstatic ... a state of mind that is not good ... and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid! (v 8). Is that not an unusual response after hearing the Gospel that ... HE IS RISEN!? Are you afraid to share this Gospel outside of this sanctuary? I. The women were expecting to find a dead Jesus (vv 1-3). Mary the Magdalene, Mary the mother of James ... or we could say the mother of Jesus ... and Salome, the mother of the Sons of Thunder, James and John ... they had all watched the terribly bloody and gruesome crucifixion of Jesus at the place of the skull (15:40). They probably saw the centurion thrust a spear into the side of Jesus. They certainly saw Joseph of Arimathea take the body of Jesus down from the cros...

And again, having gone out of the region of Tyre, [Jesus] went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, up into the midst of the region of the Decapolis. And the people brought to him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. And they advocated for him that [Jesus] might lay his hand on him (vv 31-32). Please now open your service book to Page 323, and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer. What is the Conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer? For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. What does this mean? This means that I should be certain that these petitions are pleasing to our Father in heaven and are heard by him: for he himself has commanded us to pray in this way and has promised to hear us. Amen, amen means Yes, Yes, it shall be so. 5 So along comes God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the Father, the One through whom all things were made. Our Lo...

Once again I invite you to open your service book, this time to Page 324 ... (you might as well set a ribbon there, if you haven’t already) ... and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. What is the Fourth Petition? Give us this day our daily bread.  What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus fed about four thousand ...