Saint Matthew's

Just a couple of things:

1. My Thanksgiving Eve homily is up.

2. We have church tonight @ 7pm. Location? Saint Matthew’s Lutheran, 225 Center Street, New Milford, NJ 07646. Google Map it for directions.

3. I’ll be back in a little while. Yes, my schedule has been a little hectic. However, much of the December service planning is out of the way. I think I’ll give myself two thumbs up for that one.

This hasn’t happened in a while — my sermon is done before Saturday afternoon.

Wow.

Plus, this is the first time in a long while I actually wrote out the entire text of the sermon. During the past year, I’ve been mostly outlining my sermon. For some reason, outlining always seemed to push me to Saturday afternoons in order to complete it. Don’t know why – it just happened.

My past couple of sermons have been train wrecks, so I vowed to change it up starting this week. And by changing it up, I’m back to writing the text out by Friday, giving me plenty of time to study it. This week’s theme – our hope in God.

My last two sermons can only be described as utter train wrecks.

They were completely unfocused, overly stuffed with “junk.” Instead of letting God’s Word lead, my mind pushed it to the side and used unrelated stories that made zippo sense.

I made this revelation last night during our Midweek service. Trying to fix a homily on the fly is never something good. Thankfully, I caught my sermonizing flaw before it became something larger and more insideously bad.

There will be a stark improvement in my sermon for this coming Sunday.

I’m going to let the Holy Spirit guide me instead of shoving him off to the side.

Last night, I updated the sermon section with last night’s reading and an outline of the homily I preached. To read the homily outline, click here. And yes, it is an outline — I filled in the “blanks” as I went along. The homily was preached and it was much fuller in terms of theological content than what is on this outline.

But you’ll get my drift.

After a lot of consideration, I have decided to keep the sermon blog.

A stunner, I know.

I will also use it to upload the readings for each week and Tuesday evening Divine Service.

Tonight’s reading is up. The homily will go up later.

I was able to fix the problem with our sermon blog — it has been giving us nutty problems for nearly a year.

But it is now fixed. This week’s edition of the sermon and the readings are up on the site.

Click here.

My weekend sermon is up over on the sermon side of the site.

If you want, sign up to receive my weekend sermons via email. Just join our email list on the upper right column.

Two of my brothers in Christ (fellow 2005 graduates of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne) had wonderful sermons this past week. This isn’t saying that they don’t have wonderful sermons all the time…but this week, with the issue of temptation and our reflection on our suffering Savior this Lent here at Saint Matthew’s, these sermons truly focus us on our Lord Jesus Christ and his perfect life lived for us. First, Rev. Jared Tucher from Trinity Lutheran Church in Gillette, Wyoming.

When we are attacked and accused, we trust in Christ, who saved us by His perfect obedience, suffering, and death.  When the devil tempts us to sin, we trust in Christ and His Word of truth.  When the Law accuses us of sin, we trust in Christ and His perfect obedience.  When death demands our life, we trust in Christ and His innocent suffering and death.

Second, Rev. Joel Dietrich from Zion & Christ Lutheran Churches in Clinton and Chestnut, Illinois (though I can’t remember offhand whether which church is in what town and I’m too lazy to check):

My brothers and sisters in Christ when you get upset with being unable to defeat temptation and the devil on your own…do not give in. Jesus has gone in our place under the Law and fought real temptation for us. Christ is our substitute, not just in his suffering and dying, but also in his perfect active obedience. We are saved by the blood of Jesus, who is innocent of all sin. of Christ’s active obedience, God forgives our sins and credits Christ’s righteousness to us. When attacked and accused, we trust in Christ, who saved us by his perfect obedience, suffering, and death. When the devil tempts us to sin, we trust in Christ and his Word of truth. When the Law accuses us of sin, we trust in Christ and his perfect obedience. When death demands our life, we trust in Christ and his innocent suffering and death. Our Savior knows what it is to be tempted. He willingly faced temptation by our enemy, the prowling lion, and he did it for our salvation. He won the battle, and his victory belongs to all who trust in him. Amen.

Also this week, Rev. James Douthwaite of Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church in Vienna, Virginia had a magnificent sermon on the Temptation of Christ. I have it in my email box and I can’t seem to log on right now. When I get to it, I’ll upload it. It is just wonderful.

Now, why do I write about other pastor’s sermons? There are many clergy within the LC-MS who proclaim the Word of God clearly and do touch the hearts of sinners. When we’re talking about churches in the LC-MS who are doing sermon series on sex, it is always nice to see that there are some pastors who ground their messages in Christ.

FINALLY … I’ve updated the sermon page with this weekend’s sermon.

UPDATE: I have to add something to my sermon. As I was preaching the sermon tonight, I felt that the sermon was missing “it.” And I realized what “it” is. You’ll have to come to church tomorrow to see what “it” I am talking about. Not that “it” is going to change the sermon dramatically. But you’ll understand why “it” was added.

For about a month, our sermon page has been giving me fits. I’ve tried to fix it. I’ve gone balder trying to figure the problem out. This morning, because of some small miracle, it is at least working again, though it isn’t completely fixed. This past Sunday’s sermon is up there now. Tonight’s Midweek will be up this afternoon.