There’s so much – so very much – to praise and proclaim on this very special Sunday!! I want you to know how difficult it is to preach on Easter for that reason – for the reason that the task of “getting it all said” or “getting it all in” in the context of a 12 minute sermon seems simply overwhelming and impossible to one who is preparing it. If, this morning, I accomplish nothing other than to entice you into participating in some of the same joy and excitement which strengthens me this morning – and sustains me – and makes me glad to be alive and in the pulpit – if I accomplish nothing more than that, then I will have fulfilled my goals. He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) They closed
This morning we are going to do something a little out of the ordinary. Instead of hearing a message from me, you will be hearing a message from our bishop, Richard Graham. It is out of the ordinary to have a film-clip in the place of a sermon. I’m not sure I have ever done this before. It is also out of the ordinary to not have a sermon about the trial, suffering, and death of Jesus – which what this Sunday, Passion Sunday, is all about. However, I feel this is important. The Lutheran Church has been on a slow decline for decades. Membership is down. Average attendance is down. Way down. Our Synod, the Metropolitan Washington D.C. Synod is attempting to address that. They have lau
This morning’s sermon is taken from our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah. About five hundred and fifty years before the time of Christ the nation of Israel was taken captive by the Babylonians. The people and their cattle were marched eastward out of their homeland. Much of their property was confiscated. They were a people without hope … until, that it, the prophet Isaiah came bringing them a vision of salvation. A prophet isn’t so much one who predicts the future as he is one who proclaims the word of God. The word of God, by it’s very nature, points to the future and God’s part in it. So, a prophet’s job is to get people out of whatever rut they are in and on with the life God has en
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