A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Luke 1:26-38, December 21, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 21, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Luke 1:26-38. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Luke 1:26-38, December 21, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Luke, the first chapter:

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     The holy doctor, Luke, when he was writing the Gospel, went to each and every person he could find that was attached to the life of Christ.  He went to every house, every town, and recorded every incident they could remember.  In today’s Gospel, we should imagine Luke, in the house of John, interviewing the elder Mary, probably around 60 years old.  And we should perhaps, imagine Mary, a gleam in her eye, as she recounted the days when she was but a young virgin, remembering all the things she treasured and pondered in her heart.

     And so, in this eye-witness account, we see Mary, the young virgin, here, in the middle of the Jewish year, probably doing some unassuming task, washing the clothes, cleaning the dishes, sweeping the house, while her parents are away.  There, the angel Gabriel appears in her house.  And we should not assume that Gabriel, whose name means “God is my strength,” is as unassuming as her duties.  Angels get a bad rap today.  We tend to think of the Precious Moments angels, so sweet and cherubic, or just a simple man in a white robe with a halo.

     But, the angel tells Mary to not be afraid.  So, we should probably imagine Gabriel, decked out in armor forged in God’s fire, sword in hand to beat back the demons, wings spread to cover the entirety of the house.  A soldier, hardened in battle against Satan and his minions, the scruff of duty upon his face.  I’d be afraid, too, especially if I was a young woman, alone, armed with nothing but a broom.

Bible Study: Job 13:12-16, December 14, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 14, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Job 13:12-16.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, December 14, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 14, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, December 14, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text this morning is from the Prophet Isaiah, the 61st chapter:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,
     In today’s Old Testament text, we have a beautiful picture of the Christ who is to come.  We have here the Christ who has been anointed in order that He would bring good news to the poor.  Now, that doesn’t mean that the poor are going to get rich; in fact, that’s the wrong understanding of the word “poor.”

     The word “poor” has the same meaning as it did in the Sermon on the Mount, poor in spirit, those who are downtrodden and understand their place before their Holy Creator, that they are sinners who are in need of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And so the Good News to them is that they have it in Jesus Christ!  Christ has bled and died for them so that they would be with their Savior God forever.

     We also hear that Christ will come to bind up the brokenhearted.  Here, this word means that their hearts are shattered, broken into pieces, jars of clay that have been thrown down to the earth, crushed, and destroyed, never to be made whole again.  Yet, the Lord will come with healing in His wings, He will take the crimson-stained linen burial shroud and wrap it around those who are shattered by this world, making them whole again in His blood.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Mark 1:1-8, December 7, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 7, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Mark 1:1-8. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Mark 1:1-8, December 7, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Mark, the first chapter:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     Advent is more about just waiting for Christmas.  We’ve talked about this. Advent isn’t just about pre-Christmas.  It’s a time of repentance and absolution that prepares for the second coming of Christ.  And while our time in Advent is relatively short, only four weeks, it’s there in this way to remind us that time is short, and that Christ is coming soon.

     Really, Advent is modeled after the millennia this earth spent waiting for the first coming of Christ.  He was promised after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, when they plunged the entire future of the human race into the arms of sin, death, and the devil.  And for, perhaps, somewhere around 4000 years, humanity awaited the promised Messiah from Genesis 3.  You see, God did not leave humanity, He did not leave us in our sin, but promised that One would soon come to rescue us from the devil and all his works and all his ways, and would crush his head into the dust of the ground.