Sailing with Christ

Lately I’ve been on a Johann Gerhard reading binge. A few weeks back in Ft Wayne I picked up volume 2 of Gerhard’s “Postilla” and have been thoroughly enjoying his sermons.

Here’s a brief selection from Gerhard’s sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity on Luke 5:1-11 (Jesus preaching to the crowd from the boat and the large catch of fish).

Peter’s small boat is a picture of the Christian Church. For just as God’s Word resounds from Peter’s small boat is also how one hears Christ’s word in the Christian Church. This makes Peter’s little boat much dearer and nobler than a great transport ship laden with gold, silver, precious stones, and other such perishable goods.

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Fourth Sunday in Advent

The Fourth Sunday in Advent, especially if we are in Series B of the lectionary, is a Sunday that has special memories for me. Nine years ago my dad was planning to preach a sermon on the Gospel text Luke 1:26-38. But God had different plans for him on that Fourth Sunday in Advent. God was calling him home to be with Him.

The sermon was never preached, although it had been written. Over the years I’ve read and reread that sermon. This sermon wasn’t intended to be a “farewell”. Yet, it has provided me comfort then, as it still does today.

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Christ (or lack thereof) in the Sermon

If your church uses the 3-year lectionary from Lutheran Service Book, you heard the gospel lesson from Matthew 13 which began “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” Alas, sometimes the treasure is so hidden that it doesn’t even really make it into the sermon.

If you are a frequent listener of Issues Etc., you probably have heard Todd Wilken do sermon reviews of the likes of Joel Osteen and Rick Warren and some good Lutheran pastors (with some good sermons). Todd provides a “3 Step Plan” for diagnosing a sermon and adds a bonus 4th Step.

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The Hammer of God – The Pastoral Attitude

In my previous post I shared a snippet of the Hammer of God related to the communion liturgy. In the first novella we find a pastor who is maturing in his vocation. Savonius begins as a reluctant academic, but eventually ends with a better understanding of Law and Gospel and how he applies/preaches this to the flock.

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Soaked in Christ’s Blood

Over at Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary, Rev. Cholak writes a vivid post on pastors soaking their flock with Christ’s blood as they preach Christ and the forgiveness of sins. It is well worth the read. He reminds us that God uses his servants to speak to us and that pastors should be preaching Christ – and consequently not some pop-philosophy or purpose driven drivel.

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