The Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Matthew 17:1–9 Good Shepherd Lutheran Church; Hoopeston, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor Today is already the last Sunday after the Epiphany. The Gospel for the Last Sunday of the Epiphany always tells of the Transfiguration – that event when Jesus took His inner circle of three […]
Epiphany 6, series A – Matthew 5:21-37 St. John Lutheran Church Galveston, Texas, Rev. Alan Taylor Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We have before us this morning some rather harsh words from Matthew 5. Having told us that murder, lust, and […]
The Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Matthew 5:13–20 St Paul Lutheran Church, Manito, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor This morning’s Gospel picks up where last week’s Gospel left off. We are still in the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount. To more fully understand the teachings of Jesus that […]
The Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Matthew 5:1–12 St Paul Lutheran Church, Manito, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor I have no idea what kind of nightmares you have, but people who study dreams say that there are some themes that are very common. One of them is being unprepared for a […]
The Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany Matthew 4:12–25 St Paul Lutheran Church, Manito, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor It is interesting to compare Matthew’s account of the beginnings of the preaching ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus. He introduces John’s preaching in the third chapter of his account of the Gospel. […]
The Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany John 1:29 St Paul Lutheran Church, Manito, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor There is a basic formula in physics that draws all the disciplines of that science into one sentence and that formula is F=ma. F stands for force, m stands for mass, and a […]
The Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord Matthew 3:13–17 St Paul Lutheran Church, Manito, IL Rev. James T. Batchelor Every year, the season of Epiphany begins with the account of the magi visiting the Christ child. The Sunday following the Epiphany looks to the baptism of Jesus. This year it is Matthew’s turn to […]
Elephant in the Room, Isaiah 51:1–6, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16), August 23, 2020 ************************************************************ There was an elephant in the room, one of those things which everyone knew about, but no one wanted to talk about. There was a lot of shame involved with what he had done. People had been hurt, but all […]
Outside the Realm of God’s Love, Isaiah 56:1, 6–8, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15), August 16, 2020 ************************************************************ It was a sweltering August day in 1937 when the Cohen brothers entered the posh Dearborn Michigan, offices of Henry Ford, the car maker. “Mr. Ford,” announced Norman Cohen, the eldest of the three. “We have a […]
The Life of Job, Job 38:4–18, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14), August 9, 2020 ************************************************************ A lot of people are probably familiar with the story of Job, but chances are, not everybody is familiar with the real message of Job. For many Christians it is a story about a guy who lost it all, and […]