In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today’s Gospel text is challenging for many Christians. For here the Canaanite woman comes to our Lord asking for mercy on her demon-possessed daughter. But our Lord acts in a way which seems strange to us. First, He ignores her.…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the second part of today’s Gospel text, our Lord tells a parable of an unclean spirit who has been cast out of a man. The spirit wanders the earth, finding no place to rest. And so, it returns to the man from which it was cast…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In today’s Gospel text, we read of our Lord’s forty day fast in the wilderness and His temptations by the devil. Here our Lord does battle with the devil and overcomes him. Here our Lord stands in the place of ancient Israel, whose…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today begins the great and holy fast of Lent. In the German that our forefathers spoke, the time from Ash Wednesday to Easter was called Fastenzeit, or “the time of fasting.” And going back further in time, the ancient Latin Church…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is the final Sunday in the short season of Septuagesima, a time intent on preparing us for the great and holy fast of Lent, which begins this Wednesday. As a means of preparing us for this season, we are spending this brief…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The season of Septuagesima continues today as the countdown to Easter goes on. Today is Sexagesima, or sixty, as we are now less than sixty days from the great feast around which our entire liturgical year revolves. During this short…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This Sunday begins the season of Septuagesima. There are a number of reasons why this season of the church year is foreign to us. The primary reason is that this season simply does not exist in the three-year lectionary cycle used…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear friends in Christ, today is the final Sunday of the Epiphany season. Next week, we will embark on a new season—the “Pre-Lenten” season—about which we will say more next Sunday. But for now, we conclude the Sundays after the Epiphany…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. What a profound confession of faith is offered by the man of God, Job. This is a man who had it all—wife, children, land, animals, wealth, possessions, friends, reputation—This is a man who had it all. And yet, in an instant, he loses…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear friends in Christ, today the Epiphany season continues as we observe the Baptism of Our Lord. We began our observance of the Epiphany season last week by recalling the visit of the Magi, as the Christ Child is revealed to be…