Sermons from Ascension Lutheran Church, RPV

Abraham learned to be patient as he waited for God's promise of decedents. He didn't do it perfectly; he tried to take matters into his own hands, but God remained patient and carried out His promise. 

On this Christ the King Sunday, we are reminded that when we submit to Jesus as our King, we have peace. Our lives are in his hands and we can rest, knowing that He is for us and that all will be well. 

The work of the Messiah is Peace. Peace that is larger than understood in the world.
“The best definition of Christian pacifism begins in God’s own life-giving positive: it is the patient and consistent discipline of discovering creative, life building responses to unjust human conflicts.”
- Gerald Schlabach, Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, 362

God's peace is not able to exist when idols are present. The first step to peace is the destruction of idols. Confession is being aware of these idols.

God chose to have Jesus in the tomb during the Sabbath, where He rested. The disciples also rested, giving them time to process the events that had just happened, and to experience the miracle of the Resurrection on Sunday morning. On this All Saints Day, may we experience Peace as we wait in the knowledge that our loved ones who have passed on before us are resting in the presence of the Lord and that we will one day be united with them. 

On this Reformation Sunday, we remember the faithfulness of Jesus as He alone is our Savior. 

God's justice and God's faithfulness come together and are reconciled on the cross. 

God shows His faithfulness to us with water. He created order out of chaos at the beginning of creation. He saved Noah and his family by providing an ark to float above the waters. He created a path through the sea for the Hebrews to escape from Egypt's army. And we are baptized as His children with water. 

Love can be expressed in a moment, or in a day. Faithfulness is comprised of expressions of love over time. 

We have strayed from God and have been unfaithful. We have put ourselves first, made idols out of things in our lives. But God remains faithful to us. Jesus displays his faithfulness, as he did to the woman caught in adultery. Instead of condemning her, he showed her compassion, and he does the same to us each day.