I hope you are familiar with A Christmas Carol, the short novel, by Charles Dickens, or have at least seen an adaptation of it on TV (the muppet one is the best). If not, to sum up, a wicked man named Scrooge is visited by three ghosts at Christmas to show him how wicked he has been, the last one, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, even showing him his death, which no one mourns.

This chapter of Nahum is the ghost of Christmas yet to come visiting the city of Nineveh, except unlike Scrooge, there will be no repentance, no chance of return. But like Scrooge, Nineveh cared nothing for any other people, only it enrich and empower itself. 

Remember, though, that in prison, John was encouraged by the word of God. And Jesus also sends himself to you by word and sacrament to encourage you. You have a Savior who has died for you and risen from the grave. We can be sad, we can mourn, but we always have hope. Never despair, because Jesus Christ remains with you. Without him, Christmas season is empty of meaning anyway. With him, even a Christmas alone is never truly alone. As the introit today says, rejoice!

The good thing is that your marriage is not based on your feelings or your moods. You fortress is not built on feeling or even your actions. “With might of ours could naught be done, soon were our loss effected.” By coming here, having your marriage blessed by God, you are showing to all of us that the fortress of your marriage is built on Jesus Christ and his Word. “But for us fights the valiant one, whom God himself elected. Ask ye who is this? Jesus Christ it is.”

What hope would we have without this holy sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood? Our Lord came in His first Advent, born of Mary, before he departed gave us this holy meal. We have a taste of His presence with us as we await for His return. We can say that wherever and whenever we live, we are entering that continuity between the Last Supper in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday and the Final Wedding Feast of the Lamb when Christ returns in Glory. Of these two feast, Christ promises to continue to give us a bite, so we can press on in this world which is filled with despair. 

At the time Nahum prophesies, no one would ever think that Nineveh would fall. But this is exactly the message of Nahum. It is not Nineveh, or any great city, that rules heaven and earth, but God. This means two things: (1) Those who continue in wickedness will be judged by God and fall. (2) Yet at His essence, God is merciful and loving, and a fortress to even the weak who trust in Him.

To wake up is to realize that our imagination should picture and desire the things of God. To remember where God has answered prayer. Or the peace that comes with receiving forgiveness in the Supper or confession of sins. The strength that comes from bearing one another’s burdens as Christians. When we turn our desire to these things, when we will find true joy.

True thanksgiving means contentment is not found in things, or accomplishments, or anything else. That is idolatry. Whether it is about how much we have, how little we have, or how medium amount we have. Contentment which leads to true thanksgiving has no relation to what we have at all. It is realizing that above all else, God has provided for us and will continue to provide. And that only God provides.

Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

I want to use the image of an ark, a box as a mental reminder of the necessity, type, and fruit of watchfulness. We have two arks in the Bible which you probably know of at least one – the ark of Noah, and the ark of the covenant. One is a boat, and one is carried on poles and put in the place of worship, but both are boxes.

Sermon for the Second Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26)

As Jesus tells about the final judgment we get a description of the three stages of a Christian’s life – his election from the foundation of the world, his life of service to his brothers in faith, and his inheritance of the kingdom in heaven.

Sermon for the Third Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)

There were other things that God hates, that are offensive to Him, that raise his wrath. The Book of Proverbs actually speaks about many things that God considers abominable. God finds to be an abomination those of crooked heart, lying lips, false balances and unequal weights (that is cheating in the marketplace), for kings to do evil, and the thoughts, way, and sacrifice of the wicked. These all to God are like a rotten corpse, an abomination.