The Joshua Victor Theory

Sorry for the barrage of posts all at once! That's what happens when I get backlogged :)

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text for this last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, the Transfiguration of Our Lord, is Luke 9:28-36. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Before we dive into the meat of today’s text, I want you to hear what the verse just before today’s reading says. In Luke 9:27 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” Each of the three Gospel-writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record this saying of Jesus right before the Transfiguration. Coincidence? Not at all. It’s easy to misunderstand that verse, if we take “the kingdom of God” to mean only Jesus’ second coming, the Last Day. If so, it seems like a problem that by now the disciples have all died, before Jesus’ return. But it is no accident that all three Gospel-writers place this verse right before Jesus’ transfiguration. F...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text is the Gospel reading, Luke 3:7-18. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. For all of us who are getting into the “spirit of Christmas,” today’s Gospel reading might strike us as a bit of a downer. Passing through the season of Advent, moving toward Christmas, we expect glad tidings of great joy. And yet John the Baptist seems so out of place among our Christmas cheer and joy. Here he comes in our text today, preaching of repentance and the coming wrath of God! An ax prepared to cut down every tree that does not bear good fruit, and throw it into the fire. Some of us may start to shudder and think, “Who invited this guy who’s wearing camel’s hair and eating grasshoppers, to our Christmas party?” He may seem like Ebenezer Scrooge, who goes around muttering “Bah, humbug!” Or maybe the Grinch who stole Christmas. But if this is what we think...

...this sermon was preached as part of a "Children's Sunday" service in which our school children participated in the service through their singing and prayers.... Jesus Has Done All Things Well In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text is the Gospel reading from Mark 7, the healing of the deaf and mute man. Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Thinking back on the Gospel reading, I’d like you all to consider about a question: “Does God groan?” More specifically, “Does God groan for us?” The other week in Sunday Bible class, we had a good talk about the passage in Romans that says “the Spirit intercedes for us in groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). It’s comforting to know that the Holy Spirit groans and prays for us, when our words fall short or fail us. So we know God groans in this way. But does God groan in other ways? As humans we think of groaning as ...

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text is the Old Testament reading from Isaiah 51. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. For Christians who follow the annual cycle of the historic Church Year, today is the Last Sunday in the Church Year, the end of a cycle. Why do we use the calendar of the Church Year to mark time? The annual cycle of the Church Year is designed to put the time of our earthly lives into the perspective of God’s timing and His working for our salvation. So every year in December, the church begins anew with the season of Advent, beginning next Sunday. It’s a new cycle in the ongoing remembrance of Jesus Christ’s life and His working for our salvation. Advent is when we remember Jesus’ coming for us, in the past, present, and future. As the church moves toward Christmas, we call to mind Christ’s first coming to us in the manger—to enter humanity on our behalf...

....Just to inform you before you read. This is not an original sermon, but the theme, the introduction, and the outline of the sermon, along with some thematic statements come from a prepared sermon study that was sent out as part of the materials for LWML Sunday. I did assemble the skeleton into my own sermon and include material that was written by me, but I just want to make sure not to steal credit. Thanks!.... In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text for this LWML Sunday is John 8:12 “I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As some of you may have noticed, the theme for today’s LWML Sunday is “Let There Be Light.” In the sermon text you just heard, we learn that the light we are talking about is not just a ray of sunshine, or some abstract “light,” but it’s Jesus Chr...

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text is the Epistle reading from Ephesians 2:13-22. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. It’s unfortunate but true, that enmity and hostility are a regular part of our human experience. we're all too familiar with hostility, from the grandest scale, to the smallest. From the wars and violence between nations in worldwide conflict, to the strife and disputes between co-workers on the job, to the fighting that goes on in the family, between brothers and sisters--yes, even at church, we also experience enmity and hostilities arising. From the first hostilities that broke out between Cain and Abel, until today, humanity has shown no shortage of enmity, even though we're all created of one blood--a common human race descended from Adam and Eve. But all humans share more than just a common ancestry, we also share the common inheritance of sin, which...

Apparently the story goes something like this... I was traveling off to a far distant land, across the open ocean, and my vessel fell from the sky and I survived the landing on a beautiful tropical island, which I have now called my home for 8 or so months. (It's hard to keep track with scratchings on your wall :) I've scraped by an existence by hiking through rainforest and collecting fruits and berries, and by fishing the ocean blue. Many had wondered...where has he gone? Has he fallen off the face of the earth? Or has he perished! Forsooth! Say it is not so! Fortunately, among the wreckage, I was able to piece together a computer and jerry-rig a connection to the internet! And voila! I now bring you word from the fabled island of Maui! Ok, ok, so I apologize for silliness, but yes I have been out of contact for awhile, and the true account is slightly less dramatic. Yes I really am on the beautiful tropical island of Maui though! After seminary graduation I was placed here f...