The Joshua Victor Theory

  Life Sunday Sermon 2021 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 “From Invisible to Indispensable” Rev. Michael W. Salemink, Lutherans For Life   (lightly revised by Pastor Joshua Schneider for use on 1/17/21)   So, you have these two tiny organs in your ears. Sort of a sixth sense. The utricle senses your head’s horizontal motion, and the saccule detects its vertical movement. They live inside the mystical semicircular canals of the vestibular labyrinth. The magic happens using otoliths—literally ear stones—microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate, the stuff that makes up chalk, stalagmites, seashells, and Tums. Curious, because when the otoliths act up, you can get quite queasy. When your cranium moves, the otoliths lag a little behind for a minute and tickle miniature hairs. Your brain interprets these signals as a shift in position and compares the input from both ears with the data from your eyes to define direction and orientation. Experts call it proprioception or kines...

[The following sermon is adapted from sermons from Rev. Lyndon Korhonen and Rev. Michael Salemink on Lutheransforlife.org  You can find more encouraging, life-affirming materials and resources on their website]. If we did not have the Word of God, wouldn’t we wonder what is going on in our world? Life, as many of us have known it, is under attack. Over 40 years ago, our nation legalized the killing of babies in the womb. The “right to death” is seemingly being treated as an enshrined right, rather than the “right to life.” In several states, people have been given the right to end their lives through legal suicide. The value that we place on the elderly continues to decline. Marriage has been redefined by the U.S. Supreme Court. The sex one is born with is now up for change. The world is ever pushing to redefine even fundamental realities. And yet with all this so-called “progress” in getting what we want , people are profoundly unhappy and discontent. Jesus unmasks the conf...

In the Name of the Father—Life Creator, the Son—Life Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit—Life Sanctifier, Amen. Psalm 10, which we just recited, is a passionate outcry of the righteous against the wicked. The Psalmist asks God, where are you to help? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? He sees the wicked pursuing the poor and the helpless, being greedy for gain, cursing and renouncing the Lord. He hears them denying God’s existence and believing that for generation after generation, they will be able to get away with this oppression. Murdering the innocent in secret places, preying on the poor, the helpless, and the afflicted. The Psalmist cries out to God—how can this be? He cries for God to remember the afflicted, hold the wicked accountable, and to take this violence and injustice into His hands, and break the power of evildoing. The Psalm ends on the confident note that God will hear the cry of the afflicted, will encourage and strengthen them, will do justice for the fath...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today we observe Life Sunday, in memory of over 50 Million innocent lives taken by abortion in the U.S., since it was legalized nationally in 1973. 50 Million is a shocking number, but it’s only a fraction of the unjust deaths by abortion world-wide, and only since 1973. And as millions continue to die each year, do we remain numb and unfeeling to the tragedy? It’s not the casualties of a war on a faraway continent, nor the body count of some disaster in the distant past, but it’s an ongoing, daily reality all around us in our communities, and touching our families, friends, and neighbors. Inside and outside the church, on Maui and in every community. Yet so often it is a hidden reality, done quietly, and few, if any, know that it has even happened. Many women suffer silently with the pain and guilt, whether they chose it of their own accord, or under the pressure of others. They feel ...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In the reading from Isaiah 49, the speaker calls us to attention: “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.” Are you listening? Who is it that is speaking? Read the text before you in your bulletin. The speaker says “The Lord has called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.” And the Lord God said: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” So what is the identity of this speaker, who calls for our attention, says that God called Him from the womb, and God gave Him a name while He was still in the body of His mother? Of course it’s Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the servant of God who would bring glory to God, and who was chosen from long before His birth to be God’s servant. And He was named Jesus and titled Immanuel, God with us, from before His birth. Only when this was written, this was some 7 centur...