The Joshua Victor Theory

  “To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” Today our church year begins anew with the season of Advent. We renew our annual cycle of watching and waiting for our Lord. Advent means “to come” and merges our waiting and anticipation for two different comings of the Lord. We remember, reenact, and celebrate Christmas, Christ’s first coming. We anticipate, prepare for, and watch for Christ’s second coming, His return to judge and redeem the world. Advent blends memory and anticipation. Since this is our Christian “New Year’s Day” in a sense, as the church calendar renews, we’re oddly out of step with the world, which doesn’t celebrate New Year’s for another month. The church can never be in complete alignment with the world, which is blind to God’s priorities, and often directly contradicts them. And almost as if to keep us a little off balance, the reading historically used for the 1 st Sunday o...

Sermon by Pastor Paul Roschke, 12-20-17 I.N.I. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Introduction Last Sunday Pastor Schneider’s sermon on Isaiah helped us to watch for ‘doublets’:  “comfort, comfort” and “double for all her sins”.  Tonight we had a triplet:  3 times we read Psalm 96.  The first reading was from 1st Chronicles which included much of Psalm 96.  The second time, a cantor and a pianist helped us sing parts of it, and we just now read it together for a 3 rd time.   But King David, who is believed to be the author of Psalm 96, had a choir of 4,000 Levites to help the Israelites sing.  The first occasion for singing Psalm 96 was reported in the 1 st Chronicles passage that we read earlier - when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into a tent in Jerusalem.  And then, after the temple was built by King Solomon, every morning and every evening, a portion of the Levitical choir gathered on the t...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today on the 1 st Sunday of Advent, we hear from Jeremiah the prophet, who lived in a dark period of Israel’s history, but prophesies brightly of the coming Christ who will restore righteousness and justice in the land. A quick thumbnail sketch of the history, is that the nation of Israel had endured several centuries of sliding into decline, idolatry, corruption, and gross immorality. They had experienced their “glory days” around 1000 BC under the reigns of King David and Solomon, when the nation was strong, the leadership was mostly just and wise, and the 12 tribes were united. Shortly after Solomon’s death, the decline began. The kingdom was divided during the reign of his son—the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the two southern tribes of the Kingdom of Judah. Eventually the ten tribes of Israel were swallowed up by the empire of the Assyrians. The looming thre...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today the cycle of the church year begins anew, with the First Sunday in Advent. We renew a journey of sorts, a journey that lasts us one year—a journey along the places and paths that Jesus followed, from the time He was anticipated as Savior, to His birth in Bethlehem, through His ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. This first half of the church year, we call the “Festival Season.” It wraps up with Pentecost, when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, and follows with the part of the church year that we just finished, is the long “non-festival” season of the church year, or “ordinary time”. Sundays that review the rest of Jesus’ teachings, leading up again to the anticipation of His return. Along the journey, we get to know Jesus better and better, not as a friend who joins us occasionally, but as our constant companion who leads us and has finished the jour...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. On this 3 rd Sunday in Advent, the theme of the day is “Joy”—marked by the lighting of the pink candle on the wreath, and heard in our Old Testament and Epistle lessons. Joy certainly fits the seasons of Advent and Christmas, as we wait and expect the coming of Jesus. However, many people wonder or fear whether joy can be real, or whether Christians can still have reason to rejoice, when there is so much evil on the loose in this world. The Roman Catholic Pope even made world headlines recently, for preaching after the Paris terror attacks, that this year’s celebration of Christmas would just be a “charade” because of the worldwide war, violence, and hatred that is consuming humanity. Can joy really be authentic and genuine this season, or in the midst of so many troubles, from our world news, down to our national, local, congregational, family, and even personal circumstances? Must the troubles and “bad new...