The Joshua Victor Theory

“ The Word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that is preached to you ” (1 Peter 1:25). In Jesus’ Name, Amen. On this historic day, June 25, the year 1530, a group of Lutheran laymen, most of them princes and dukes of Germany, gave a bold confession of the Christian faith before Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, in the city of Augsburg, Germany. Martin Luther could not be present, because 9 years earlier he had been condemned as a heretic and sentenced to death. But when he heard about their success in confessing the faith before Emperor Charles, Luther exclaimed: “How I rejoice to see this hour when Christ is publicly proclaimed by such men in such an assembly, by so glorious a confession!” The situation was this: the Emperor feared the growing Lutheran churches, and had revoked their freedom of religion, because he was determined to reunite Germany, by force if needed, under the Roman Catholic faith. The Lutherans and others, issued a protest, thus foreve...

In the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. How is God, the 3 in 1, described for us in our reading from Romans today? What qualities or characteristics does it say God has? Today I especially want to look at these three qualities, that God is the God of endurance and encouragement and hope . But though we won’t get to all the qualities named in the reading, notice the other descriptions of God as well. Jesus became a servant, to show God’s truthfulness , and the Gentiles will praise God for His mercy . Verses 4 and 5 show that the first three qualities of God—endurance, encouragement, and hope—are all reflected to us in the Bible, the Scriptures. Perhaps that should come as no surprise, but how would you ordinarily get to know the qualities of a person? Say you meet a new friend, the way you ordinarily get to know them is through personal interactions, time spent together (aka fellowship), and conversation. With more and more people using electron...

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! When we see the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, what do we see? Someone could be a smart aleck, and say “None of us ‘ saw’ the resurrection of Jesus.” But neither did you see the birth or death of George Washington, or Caesar crossing Rubicon River to provoke revolution in the Roman Empire. But of course none of us can “see” anything that happened outside our natural lifetime, except to believe the reports of reliable historians and eyewitnesses. And so today you hear the reliable report of the historian and Gospel writer Luke, who along with hundreds of eyewitnesses, records for us the unmistakable miracle of Jesus rising from death, and walking out of His now empty tomb, in a living, physical body. So what do you “see” or “perceive” about this historical event, that changed world history for the past 2,000 years? Some of what we can see, the first eyewitnesses were unable to perceive on that first Sunday morning. They did not p...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today we observe Reformation Day, which commemorates how Martin Luther began the Reformation of the Christian Church nearly 500 years ago, by nailing the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. One of the most significant outcomes of the Reformation was to make plain again, the glory of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The Reformation began to proclaim once again, the glorious comfort of what Jesus Christ has done. Today we’re continuing our walk through the book of Hebrews. To briefly review, we’ve already heard in Hebrews this month how Christ is all-sufficient for our salvation. He has accomplished everything for us, and suffered on our behalf, in a divine mystery, that God should become human and accept such a lowly death. We also heard how Hebrews speaks of the deadly seriousness of sin, and how deep it runs in us, and the contrast to our original confidence and hope in Christ Jesus. Fin...