The Joshua Victor Theory

By God’s grace may I make the Word of God fully known to you, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints…this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim! (Colossians 1:25b-26, 27b-28a). Today we focus on Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth. Luke’s gospel always gets all the attention with the shepherds, angels, the birth, and the baby Jesus in the manger. Luke’s gospel certainly inspired far more Christmas carols, with its beauty and poetry. But Matthew’s gospel is no less important, though perhaps it points a little more to the trouble and uncertainty of the time. Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father, comes into sharper focus. Under Jewish law at the time, Joseph was betrothed to Mary, which was the legally binding first step of marriage. A 1 year waiting period normally followed, and it was only after this that they entered the home together and consummated their marriage. During this time, Joseph discovered she was pregnant, and...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the Gospel reading today, we hear a section of Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount, where He teaches on the 5 th , 6 th , and 8 th commandments in particular. The commandment on murder, adultery, and lying. Jesus’ teaching will confront us on many angles and leave us all convicted of our sin. He is rooting out our sinful human tendency to try to escape from God’s law by various tricks. Sometimes we try to narrow down God’s command into a category that doesn’t apply to us, so we don’t recognize that we’ve disobeyed. In particular, when we think of the law only outwardly, and not applying to the heart and mind—or when we try to find loopholes that will justify our behavior, saying the law doesn’t apply to our situation, so we can still feel we are righteous. But instead of allowing that, Jesus closes all the loopholes, leaving us condemned by the law. The law finds us out, and there is no escaping it. If the La...

Sermon Outline: ·          Simple question: What is the state of marriage today? How would we answer? Divorce rates are very high (inside or outside the church), domestic abuse hotline at Women Helping Women fields an average of 60 calls a month on Maui alone. Same sex unions are already legal in Hawaii and several other states, with the promise of more to come, and the redefinition of marriage is aggressively underway. Same-sex advocates are vigorously promoting a change in public opinion and want the abandonment of the natural and Biblical definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. Of course, if you think that marriage is between a man and a woman, you’re now portrayed by the TV and media as a hateful bigot. Apparently one cannot have thinking, reasonable objections to redefining marriage to include same-sex unions, without being hateful and discriminatory. Or so we’re told. Increasingly, people just reject marriage altogether, fre...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today in the Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus addresses one of the most difficult situations in human life: divorce. It’s both an urgently relevant topic that we need to hear today, and also one of Jesus’ most difficult teachings to hear and believe. Jesus’ own disciples remarked in astonishment when they heard His teaching, that “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given…Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The Pharisees and religious leaders always seemed to have a test for Jesus. Some clever question they could use to trip Him up or catch Him in His words. Today they asked Him “Is is lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” In Matthew, it adds that they were asking: “Is it ...