The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today’s parable of the Ten Virgins is a parable of readiness and faith. God has set a day known only to Him as a definitive, final cut-off date. Judgment Day, or the Day of Christ’s Second Coming, when He returns to judge the living and the dead. We confess every week in the Creed that “ He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead”. The final judgment. On that day, God will finally determine who are the just, who will join Him in eternal life, and who are the unjust, who will be sentenced to eternal punishment. The Parable of the Ten Virgins symbolizes this “final cut-off date” when the Bridegroom arrives for the wedding celebration. Upon His arrival, five wise virgins are ready, prepared, and waiting. Five foolish virgins are not. They’ve left just before His arrival, and it is too late to enter in when they return. Pleading at the door emphasizes the fi...

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our Introit today says: my God has “ clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness ” (Isaiah 61:10). Keep this image of a “robe of righteousness” in mind as we discuss the parable of the Wedding Banquet from Matthew 22. A key point in the parable is when a guest without wedding garments is thrown out of the feast. Continuing our Reformation theme of “righteousness”, from last week, let’s see how that “robe of righteousness” and the wedding garment are connected. Last week we talked about two very different claims: claiming our own righteousness or claiming Christ’s righteousness. Only Christ’s righteousness gives legal standing in God’s courts. Putting clothes on that same abstract idea, Jesus’ parable pictures worthy clothes for a wedding banquet. First you may have noticed how drastic everything is in this parable. Without explanati...

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). In 1 Timothy 5:24–25, it says: “ The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden .” This tells us that sometimes, when a good work is done, it’s not obvious or noticed. But even so, it can’t remain hidden. Jesus’ miracle at the wedding at Cana was this way. He worked behind the scenes, as secretly as could be done—with only His mother and disciples and the servants aware that He had miraculously changed water into wine. Jesus didn’t announce His good deed; He didn’t step in to take credit when the master of the banquet praised the groom for the excellence of the wine, and the surprise of saving it for ...

abbreviated sermon outline--for full sermon listen to the audio on thejoshuavictortheory.podbean.com Last Sunday—waiting for Christ Picture of long delay—so long all fall asleep. The delay of Christ impacts people differently. The faithful wait with joy and expectation while faithfully living out the callings their Master has given them. Use their talents, serve the fellow servants according to Master’s instructions, living in faith and love. Others: mock and scoff at Christ’s promise to return—disbelieve, persecute the faithful. Others: neglect their talents, do nothing. Others: abuse fellow servants, and gifts of Master. Others: live immoral lives careless of His return. These are the category of those whom Jesus will tell “I never knew you” Parable shows the wise and foolish. Does not seem to be speaking about unbelievers outside the church, because all ten are waiting for the Master’s return. Luther—the foolish are the hypo...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today’s parable of the ten virgins calls the church to be ready for Christ’s second coming. The church is pictured as ten pure, young women invited to a wedding feast, and waiting with lamps for the Bridegroom and (it’s implied) the Bride to arrive for the feast to begin. Wedding celebrations are famous for delays, then as much as today. With all the preparations and joy, no one notices the time; the couple and the guests celebrating and savoring the moment. Though Jesus doesn’t describe the wedding customs, it may be that He had in mind a Middle Eastern custom of the bride and groom going on a long, slow, winding parade through the streets of town as everyone celebrated with them, before returning to the home for the wedding feast with the invited guests. In any case, the ten virgins were invited and waiting, and all fell asleep because the delay was so great. This is a parable...

Note: It was my great honor and privilege to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my parents and aunt and uncle this summer, at a special worship service and renewal of wedding vows. In putting together the service, I followed the Lutheran Service Book Agenda order  for Anniversary or Affirmation of Holy Matrimony. This volume is available at CPH.org The following is a Scriptural Litany (responsive reading) that I assembled, to celebrate the gift of marriage and the blessings that God has given through their marriages. Since this was a gathering of three generations, I wanted to help us to think about passing that legacy of longevity and faithfulness in marriage down to the next generation. The Litany therefore has the following teaching elements from the Bible: God's purposes in creating marriage and the blessings He intended it to give; the importance of faith in house and home, and the blessing of godly children; God's call to the older generations to pass on the fait...

Sermon Outline: ·          Season of Epiphany: season of light, from the illumination of the place of the Christ child’s birth to His blinding transfiguration on the mountaintop. Epiphanios—shining out, manifest, revealed. All point to Jesus as the Son of God in human flesh, God in man made manifest . Today’s Gospel serves the same purpose—dramatically manifest or shine out Jesus’ glory. ·          Tomorrow: president “inaugurated”—oaths and new term of office. Jesus had an “inauguration” of a very different sort: baptism—the Father announced: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased”; public ministry began. Likewise, wedding at Cana is the “inaugural miracle”. Fitting that it was also at the inauguration of a new marriage, as Jesus would frequently use marriage, and particularly the wedding banquet as a picture of the heavenly banquet of believers united to Him by faith. Jesus had now “com...