A Reconfigured Gottesblog

For the past few years, I've been using this blog merely to comment at some length on the Gospels on which  I have preached, and then to provide links to those sermons.  They can all be found, neatly categorized, here.  Recently, however, I've taken to linking to them directly from facebook and twitter, and thus saving a step.  So meanwhile, I may just revive the old usage of Gottesblog, as a place for a kind of musing and spouting off on this and that.

On Riches

The second series for Trinity I has St. Luke 12:13-21 as its Gospel, which provides a good followup to the rich man and Lazarus, which was the Gospel for Trinity I.  Jesus' parable of the man who built a bigger barn is another warning aggainst the lure of riches.  So also does St. Paul warn in the Epistle (I Timothy 6:6-19), which is based on Psalm 49. The sermon.

God is Love

This must be taken sacramentally. The sermon is here.

The Octave of Trinity

In addition to being a poor beggar (St. Luke 16:19-31), while the rich man has his "good things" in his life, Lazarus has a name; the rich man does not: Jesus knows Lazarus' name.  Moreover, the rich man thinks little of Moses and the Prophets, but Abraham indicates that it is only this--the word of God--that produces repentance.  So the tables are turned.  Whereas Lazarus desired only the rich man's crumbs, now the rich man desires only the tip of Lazarus' finger.  And that makes Lazarus no longer a poor beggar, but a prince, such as those who summon servants by the lifting of their little fingers. The sermon.

Trinity Sunday

What is it that Nicodemus should have known?  The testimony of Moses must have had within it the teaching about a new creation.  Indeed it does: consider Abraham; consider Jacob; consider David; consider Adam.  Consider even the whole world, in the flood.  All this is fulfilled in Christ, who is himself born again at his resurrection from the dead.  So we are born again, through Baptism in his name.  The sermon.