Concordia Berwyn Sermons: Recent Episodes
Pastor James Huenink
Pastor James Huenink preaches at Concordia Church in Berwyn, Illinois. Listen here to hear his weekly sermons.
COVID-19 reminds us what Christians have been saying for millennia. We have no control. The things we trust can't do anything to save us in the end. Only Jesus, by his death and resurrection, can give us life.
Death is one of the few things that unites every human being. When Jesus came to be human, death was inescapable. He came to join us in our pain, and he took up death in his body to free us from it.
Transcribed by AI from Otter.ai. Please forgive any errors.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today is Holy Thursday and on this night we celebrate a number of stories about Jesus Christ. We celebrate the Passover Feast where Jesus got together with his disciples, and He instituted the Last Supper. We remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he went with his disciples and then off alone to pray, and he prayed the word thy will be done. Not my will. Remember the story where Judas came to Jesus with all of the guards, and he betrayed him with a kiss. And then the disciples to they betrayed him by abandoning him. Jesus is hauled off before the priests for a trial before, finally, they bring him to Pilate in the morning.
Tonight is the celebration of Jesus Christ, betrayal, and abandonment. And today in Psalm 116, we hear the words, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me, I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”
This passage, I think it was chosen because of that mention of the cup, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. Of course, that reminds us of the story we talked about. And we read in our Gospel reading, where Jesus gathers the disciples together and gives them his body and his blood for the New Covenant. And where we literally would drink salvation as we drink his blood. It's a shame at this time we can't get there together and celebrate that on this Holy Thursday, the meal that Christ Himself instituted. But the cup of salvation doesn't always refer to that. When Luther wrote about Psalm 116, he wrote that the cup of salvation is God's word given to us to say that we can drink it fully and deep. Psalm 116, the bit before our passage, it talks about all the bad things that are happening around the psalmist people around him are hurting him… there's anger, there's wrath, there's pain, there's sadness.
But then he trusts in God and says, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Luther tells us that the world holds up a cup of wrath. We instead drink deeply of the cup of God's word, we get spiritually drunk. So that none of that wrath can affect them.
What an interesting way of talking about salvation in God's word is that we can drink it in so deeply. That the eternal life of Christ fills us so that the rest of the world can't bother. Nothing like anxiety or pain or sadness.
Now, I think that as we're gathered on Holy Thursday, the difficulties of this global pandemic, actually can bring about some good things. We can't be here in person and that's terrible sadness. And so we don't get to celebrate the physical eating and drinking of the Lord. Something. But it has pushed many pastors and many churches to do new things. I know the first week of this global pandemic, when we were still having worship services, I had to rush in two days to figure out how to stream worship. It was non stop work, downloading different files and buying equipment and getting all the things that I would need to make sure people who are at home could hear God's word. So you could drink in the grace of God as He comes to you, even through the internet to bring you His salvation. And I know a number of pastors all over the country, we're doing just the same.
We who were happy just to lead worship in person, all of a sudden, we were forced to try something new. In addition to that, you probably know that we've been participating in night prayer services, where a church every night of the week takes up a worship service to offer it to the world where we pray for all the things that are going on. We sing hymns, we offer up prayers. We take prayer requests live through our Facebook feed, things we would never have done before this global pandemic.
And you know what's amazing about this? How many people end up seeing these videos? The last worship service that we did on Sunday had over 140 views yesterday when I checked two weeks ago, our prayer vigil, the recording of it has had over 2,000 views.
Now, I don't know how that translates to how many people watched it for very long, or how many people are staying tuned in. But I know that's a few more, a few more than Sit in our pews every Sunday. What an interesting thing that this pandemic has forced on us.
And we can see it in society, new people are figuring out new ways to connect with each other. neighbors are waving to neighbors as they walk by. Sometimes I think that in some of these neighborhoods will rediscover the value of the front porch, people who sit outside in front of their houses by the street to see their neighbors walking by, instead of all of us who are hiding in the backs on our decks. Will there be a new kind of community develop in our neighborhoods because of this? There are new and interesting things coming out of the situation that we're in. So when we lift up this cup of salvation, we rejoice in God. We can figure out new ways to Turn to the Lord, all His benefits. we render to him in our devotion and response to his grace.
And so that's what we do right now. And I would like you to to think about that, as you hear God's Word in this brand new way, as you hear that the grace of Christ and Jesus is salvation for you. Think about the ways that you can reevaluate how you can be creative in your own understanding of God's Word.
Many of you are stuck at home with family or children, trying to figure out some things to do. Might be a great time to start doing family devotion. In our emails that we would send out each month, there is a link to a devotional booklet that you can get together and it's really easy. It's just a couple of responses. him from our hymnal and the the apostles creed, the Lord's prayer and morning or evening prayer. short, simple, easy to do. But it connects you to God's word in a new way.
Maybe you can think about new ways to connect with your congregation. Have you called up the people who in the congregation who live alone? reached out to your neighbors, your friends, the people in our in our book? Have you tried to connect to people and see if they have all their needs? There are a lot of ways that we can use this time to be creative. We can connect to one another, serve one another, and even more importantly, drink deeply have the cup of God's salvation delivered to you through His Holy Word. In Jesus name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is an American worldview that is contrary to Christianity, but it influences the American Church. In this sermon, we examine one of the beliefs: Good people go to Hell when they die.
God promises to forgive everyone who repents. He made a covenant with us through Jesus to give us mercy when we deserve judgment.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is an American worldview that affects how the church understands her relationship to God. Contrary to scripture, we don't even know it affects us. This sermon describes one of the beliefs of MTD and counters it with God's word.
God promises to be with all who believe in him, because he sent his Son, Jesus, to live with and among us. With him, we are never alone. Yet, Christians feel alone all the time, so God gives us a congregation to remind us by word and action that he is with us.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a religious philosophy with five beliefs: 1) God created the world and looks down on it. 2) God wants us to be good, nice, and fair like the world religions teach. 3) The goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself. 4) God doesn't need to be involved in one's life unless there's a problem. 5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
This sermon examines the first one.
Most Lutherans don't know that we do private confession and absolution, but we do! Jesus instituted it when he gave the church the power to forgive sins, and the apostles told us to confess our sins to each other. This sermon gives six reasons why you should go to confession.
Does God work for you? There is a worldview that claims he does and that he only wants us to be happy and fulfilled. Does that fit with the Christian message? In this sermon series, we will explore that question.
The Bible tells us that we are blessed when we follow his commands, but Jesus also tells us that merely thinking about sin is breaking those commands. How can we think about the difficult things Jesus commands us to do?
The Psalmist talks about the beauty of being where God dwells. We know that God dwells with us when his people gather together. Pastor Huenink talks about the beautiful reasons we gather in God's dwelling place.
Society's enemies get punished. Criminals are incarcerated. Terrorists are destroyed. But Jesus is a king who does things differently. He makes his enemies friends.
Jesus came to be an infant priest who offers himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He bridges the gap between God and humanity so we can live together forever.
God's word lights us through dark paths and shows us the safe way to walk in God's grace.
Psalm 146 tells us that human beings don't have the control we think we do. It points us to God, instead. It tells us to let God handle it.
Human leaders always fail, from the kings of the Old Testament to our self-help gurus. Leaders inevitably fail us. Jesus never fails us. He is always faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to him.
The Old Testament promise was centered on the city of Jerusalem and the temple insider her. The covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David focused on the relationship between the kings from Davids line and the presence of God in the temple. We have a heavenly Jerusalem where David's son, Jesus, reigns. Unlike an earthly city, it can't be destroyed, and it has a perfect king.
A perfect God has to be just. But God also wants to be forgiving, to justify. The two can't go together without Jesus.
The Corinthians were obsessed with image, who was the best, and it divided their church. In the age of Instagram and Facebook, we are, too. Paul's answer: All you need is Christ.
Jesus' resurrection wasn't a metaphor but a physical reality. St. Paul wants the Corinthians to know this, because only a physical resurrection has power to save. He wants us to understand and believe the same message.
Christians know that God wants us to do his will. Often we refer to sin and forgiveness and the struggle to do God's will. This time, we talk about God's will as joy and freedom. When we assert our independence, it makes us less free. When we obey God's will, it makes us more free.
In baptism, Jesus' story become our story. We are united with him in his death and his resurrection so we can have eternal life.
People everywhere come to the Bible through their own culture and perspective. In Paul's day, Jews wanted signs, and Greeks looked for wisdom. But the church preaches Christ crucified. Americans have our own version: Moral Therapeutic Deism. We need to uproot it in our own lives.
John wants us to abide in love. What does that mean? Love begins with the love of God through our savior, Jesus Christ. His love works in us so we can abide in him.
So much of God is ineffable, unexplainable. How can God be triune, both three persons and one God? It's ineffable. But God is also effable. The Father sent the Son, and they both send the Holy Spirit. Christians look to the effable God, who reveals himself in scripture.
The Holy Spirit possessed the disciples on Pentecost. When we contrast demon possession with Holy Spirit possession, we can see how joyful and wonderful it is to be possessed by the Holy Spirit.
God gives gifts to each person in his church, and he wants us to use them to serve one another. In this way, God provides for his church to do her work. So many Christians look back to the glory days of the church in America. God has given us the abilities and opportunities to serve now. The church has everything we need to succeed.
Pilgrims and sojourners were the words for foreigners traveling to a foreign land. Christians are just like that. We are traveling through this world while our true citizenship is in heaven.
Christians often defend their angry responses as righteous anger. Is there such a thing? This sermon examines what the Bible says about human anger so we can truly know what it says.
This sermon leans heavily on a paper of the same name by Dr. Jeff Gibbs of Concordia Seminary. https://concordiatheology.org/2015/10/the-myth-of-righteous-anger-what-the-bible-says-about-human-anger/
Jesus gives us victory over the world by his death and resurrection. This victory is different from the way most of us would describe victory. Jesus won it by his death and resurrection, and it's hidden beneath the world's troubles. Jesus wants us to recognize the victory we have despite the way we sometimes feel.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals our own resurrection. Because he was raised from the dead, we will rise on the last day.
God unites us with Christ and each other when we eat and drink Jesus' body and blood. We celebrate Holy Communion in that unity.
Jesus' kingdom is different from the rest of the world. We compare how Jesus acts and how Pontius Pilate acts to illustrate the amazing beauty of God's kingdom in Christ.
St. Paul uses Isaac and Ishmael as a metaphor for God's grace. God chooses Isaac, not by our standards, but by his grace. He chooses, because he chooses. We have to do the same in the church.
God calls all his people to a holy life, imitating Christ. He wants us to walk in love just as Christ loved us. We do that when we have a life of service to the people around us.
God calls us to holiness in our lives. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul talks specifically about sexual morality. In this sermon, we talk about about God's plan for sex.
Jesus is our great high priest, who gives us access to God's throne, confidence to speak before him, and the expectation of mercy.
Paul writes, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Why is love the greatest? This sermon answers that question.
God's law is summarized in this phrase, "Love your neighbor as yourself." What does that really mean? Listen to find out.