In the parable today about the Great Supper, Jesus says that the invited guests all began to make excuses when they were called. One had just bought some land and had to go see it. Another had just been married, and did not want his post-wedding activities to be interrupted, and another had just bought […]

There’s lots of Luther in my sermon this weekend. He says it better than I could. In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit Every weekend our heavenly Father throws a great supper. We call it “church” or “Divine Service”. It is a great banquet which our […]

Blessed Martin Luther’s First Church Postil for Trinity 2 spends a bit of time unpacking the infinitives “compelle intrare”.  He translates the words to mean “constrain (them) to enter”.  The New King James Version translates the words to mean “compel (them) to enter”.  There is more than one way to compel.  Luther explains the Gospel […]

Just as a hen or anything else is not kept on the spit and roasted in order to remain there permanently, but upon being roasted is removed from the spit and placed on the table for people to eat and be nourished, have their hunger satisfied and become stronger, so Christ, having suffered with terrible […]

In the Gospel, we are invited to a Supper; or rather, we are compelled, attracted and drawn by the merciful invitation of Our God to enter. But those who would not come make excuses. Yet let us not be too harsh with them, for they simply show us our true inner self—what little we think […]