A notorious Episcopalian congregation in San Francisco, CA is wont to say: “There are two seasons here: Easter and getting ready for Easter.” One would agree, but one also would not want to slight the season of Christmas. The time from Advent 1 to, in our calendar, Transfiguration (the last Sunday after Epiphany) is its […]

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT The commemoration of our Lord’s birth has become the outstanding feature of the Christmas season. The weeks before the Holy Nativity are given over almost completely to the First Advent. Modern Christendom has made the season a holy drama of the Birth. As the antidote against the tendency to secularize […]

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit Jesus concludes today’s Holy Gospel with these words: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. What our Lord properly assumes is that you know the Son of […]

If you’re looking for some help from Luther this week, keep looking. No sermon exists in the Church and House Postils on this text. Perhaps one could make the argument that Luther preached through the cycle of texts and stopped the cycle once he reached the Sunday next before Advent. No “skip”, no three weeks […]

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY The Epistle and the holy Gospel are the same in The Lutheran Hymnal and the Common Service Book. The former has the rubric: “The Introit and Collect for the Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity shall be used on the last Sunday after Trinity in each year.” The latter offers a complete […]