Bloghardt's Reflector

St. Luke 8:4-15 – Sexagesima 2010
St. Mark Lutheran Church, Feb. 7, 2010
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.   Do you have a Savior? Are your sins forgiven? Have your deep dark deeds been answered for? Is there truly nothing left between you and God that Jesus has taken upon Himself?

Are you truly a saint – not the “who dat?” variety. But holy, pure, loved by God. God's own dear child.  Is that who you are?

Is heaven yours? Yours? As yours as your car, as yours as your house, as yours as your pew? You have it, you're in it, someone else actual owns it (like the bank), but it's where you lay your head.

Do you have a true Father – a heavenly Father who loves you not because you are you, but because He has given up His Son for you. Who gives you everything – your body, your soul, your eyes, your ears – everything. Who takes the good that you do and forgives it and takes the evil that you have done and makes it good in His Son.

St. John 11:23-26 - Funeral of Mary Gene Yeager
St. Mark Lutheran Church - January 22, 2010

 In the name of Jesus. Amen.  “Your brother will rise again.”  Jesus told Martha about her brother Lazarus.  Can it be that simple?  Can Jesus just speak with such certainty?  

Mary and Martha were devastated by the death of their brother.  Jesus had seemed late - missing the hospital call and then the funeral.  Now, their brother had been in the tomb for four days.

“If you had just been here, Lord.  If you had just made it in time... Then maybe.....  But even now, if you just ask, God will give you what you ask.”

St. John 2:1-11 - Epiphany 2 - 2010
St. Mark Lutheran Church - Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Special thanks to Pastor Weedon and his HT-R interview on this one..
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.   Dear friends, read your Scriptures with your eyes on the Cross.  Every word, every sentence points to Him. 

Today’s Gospel is no different.  The sign of Jesus turning water into wine at the Wedding of Cana points us to the cross, to Jesus‘ wedding, where He shows us His glory by giving up His life for His bride, the Church.

So often today, the Scriptures are turned into an instruction manual.  Modern Christians want to know what Jesus’ words mean to them, how it applies to their life, what truths they can draw from them in order to succeed or do better in this world.

We must run away from such things, dear Saints of God.  They are all about us - what we do, how they apply to us, what they mean to us.  What begins with us ends with us and lasts only as long as we last.

The Word of God testifies about the Word made flesh who gave up His life for us on the cross.  Him, not us.  Talk about us and what we do is Law - law which will always condemn us for what we do not do.

St. John 20:20-25 - St. John’s Day - 2009
St. Mark Lutheran Church - 12-27-2009

Merry Christmas!  In the name of Jesus. Amen.  So, in the midst of all my Christmas celebrations, I tweeted one simple thing about the joy of Christmas.  

I marveled about how all creation pauses and magnifies the birth of Christ. All of it stops - all of it - and takes a breather and glorifies the joyful truth that has rocked our universe:

The Word, eternal and immortal Word, has become flesh. 

Our flesh.  Flesh like you and me.  Eyes, fingers, toes.  Hands, feet, and mouth.  The Word is so human that you can touch Him.  So one of us that He even bleeds for us.

That’s Christmas!  God has come down to earth to save us from our sins.  He has taken on what we are - all that we are minus our sins-  to buy back all that we are.

Flesh.  Our flesh.  This stuff that we’d love to shed or misuse.  He has taken it all on Himself to save us from the very things we like to do with our flesh.

And our universe has never been the same.  It’s changed - redeemed now.  God is at peace with His creation.  He has at peace with men.  Has reconciled us to Himself - not by us moving to Him, but by God becoming flesh in the person of the Man Jesus.

St. Luke 2:1-19 - Christmas Eve 2009
St. Mark Lutheran Church - December 24, 2009
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Merry Christmas!  In the name of Jesus. Amen.  Christmas gives us a picture of God’s grace - How He is and what He’s all about.  He is merciful, forgiving, and wants to save us. 

We all know the Christmas story by heart:  A decree goes out from Augustus the emperor of the Roman world that all should be taxed.  A pious man named Joseph leads his betrothed to the city of David to be registered for that tax.  

She was with child, not by some act of infidelity, but by the Holy Spirit.  The Son she carried is the Son of God.

No room for them.  No room for the Son of God in our little world.  So, where the animals were kept, the Virgin gives birth to her first born Son, wraps Him in swaddling clothes, and lays Him in a food trough.

What a picture!  How meek, mild, and humble!  The Son of God is laid in the manger. God visits His people - takes on their flesh to save them.  

“See, my soul, thy Savior chooses, weakness here and poverty; in such love He comes to thee.  Neither crib nor cross refuses; All He suffers for thy good to redeem thee by His blood.” (897, 2)

There’s another picture, isn’t it?  One we’d rather not think about on Christmas.  But, for our salvation, we must.  

Picture that Baby, now grown up, is seized as a common criminal with swords and spears.  His friends scatter as He is dragged away.  

St. Luke 1:46-55 - Rorate Coeli - 2009  
St. Mark Lutheran Church - December 20, 2009
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.  I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas....  Just like the one I used to know!

I don’t know about white Christmases, never seen one.  So, we used to sing at home in Louisiana that a wet Christmas would be just fine.

It’s how the song goes in the Church too.  Rorate Coeli.  It means “Let the heavens rain down!”  From today’s Introit...

“Shower, O heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down righteousness, let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout.”(Isa 45:8)