Aaron Simms's Blog, page 9

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father…” – Last Sunday of the Church Year

Today is the last Sunday of the Church year.  Next Sunday we will begin the Advent season, which is a season of anticipation of Christ’s coming.  In the Old Testament, Advent looked to the coming of God in the flesh to deal with sin.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, died, rose, and then ascended back into the Father’s presence in order to atone for your sins, defeat death, and justify you before God.  Now in these last days, we look for his coming again for the resu...

Thanksgiving Eve – A Good Land

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to focus on Deuteronomy 8:1-10.

The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy takes place right before the people of Israel are to enter into the land of Canaan.  They had previously been held captive in Egypt, without a land of their own, living as strangers in a strange land.  But, the Lord redeemed them from their slavery and brought them up out of Egypt.  He promised them that they would inherit the land He had first promised to Abraham so...

“Holy Orders and Positions” – Vocation

I’m going to focus on today’s reading from Matthew 25:14-30 and the topic of vocation, but I’ll get there in a round-about way.

First, though, I want to talk about the Lutheran Catechism, and I promise that it’ll lead us back to the Gospel.

Now, the Bible is our sole source of theology, since it is God’s Word.  Then, as Lutherans we use the Catechism as a guide to expressing this theology in an easy to understand way.  This is because the Catechism isn’t so much a dictionary of theological te...

Grieving with Hope – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

St. Paul writes to the the congregation in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) that he does not want them to be uninformed.  He speaks of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ; because Christ died and rose again, we too will rise from death since we are his people.  Paul calls death “sleep,” and Christ will rouse us from this sleep when he returns in order to be with him “always.”

Thus, Paul says that he does not want us to be uninformed about the future that awaits us, so that we do not g...

All Saints Sunday

Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day when we remember all those who have gone before us in the faith.  Although today we call special attention to them, really though, we remember them each Sunday, because our prayers rise up and join with theirs before the Lord and because we follow in the footsteps of the Church since Christ’s ascension.  We stand here today with our ancestors in the faith behind us and with our descendants yet before us in the future.  The Church is not only the collection o...

Reformation Sunday – The Eternal Gospel

The human eye is pretty amazing.  Each of your eyes has about 120 million rods and 7 million cones.  The rods are more sensitive, but can only detect shades of gray and so are used for night vision.  The cones are used for color detection and daylight vision.  With them you can perceive depth and size as well as see in a rainbow all the hues of color as the spectrum runs from red to violet.  But, in order for your eye to do this, it needs light.

That’s why when it’s dark out you can’t really...

Caesar and the Church – Matthew 22:15-22

In the Old Testament, the people of Judah were eventually defeated by the Babylonians and carried off into captivity.  They were taken from the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem to exile in Babylon.  This happened in 586 BC.  Later, in 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the Babylonians, taking the city of Babylon and expanding the Persian Empire to include Babylon and Judah and most of the Middle East.  Then, he allowed the people of Judah to return to their land and rebuild th...

“God will provide for himself the lamb” – The Sacrifice of Isaac and Jesus Christ

The Lord had promised Abraham (formerly known as Abram, until he was renamed by the Lord) that he would one day have a son of his own with his wife Sarah.  Finally, in their old age, Sarah, as promised, gives birth to a son, Abraham’s long-promised heir.  Abraham names his son Isaac and has him circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of the Lord’s covenant into which Isaac is born.  Thus, God has finally, after all these years of promises to Abraham and Sarah, given them their own son.  The p...

The Parable of the Wedding Feast – Matthew 22:1-14

I’ve been to a number of weddings over years.  It’s always exciting to get the invitation in the mail, because it’s great to be able to celebrate as a man and woman join together in marriage.  And after the wedding ceremony at the reception there is always a large amount of food – a feast of things like meat, corn, vegetables, cake.  It’s a grand celebration, and the host of the occasion spends a lot of time and money on his guests, because he is happy to have them there to celebrate this imp...

Connections Between Melchizedek’s Blessing and the Lord’s Supper

In the Old Testament, Lot – the nephew of Abram (later renamed “Abraham” by God) – lived in the city of Sodom.  Genesis 14 records that the city was captured in war by other kingdoms and Lot was taken captive.  So, Abram took men to go rescue Lot, defeating the captors and taking back Lot and his possessions and the others who had been captured with him.

On his return, Abram was met by a man named Melchizedek, who the Bible calls the “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High.”  The name Me...