St. Matthew Lutheran Church

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 29, 2021

“Put on the Whole Armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-20)

These days many people have taken up a variety of precautions and protections to guard against the Covid virus and its variants. They have put on face masks. They have put on face shields. They sanitize their hands. They keep social distance. They take zinc and an assortment of vitamins. They get injected with a vaccine and maybe now a booster shot as well. All these precautions and protections to guard against a virus.

But friends, there’s something much more dangerous and deadly than a virus going around. As St. Peter puts it, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” That’s the more deadly danger going around. But I don’t think as many people are as concerned about this threat as they are about the virus. Most people are not taking up the protections they need to guard against the danger the devil poses.

But you can. And St. Paul tells us how. In the Epistle reading for today from Ephesians 6, Paul urges us to guard against “the schemes of the devil” and “the spiritual forces of evil.” And we do well to heed this advice and to put on and to take up the protections that God provides. We do so today under the theme, “Put on the Whole Armor of God.”

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Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 18, 2021

“No Longer Aliens” (Ephesians 2:11-22)

Aliens are not very popular. I’m not talking about aliens from outer space. I’m talking about aliens who are illegal immigrants, people who come in as outsiders. Often there is hostility between the aliens and the people who’ve been there their whole lives. They feel like their territory is being invaded. Foreigners, strangers, outsiders are seen as a threat. In whatever the culture, throughout history, aliens generally have been unwelcome.

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 11, 2021

“In Christ: Chosen, Redeemed, and Sealed” (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Picture in your mind a great treasure chest–a big, heavy box, with one of those curved lids on it, like you’d see in a pirate movie. The lid is closed, and there’s a large lock hanging on the front. Inside this treasure chest, so you’ve been told, are all sorts of wonderful things–gems, rubies, diamonds, gold and silver coins–a fortune beyond your wildest dreams. And all these valuable treasures are yours for the taking. The only thing is, you need the key. Without that key, the treasure chest will simply remain a locked box. But if you have the key, then all the wonderful contents inside are opened up for you.

Now with that picture in mind, we come to our text for today, the Epistle reading from Ephesians chapter 1. This grand passage is like a magnificent treasure chest. It contains within it all sorts of wonderful treasures that God has for us. St. Paul begins by saying that God has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” And then he goes on to tell us what those blessings are–things like grace, redemption, forgiveness, salvation. These are great treasures indeed, but unless we have the key, they would all remain inaccessible to us, locked away in a box.

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Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 2, 2018

“Life in the Combat Zone” (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Have you ever been in a combat zone? I mean, a real, live, active combat zone. A place where bullets are whizzing past your head and explosive devices are ready to take your leg off. That’s a combat zone, and it’s a very dangerous place to be. You could be killed or wounded at any moment. Making it out of there alive is a very precarious proposition.

Well, guess what? You are in a combat zone, whether you realize it or not. Every Christian is. It comes with the territory. The battle is real, and the battle is on! The battle is raging, and there are no deferments, no going AWOL. You are in this battle, automatically, and it is a fight to the finish, a life-or-death conflict. So what to do? Be prepared for this battle. Because it’s going to come. There’s no avoiding it. Are you ready? Are you prepared? And so our theme this morning: “Life in the Combat Zone.”

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Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 26, 2018

“The Most Hated Verse in the Bible” (Ephesians 5:22-33)

A couple of weeks ago I ran across an article on my news feed with the headline: “North Carolina GOP Candidate Preached Extensively on. . . .” Now I’ll tell you in a moment what he preached extensively on, but first let me give you an idea why this was even a story. You see, there’s a candidate in North Carolina running for Congress, and he used to be the pastor of a church. And of course his opponent and those who are backing him are looking for any dirt they can find on the guy. Well, apparently they went through his old sermons. And what did they discover? That he had preached, more than once, on something they found particularly distasteful, very incriminating–shocking, really. “Ah, here is what we’re looking for! Surely this will sink the man and doom his candidacy!” And of course this is why the news media all across the country ran with the story. So what was it that they found? What was so awful, so terrible, so outrageous? OK, now I’ll read you the full headline: “North Carolina GOP Candidate Preached Extensively on . . . Wives Submitting to Husbands.”

“Wives Submitting to Husbands”: Whoa! There it is! This evil man, this misogynist, this sexist bigot, had the gall, the audacity, to actually preach that wives should submit to their husbands! Where’s the rope?

Now it should come as no surprise these days that a Christian minister preaching on what used to be a traditional, commonly held belief–that this now is regarded as inflammatory hate speech, that it’s anathema, beyond the pale. The tolerant Left can’t tolerate such a thing!

But it’s not just the liberals and secularists who are aghast that anyone still thinks that wives should submit to their husbands. There are even Christians, church-going Christians, who don’t understand and even reject this biblical teaching. Perhaps even you have had some questions about this topic. And that’s why we’re going to take a look at it this morning.

The idea that wives should submit to their husbands is indeed taught in the Bible, in a number of places, most famously–or should I say, infamously–in today’s Epistle reading. The words come straight out of the first verse of that text, where it says, “Wives submit to your husbands.” And now you can see why I call Ephesians 5:22 “The Most Hated Verse in the Bible.”

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Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 19, 2018

“From Darkness to Light” (Ephesians 5:6-21)

Have you ever come out of a really dark room into a bright, sunlit area? It takes a few moments to get used to, doesn’t it? Your eyes have to adjust to the new reality. But once they do, you have so much a better view of what’s around you and in front of you. No longer are you stumbling around in the dark, bumping into things. Now you can see clearly where to walk, what’s the right way to go. Well, that’s kind of how it is for us as Christians. We have come out of the darkness and into the light. It is the light of Christ we’re walking in now. And that makes all the difference. And so our theme this morning: “From Darkness to Light.”

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Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 12, 2018

“Put off the Old, Put on the New” (Ephesians 4:17 – 5:2)

“Clothes make the man.” I’m sure many of you have heard that old saying. “Clothes make the man.” The idea is that how you dress will affect how people perceive you–and maybe also how you perceive yourself. If you dress shabbily, in dingy, dirty old clothes, you will be perceived one way. If you dress your best, you will convey a different impression. “Clothes make the man.” Likewise, it’s a good idea to dress appropriate to who you are. If you’re a pastor, a clerical shirt is appropriate attire. If you’re a soldier, you wear your uniform when you’re on duty. And so it goes. You want to dress appropriately for your particular calling.

Now if that’s true it’s in the secular realm, it’s even more true in the spiritual realm. Clothes make the man–or the woman who belongs to Christ, as the case may be. And here I’m not talking about cloth-and-fabric clothing. No, here I’m talking about how you have been clothed with Christ, how you have put on Christ’s righteousness and holiness and character. That’s how you have been dressed. So that’s what you should wear, on a daily basis. Don’t wear the dirty old dingy clothes of your previous life. Put on the new garment of righteousness that is yours in Christ. That’s our message today, under the theme, “Put off the Old, Put on the New.”

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Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 5, 2018

“Unity and Growth in the Body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:1-16)

Our text today is the Epistle, from Ephesians 4. We are now entering the second half of Ephesians. In the first half, St. Paul laid down the foundation of our life in Christ, that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, according to the riches of his grace. Now in the second half, Paul moves into the practical implications of this for our life together as church and our life as individual Christians. Today’s text emphasizes the churchly dimension of our life together, that we walk together in unity and growth, in truth and love.

Unity and growth–these are great goals for the church, aren’t they? Everybody wants, or should want, the church to be united. Everybody wants the church to grow. This is true for our congregation, of course. But what kind of unity? What kind of growth? We’ll explore that today, how unity and growth come about and can be strengthened. And so let’s look at our life together as church now, under the theme, “Unity and Growth in the Body of Christ.”

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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 22, 2018

“From What We Were to What We Are” (Ephesians 2:11-22)

From rags to riches. From the outhouse to the penthouse. From worst to first. These are different sayings we have to express a big change, a big contrast, between the way somebody was and the way they are now. There’s some big contrast involved between the former miserable situation and the current excellent one. And, dear friends, that’s the way it is for us, because there has been a major change, a huge contrast, between our former status and our current one. And so our theme this morning: “From What We Were to What We Are.”

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