Rev. Jonathan P. Boehne – Page 10 – Sermons on the One-Year Historic Lectionary (2024)

“Corona ofThorns”

John 19:5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

This crown-virus and the accompanying quarantines and “stay-at-home”orders are certainly giant thorns in our side. Paul prayed three times that Godwould remove a thorn from his flesh (2 Cor. 12:7). I’ve prayed more than threetimes that God would remove this thorn-in-our-side virus before Easter Sundayso that we can have Easter services.

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold,the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may betested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, andI will give you the crown of life.”

Corona, the beer company, spends a lot of money on commercials. Inmost of their commercials you’ll see a beach. Their latest slogan isspecifically, “Find Your Beach.” It’s not really my type of beer but I applaudtheir advertising department. When I see a Corona beer I intuitively think of abeautiful, sandy and sunny beach.

But now the word corona hasa whole new meaning for us. Over the next two weeks I want to explore this wordcorona with you. Specifically, I hopethat when you hear the word coronavirus youwill start to intuitively think of Jesus. The word corona simply is Latin for crown(as in coronation). They namedthis virus after a crown because it resembles one under a microscope. But theBible has much more to say about crowns. And very much to say about whowears the crown.

The phrase coronam vitaeis straight out of Revelation 2:10, “the crown of life”. It was part of themessage to the Church in Smyrna (in modern-day Turkey). Jesus knew they wereabout to suffer much pain and grief. So this is how he starts his message tothem, “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life” (Rev.2:8). In other words, Jesus knows some of them might die soon and He remindsthem that He already died and came back to life! So even death will turn outfor their good!

Then He tells them not to be afraid. And this is the part we needto especially hear right now. What’s the worst the devil can do to us? Hiscrown achievement is death. But Jesus already died our death and He rose on thethird day. So Jesus gives His trump card, “Be faithful unto death, and I willgive you the crown of life” (coronam vitae).

If Jesus were writing a message to the Church in El Paso, He wouldcertainly remind us also that He is the one who died and came back to life.Furthermore, He would certainly tell us not to fear what we may suffer(loneliness, death, grief, pain, loss of income, etc.). And finally, He wouldalso remind you that He has a crown for you that will last long past any virus.

What God ordains is always good:
His will is just and holy.
As He directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed In ev’ry need
Knows well how He will shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me. (LSB 760:1)

Prayer: LordJesus Christ, You are the King of kings and have won for us the crown of life.Keep us from fear and give us faith to trust You above all things. Weespecially pray today for those who are working in the medical field to carefor the victims of coronavirus, including doctors, nurses, first responders,and all others. Give them courage in their work and strength when they areweak; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(No audio available this week.)

Lent 4 Laetare
John 6:1-15
March 22, 2020

“The Multiplier”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Is there such a thing as a “normal” life? I’m grateful to Sue of our congregation because this week she sent me a note just along this line and it helped me to clarify some thoughts. What would be a “normal” life anyway? Is there a certain way that life should be? The ideal life?

Somehave read this account from Acts chapter 2 of the earliest Church and said,“That’s how life is supposed to be. Just like the first Church was doing afterPentecost.” And they’ve thought that Christians should try to re-create thatperfect and best society and life. So remember what we heard there in Acts 2.They were all worshipping together. Breaking bread together. Praying together.And they had everything in common. They were selling possessions and giving itto support one another as they had needs. They were receiving their food withglad and generous hearts.

Soundsdreamy, right? So we need to find one of our members here at Trinity who owns agood chunk of farm ground. Then we’ll all move out there together and build anew church building. Then we’ll build big dormitories for everyone to live inaround the church. And we’ll share everything. Share the work. Share theworship. Share the wealth. It will be great. The true normal life. A great community. Or I think we usually use adifferent word for that—a great commune.Yikes.

Lent 3 Oculi
Luke 11:14-28
March 15, 2020

“Stop the Lies!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There’san epidemic that’s spreading across the globe, as you all know. It’s beenspreading for some time. It’s disrupting people’s lives. It’s keeping peoplefrom going to Church. It’s called Beelzebul-virus. (You didn’t think I wastalking about another virus, did you? That one will hopefully pass soon.) Beelzebul-virusspreads lies. The devil, Beelzebul, started it a long time ago. But the awesomenews is that for this virus there actually is a cure. Jesus is the antidote toBeelzebul-virus.

Lent 2 Reminiscere
Matthew 15:21-28
March 8, 2020

“More and More”

I’vesaid before that we often act today like God is our Grandpa and not our Dad.We’ve changed the Lord’s Prayer to “Our Grandfather who art in heaven.”Grandpas and Grandmas are easier than Dads and Moms (generally speaking, ofcourse). They let you get by with a whole lot more. They often give youwhatever you want. When you do something stupid or evil they usually overlookit (because they think Dad and Mom will handle that). That’s the way we’d liketo think of God—as a friendly Grandpa or Grandma that just wants us to be happyand overlooks all our foibles and evils.

ButGod isn’t a Grandpa. He’s our Father.Our Dad. And very often Dads and Moms have to be stern, have to discipline, haveto teach, have to test and try, and have to make their children stronger. Goodparents don’t give their children anything they want and gush over them nomatter what they do. Good parents teach and strengthen and discipline. So ourGod does with us. As a good Father, He wants more and more and more for us. Hewants us to grow. To grow in humility, in grace, in faith, and in a holy life.Your Father wants more for you.

Lent 1
Matthew 4:1-11
March 1, 2020

“Losers and Winners”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thedevil is the supreme loser. He’s been a loser from the beginning. He thought hecould beat God and God flicked him away like the pest that he is. But becausehe’s such a loser, he’s always trying to recruit more people to his losingteam. He’s always tempting us, tempting us, tempting us to join him in hisevil. And sadly, we often believe his lies and fall for his temptations. Butpraise God that Jesus has called us to His own winning team. We’ve beenbaptized into Jesus! So we’re winners!

Andtoday we’re going to talk about what it means to win against the devil. To beathim. So we’ll look at some losers. See what they did wrong. See how we alsovery often get it wrong. But then we’ll look at the Winner, Jesus, and how wecan win with Him against temptation.

Ash Wednesday
1 John 1:9; Joel 2:12-19; Matthew 6
February 26, 2020

“Trusting the Lord When You Confess Your Sin”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Maybesome of you have done one of the trust falls where you drop yourself backwardsfrom high up and trust others to catch you. That can be pretty much the exactfeeling when confessing our sins to others or to God. It takes much trust.You’re dropping yourself off this great height and praying that someone will bethere to catch you and not let you fall to the ground broken.

Orwhen you go into an open heart surgery and they’re going to cut you open, youhave to trust that someone knows how to put you all back together before youwake up. Again, this is the thing when confessing our sin. We’re cutting openour heart and laying it bare before someone. We need to be able to trust thatthey will be able to sew us back together and heal the wound.

Quinquagesima
Luke 18:31-43
February 23, 2020

Say to the Heart, “Be Strong; Fear Not!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Whydo bad things happen to good people? It’s an honest question and one that wewill look at today in our Scripture readings. Of course, we won’t ever have aperfect answer until we get to heaven. Because God’s ways are higher than ourways. We won’t ever understand everything God does. But Jesus gives us windowsinto the answer. He gives some reasons why bad things happen to good people.(I’ll define those terms later.) And the biggest window He gives us is this:bad things happen to show the mercy of God. Badthings happen to show the works and mercy of God.

Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
February 16, 2020

“What Do You Expect?”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Whenyou come to Church on a Sunday morning and you hear the three readings from theWord of God, and a sermon on the Word of God, what do you expect to happen fromthat? Or when you’re at home and you open your Bible and read part of it or doyour Portals of Prayer devotions, what do you expect to happen? If we don’t askthat question, then we just might expect the wrong things. When you go homefrom church today do you expect to remember everything that was said and beabsolutely amazed about it all the rest of the day? ‘Cause you’ll probably bedisappointed then. When you open the Bible at home do you expect to hear angelssinging? Or do you expect warm fuzzies every time you read it? Then you’ll bedisappointed.

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
February 9, 2020

“God’s Generosity”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I have a short object lesson to start today. These used to be quite popular so I’m assuming most of you have seen one before. I forgot I even had this until Kane and Lydia asked what it was in Confirmation class earlier this year. If you haven’t seen one before, your eyes naturally focus in on the light colored pieces of wood in the front and it looks like a bunch of random, crazy symbols. But from father away it’s much easier, you see that actually you’re supposed to focus on the letters in between and it’s the name of Jesus.

Nowit’s very easy for us, who are sinners, to focus in on all the things in theworld we don’t like. We can focus on what we don’t have, what we think weshould have, the bad things we don’t think should’ve happened to us, the stupidmistakes we’ve made, the evil and suffering in the world, and all the things wedon’t like about ourselves. This is easy to do and it comes naturally forsinners like us. And when we focus on the wrong thing, we’re never happy orcontent or joyful. But today’s readings remind us to see something else. To notsee everything you don’t have but everything you do have. To not focus on thebad, but focus on the good. To see just how incredibly good and generous God isto you. And, most of all, to see Jesus.