A View From The Earth

Steeple at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa Here is the sermon that I gave at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on November 30, 2008. The scripture that formed the basis of this message is Mark 13:24-37 On 13th September 1759, one of the most significant battles of the 18th Century was fought – the Battle of the Heights of Abraham. You haven't heard of it? Well let me tell you a bit about it. The Heights of Abraham are the cliffs above the St. Lawrence river in front of the city of Quebec. Louis, the Marquis de Montcalm - who was in charge of the French defenders of the city of Quebec - felt secure because of the natural protection against a river side attack afforded by the Heights of Abraham. And so he sent only a small detachment of French soldiers to watch the cliffs and repel anyone foolish enough to try and scale the Heights and attack However, the British General Wolfe found a route up the cliffs, that led to the top. When he got to the t...

Painting of Jesus at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa This is a sermon I gave at Church of the Saviour, Clermont, Iowa on November 9, 2008. The basis for the message is Matthew 25:1-13. Today we heard Joshua say that we should “Serve the Lord” and then we heard Paul telling the Church in Thessaloníki that Jesus will return one day. The Gospel is from Matthew and Jesus combines those two ideas. We have been reading our way through Matthew this year. As Jesus told this parable in chapter 25 he was already well into a lengthy explanation of events surrounding his second coming in chapter 24. Jesus had spoke of his death and resurrection before, but this concerns his second coming. Jesus has said in Matthew 24 that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” However he has also said that “no-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the ...