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This Month Archive
St. Mark's Lutheran Church

 

  2014

 Sermons



Dez 28 - Outsiders

Dez 28 - The Costly Gift

Dez 24 - In the Flesh in Particular

Dez 21 - More "Rejoice" than "Hello"

Dez 14 - Word in the Darkness

Dez 7 - Life in a Construction Zone

Dez 2 - Accountability

Nov 30 - Rend the Heavens

Nov 23 - The Shepherd-King

Nov 16 - Everything he had

Nov 9 - Preparations

Nov 2 - Is Now and Ever Will Be

Okt 25 - Free?

Okt 19 - It is about faith and love

Okt 12 - Trouble at the Banquet

Okt 5 - Trouble in the Vineyard

Sep 28 - At the edge

Sep 21 - At the Right Time

Sep 14 - We Proclaim Christ Crucified

Sep 7 - Responsibility

Aug 31 - Extreme Living

Aug 27 - One Who Cares

Aug 24 - A Nobody, but God's Somebody

Aug 17 - Faithful God

Aug 8 - With singing

Aug 3 - Extravagant Gifts of God

Aug 2 - Yes and No

Jul 27 - A treasure indeed

Jul 27 - God's Love and Care

Jul 20 - Life in a Messy Garden

Jul 13 - Waste and Grace

Jun 8 - The Conversation

Jun 1 - For the Times In-between

Mai 25 - Joining the Conversation

Mai 18 - Living Stones

Mai 11 - Become the Gospel!

Mai 6 - Wilderness Food

Mai 4 - Freedom

Apr 27 - Faith despite our self-made handicaps

Apr 20 - New

Apr 19 - Blessed be God

Apr 18 - Jesus and the Soldiers

Apr 18 - Who is in charge?

Apr 17 - For You!

Apr 13 - Kenosis

Apr 9 - Mark 6: Opposition Mounts

Apr 6 - Dry Bones?

Apr 2 - Mark 5: Trading Fear for Faith

Mrz 30 - Choosing the Little One

Mrz 26 - The Life of Following Jesus

Mrz 23 - Surprise!

Mrz 19 - Mark 3: The Life of Following Jesus

Mrz 16 - Darkness and Light

Mrz 12 - Mark 2: Calling All Sinners

Mrz 10 - Where are the demons?

Mrz 9 - Sin or not sin

Mrz 8 - Remembering

Mrz 5 - Mark 1: Good News in a Troubled World

Mrz 3 - For the Love of God

Feb 28 - Fresh Every Morning

Feb 27 - Using Time Well

Feb 23 - Worrying

Feb 16 - Even more offensive

Feb 9 - Salt and Light

Feb 2 - Presenting Samuel, Jesus, and Ourselves

Jan 26 - Catching or being caught

Jan 19 - Strengthened by the Word

Jan 12 - Who are you?

Jan 9 - Because God....

Jan 5 - By another way


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Blessed be God

 
Easter Vigil - April 19, 2014

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

Blessed be God, creator of all that is in this night of elemental contrasts:

--darkness filled with light

--silence broken by speech,

--estrangement overcome by forgiveness

--death overwhelmed with life

--barrenness supplanted by plenty,

--hunger filled with food,

--dryness giving way to water.

 

Blessed be God, who has given us every good thing.

 

Blessed be God, who uses the common and ordinary to be the bearers of his promises, and reminders for us of his unswerving and all-encompassing devotion to us.

 

Blessed be God, therefore, for water...

for the Water of Life.

“Ho! All who are thirsty, come to the waters” says Isaiah.

Remember that just as sure as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, so will the Word of the Lord come upon us and do what God wills.

Remember each time we use water day by day for washing or nourishing ourselves, and even more particularly, each time we use or recall the use of water here in the gathered community of the church, that it is in the union of water and God's Word that Good News comes to us.

 

Blessed be God for his Word that breaks the silence of death, opening new life for Jesus and the anticipation of new life for us.

Remember the whole story that we have rehearsed this night, from the beginning of creation all the way to its central point in Christ Jesus.

Remember that at our Baptism, Jesus added us to that story of his, and promises never to erase us from his conversation with the Father.

“I will make with you an everlasting covenant,” says the Lord through the prophet,

“and a witness to the nations.”

 

Blessed be God, who sees our barrenness, our helplessness, our hunger, and sets before us the first course of the Great Banquet, with the Bread of Life with its hope and promise.

“Listen carefully to me,” says the prophet, “and eat what is good.”

“Your holy truth is the word that rescues me,” sings the hymn-poet.

“Give me to eat and live with you above:

Teach me to love your truth, for you are love.”[LBW#235.2]

Remember the prophet Ezekiel who was commanded to eat the scroll presented to him [Ezekiel 2:8ff] and thus the Word of God would become fully a part of him.

Remember the work of prophets and apostles, whose chief work is always to give to us a full diet of the Word, to strengthen us for sharing the word with any who will receive it. [Ezekiel 33, 1 Thessalonians 2, et al].

 

Blessed be God for the Light that fills the darkness, the Light that turns this place and this assembly into an oasis of light even in the middle of the darkness of the night outside.

Remember the Good News that enlightens us, pardoning sin, renewing community that has been fractured, revealing God's thoughts that are far beyond our thoughts.

Remember this night's light as a sign of what will happen on that great and final day, when all of the darkness of sin and death is at length banished forever.

 

Blessed be God, creator of all that is.: the water of life, the word of forgiveness, the bread of the covenant, the light of the world.

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen. 

 

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.