When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.
The life we are trying to manage, improve, and secure is not something to be mastered. It is something to be surrendered. And this is where everything changes. Because in Christ, the approval we are seeking has already been spoken.
It is within this charged atmosphere that Luther’s writings take on their full significance. His responses to the Turkish threat were not merely reactions to military events; they were rooted in a deep theological reflection on the nature of God’s rule over the world, the responsibilities of Christian rulers, and the role of the Church in times of crisis.

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The text is not a legalistic set of principles. It is a description of the way things are for us, now that Christ has entered in.
Luke does not say much else about Anna, especially in comparison to Simeon. But the fact that he mentions her suggests she has something to teach your hearers today.
We don’t have to worry about deserving, earning, or reciprocating his gifts. Our Lord doesn’t give us what we deserve. We are given what he deserves, what Jesus has won for us.
Pastor Craft: Essays and Sermons is now available through 1517 Publishing
Our Advent anticipation of the coming of the Savior to liberate us from sin and its wage of death, from the condemnation of God’s Law and the wrath of a loving heavenly Father, is indeed a daring and defiant stance.
This Messiah is not a continuation—He is the fulfillment and the beginning of something new.
The creation of this word reminds us that the Magnificat, like Christmas itself, is charged from the start with joy and praise.
When Jesus assumes the body prepared for Him to do God’s will, the end of an old era has arrived, and with it, the beginning of a new.
He also took our own history and suffered all the agony and pain of our own lives.
So what, if anything, makes us different from those who are waiting on the grassy knoll in Dallas, TX? Can we be any more sure of our belief in the resurrection?
Waiting is not easy, but after waiting a long time, one would at least expect us to be ready when the time came.
Sometimes it is the unnamed characters in the Bible who can most help present-day readers find their own place in the biblical story.