Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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The preacher of this text should follow the logic of the text, the divinely inspired genius of Saint Paul, and get out of the way.
When we look upon the cross, we see our sin. We also see the One who washes it away and gives life.
In schools and on barstools and in delis and where two or three gather, your Savior turns you loose to encounter those who are delightful and loveable.
Because of my Advocate, there is no judgment or condemnation by God in my suffering.
Even though the horn of plenty on our table is there as the fruit of our labor, that is also a gift of God’s grace
God preserves language so he might continue to communicate his love and grace to us, and that we might communicate his love and grace to others.
Nostalgia is a looter who impoverishes us of the truth that God is in our midst right now.
At times, our Church struggles with clutter which distracts us from what is most important: Listening to our Lord and gathering at His table where we are fed.
Christianity is not about principally about ethics. It was the Cross on the Hill rather than the Sermon on the Mount that produced the impact of Christianity upon the world.
While these are familiar words to us, frequently they are dealt with in ways that fail to take into account the context and the situation.
When we stop looking to Christ in faith, we are walking in sin. Anything (including our supposed law-keeping) that does not proceed from faith is sin.
Repentance comes on account of suffering, loss, failure, and death. It happens when the promise of forgiveness of sin given in Jesus’ death is proclaimed to us down-and-outers.