Pastor Sullivan's Blog

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The Lord prepares a feast for His people, says the prophet Isaiah, “ A feast of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the lees, of faith things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees ” (Isaiah 25:6). The lees is a layer of yeast and at the bottom of a wine barrel. When wine ages on the lees that yeast imparts a richer flavor to the wine. All this is to say that the feast which God prepares is a true feast with the best foods and finest wines. It’s reminiscent of the rich man in last week’s parable who “ fared  sumptuously every day ” (Luke 16:19). Except the daily feasts of the rich man consisted of physical food. The feast which the prophet foretells is the food that is so often spoken of throughout Scripture, a spiritual food that far excels the feasts of this life. Jesus speaks of this food in Matthew 4:4, “ M an shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mou...

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. This week someone asked me how I selected the texts for each Sunday. I explained the Lectionary, that is, the series of readings that we’ve received and how it works. The entire year has been crafted so that you’ll hear every doctrine you need to know within a year. The woman asking me this then asked me how I preach about current events if I follow predetermined readings. I told her that if the event really needed to be preached on I could “free-text,” though I really don’t care for that. It is more than that, however. The church’s business isn’t all that much about current events. You get enough of that from the television news networks, the newspaper, and the internet. The conversation reminded me of St. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “ I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified .” On the Lord’s Day we gather in the Lord’s house to hear the Word of the Lo...