Northwoods Table Talk

Lection for Saturday after Pentecost  Numbers 32:1-6, 16-27        Luke 24:1-27 He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Yes, I know, it is no longer the Easter season… or is it? Do we not live in the knowledge that Christ is risen? That the victory of the cross is an accomplished fact? That sin has been paid in full? That the sacrifice is accepted by the Father? That as we have been baptized into Christ, we also will be raised with Him on the last day? OK, then let me say it… and hear it… He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! On that third day the tomb was empty, just as Jesus had told them. They had been informed of what was going to take place, but the women went there. An angel even spoke to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, ...

Lection for Friday after Pentecost  Numbers 27:12-23        Luke 23:26-56 Our reading from Luke today finds Jesus fulfilling the Scriptures in His innocent suffering and death on a hill outside of Jerusalem. He had carried His cross from the Praetorium… When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (vv. 33-34) Forgive who? Forgive the soldiers who had abused His body with the whip, and now had nailed Him to the cross? Yes, but there is more! Forgive the Jews who had hollered, “Crucify Him!”? Yes, but there is still more! Forgive those who had mocked and jeered Him as He trudged past them bearing His awful burden? Yes, but there is much more! Forgive those who were leaders in the church of that day, those who set up the sham trial, the Jewish leadership? Yes, and there is sti...

Lection for Thursday after Pentecost  Numbers 24:1-25        Luke 23:1-25 Pilate knew that the Jews were envious of Jesus, that they wanted harm to come to him. His wife had pleaded with him to release Jesus, in fact she told him that she had suffered much in a dream because of Him. But the crowds prevailed. It was the custom, and so Pilate was obliged to release one prisoner to them at the time of this festival. Knowing that they hated Jesus, he figured that they would lighten up on their hatred if he offered them the most vile prisoner held in captivity as the option to be released instead of Jesus. But little did he know! God had planned this all out from the beginning. When the fullness of time came – when all the pieces were in place – it happened as God desired. Barabbas would go free and Jesus would be the Christ of God. Do you understand the significance? Here is the Great Exchange in irony! Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father. We hav...

Lection for Wednesday after Pentecost  Numbers 23:4-28        Luke 22:47-71 Jesus had warned the disciples about the fact that they would all fall away on account of Him. Peter, ever so self-confident, boldly boasted that even if they all fell away, he would not. Jesus prophesies that before the rooster crows that very day, Peter would deny Him three times. Both Matthew and Mark’s Gospels record that Peter then replied, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And that they all said the same. (Matt. 26:34 & Mark 14:31) Of course, we all know what happened. It was later that evening that Peter was with Jesus in the garden when He was praying when they came to arrest Jesus. Peter struck out with the sword, but Jesus told him to put it away, and he went peacefully. Luke’s Gospel records the coming events in this way: Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a ...

Lection for Tuesday after Pentecost  Numbers22:21-23:2       Luke 22:24-46 In our text from Luke, we read: And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (vv. 39-42) Do you pray? I am assuming, if you are reading this devotion that you are one who has faith in Christ, and therefore, prayer is probably and integral part of your life. How often do well-intentioned Christians pray, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.”? How often do well-intentioned Christian pray, “yet not My will, but Yours be done,” and then complain when their prayer is not answered in the way that they desired it to be answered? How ...

Lection for Monday after Pentecost Numbers22:1-20       Luke 22:1-23 Yesterday we celebrated the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and drove them out of their self-imposed imprisonment to boldly proclaim Jesus as God’s Christ – and all that goes with it. After that event, three thousand souls were added to those who, having grown up in the teachings of the Scriptures and were waiting for the fulfillment of them, came to faith in Jesus as God’s Christ – the One to whom those Scriptures were pointing. In this lesson from Luke’s Gospel we find Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples and pointing to the coming events of His crucifixion as the greater fulfillment of that Feast – for Jesus is the spotless (sinless) Lamb of God, whose blood is shed that death (the wages of sin) might pass over us. In the first Passover, eating the flesh of the Lamb whose blood marked the doorpost and lintels that night, the people of I...

Lectionary for the Day of Pentecost Rather than a devotion for this day, I thought I would simply give you the link to the video-taped version of the sermon for the day. You will hear the reading for this day, be able to confess the Creed, and sing the hymn of the day. Then, you may watch/listen to... the sermon. Day of Pentecost God's blessings on your Pentecost.

L ection for Saturday of Exaudi   Numbers 20:22-21:9       Luke 20:45-21:19   There has been talk, as I mentioned in one of these missives at some point in the past, that some people see this pandemic and some other things as signs of the end of days. Now our nation is consumed with riots and other protests. Is this what Jesus means when He says that “nation will rise against nation?” There have always been wars. I am going to use this as a starting point to deviate a bit today, this is an excuse to address things that are maybe only tangentially tied to this text, but which I want to take the time to address in this space. Hey, this is after all, my blog. I will also make it devotional, a meditation upon the Word and will of God. But it will not be as tightly tied to the specific texts as you read them from above. What is happening in the Twin Cities, and has spread to other parts of the country, has arisen because there is a sickness in our countr...

Lection for Friday of Exaudi Numbers 20:1-21       Luke 20:19-49 When my grandmother died, my grandfather got remarried. The gal my grandfather married was also widowed. All three marriages where over 20 years long. All four people involved were devoted to Christ, and I have no doubt that now they have all left this veil tears, they are with the Lord. When the resurrection happens, to whom will they each be married? Their first spouses? Their second spouses? Two of them only had one spouse, so maybe that is the answer? I know people are well-intentioned when they speak of their loved ones being reunited with their beloved spouse who pre-deceased them. Indeed, they are “together” with the Lord. It begs the question though, are they together as husband and wife in heaven? Without putting to keen a point on it, NO! As much as I love people…as much as I love my boys, Nathan and Timothy…I love Pauline more. She is the one who is closest to me, she and I are “one fl...

Lection for Thursday of Exaudi  Numbers 16:41-17:13       Luke 20:1-18 From Luke's Gospel we read: Jesus began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. 13 The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, w...

Lection for Wednesday of Exaudi  Numbers 16:23-42       Luke 19:29-48 Jesus comes to Jerusalem, and looking over the city, he weeps saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” (vv.42-44) Jesus is speaking on two sorts of levels at the same time.  First, He is prophesying the total destruction of Jerusalem – this was a physical reality that took place in 70 AD.  It took place because the Jews rejected Jesus, and by so doing, rejected the very God of their forefathers. They rejected the One whom God had promised to send in the Garden of Eden, the One in w...