Sunday, February 22, 2015

Sermon - The First Sunday in Lent



Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15
St Stephen Lutheran Church
The Rev. Maurice Frontz, STS

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This era has known no lack of doomsday predictions.
Many of you will remember Hal Lindsey’s best-selling The Late Great Planet Earth,
and the billboards proclaiming the end of the world in May 2011,
or those who believed that since the calendar of the ancient Mayans
ended at the winter solstice of 2012,
there would be no more days after that.
But doomsday predictions are not confined to today,
and they are not just the province of the uneducated.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Sermon Ash Wednesday 2015



Ash Wednesday – Feb 18, 2015
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
St Stephen Lutheran Church
The Rev. Maurice Frontz, STS

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today we begin our forty-day journey
toward the cross and resurrection of our Lord.
Today we hear once again the call of Joel:
‘Return to the Lord your God.’
Today we hear the plea of St Paul:
‘We entreat you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.’

We read in the Old Testament
in books like Joel and Jonah
how those convicted of their sin
sat in sackcloth and ashes
as a sign of sorrow for their sin
and plea for forgiveness.
And so we, like them,
receive ashes on our foreheads,
that we might acknowledge
before God and ourselves
the gravity of our situation,
that we might physically enact
the desire of our hearts and minds
to return to the Lord our God.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Sermon February 1, 2015 - Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Epiphany 4B – February 1, 2015
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
St Stephen Lutheran Church
The Rev. Maurice C. Frontz III, STS

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘When E.F. Hutton talks…people listen.
That’s one which sailed right over the heads of a few of you
who were not watching television in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
E.F. Hutton was a stock brokerage firm,
and the commercials often featured
a young professional man at a party
who would casually mention that his broker was E.F. Hutton,
and all the conversation stopped as everyone turned to him.
Then the voice-over:
‘When E.F. Hutton talks…people listen.