divine service – All Saints Lutheran Church and School

A sermon for Palm Sunday, by Father Jerome Leckband.

In his homily for Palm Sunday, Father Leckband explores the striking contrast between the world’s definition of power and the “strange kingship” of Jesus Christ. As we enter Holy Week, we are invited to look past the waving palm branches to see the true nature of the King who comes to save us.

The Contrast of Kingship

The sermon highlights the intentional humility of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. While worldly kings ride on warhorses to demonstrate military might and dominance, Jesus arrives on a humble beast of burden. This is not a king who comes to be served, but one who comes to serve. His authority is not found in earthly political power, but in his perfect obedience to the Father.

The Mind of Christ

Drawing from St. Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2, Father Leckband reminds us that the “mind of Christ” is defined by self-emptying love.

The Descent: Christ, though being in the form of God, did not cling to his divine privileges but “made himself nothing.”
The Goal: His journey into Jerusalem is a deliberate step toward the cross. He does not enter the city to take a throne of gold, but to ascend a throne of wood.

Our Participation in His Passion

The Palm Sunday liturgy, with its shift from “Hosanna” to “Crucify Him,” serves as a mirror for the human heart. We are reminded that the same crowd that welcomed him with joy soon turned against him. However, the message of the Gospel is that Christ remains steadfast. He enters Jerusalem knowing full well the cost, enduring the shame and the suffering for our sake.

Looking Toward the Cross

As we follow Jesus into this Holy Week, we are called to lay down our own pride and “palm branches” of self-righteousness. Our hope is not found in our own loyalty, which so often wavers, but in the unwavering faithfulness of the King who rode into the city to die so that we might live.

“He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

You can listen to the full homily below.

A sermon for the First Sunday in Advent, by Fr. Dan Suelzle.

The Entry into Jerusalem; Simon Bening (Flemish, about 1483 – 1561); c. 1525–1530; Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf on parchment.

Our lives as Christians are marked by a tension between the sure grace of God that is ours now through baptism into Christ, and the “not yet” of Christ’s final, glorious return. Therefore the Christian life is one of perseverance. As we begin this new church year in the season of Advent, we are urged to wake from sleep, to cast off works of darkness, and to live with sober watchfulness against the threats of the world, the devil, and the flesh. Our strength and guidance for this ongoing battle—the “habitus” of the Christian life—do not come from self-effort, but flow from a faithful proximity to the gifts of Christ, in Word and Sacrament. It is through these means that God calls, equips with the armor of light, and transforms us, assuring us that our salvation is secure in Christ, whose glorious return on the last day is nearer now than when we first believed. Listen to the full sermon below.