Crazy to the World

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, by Fr. Joshua Leigeber.

What does it look like to live as the Church in the world? The answer begins with recognizing that Christianity is not ultimately about isolated individuals trying to maintain a private faith in the midst of a hostile culture. In Baptism, Christ incorporates us into His Body and makes us members of a real household of faith—a holy community in which we hear the Word of our Father, bear one another’s burdens, and gather at the family table to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

That life together looks increasingly strange to the world, especially in a culture that urges us to organize our lives around careers, possessions, comfort, and the accumulation of mammon (Matthew 6:24-34). Yet it is precisely within the Church that Christ frees us from the world’s promises and teaches us to trust that God holds our future in His hands. Joined together in Christ, we are strengthened to resist the world’s lies, care for one another, practice generosity, and confess with our lives that God—not mammon—rules the world.

Listen to the full homily below.

Homily for Palm Sunday

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!” (Luke 19:38). Jesus enters into Jerusalem precisely in order to suffer and die on the cross for us and for the sake of acquiring our salvation and life. He came not in order to be served but to serve, in order that through His sacrifice we might live forever as God’s born-again children. Still today, He comes not to be served but to serve, and to give us of Himself through the precious Means of Grace. Christ comes each week in the Divine Service to forgive us anew and strengthen us in the new life He’s given.