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.

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.

Sermon February 15, 2015

Sermon February 8, 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.’