A note from Pastor regarding his sermon:

Lutherans sometimes seem to have a complicated relationship with the idea of good works. On one hand, we know that God’s Law commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and that good works will naturally occur as we hear the glorious news of the Gospel and recognize what it is that God has done to save us from our sins. But on the other hand, we are often legitimately wary of emphasizing good works because we know how easy it is for Christians to confuse their obedience to God with the reason we can be confident in our justification before God at the final judgment. Works-righteousness is still a prevalent temptation throughout Christianity, and we want to be perfectly clear that we are not saved because of our good works (or our intention to perform them…)

Our readings for this week encourage us to reflect upon what it means to be a servant of God. They remind us to live our lives in service to God and to one another. But they also remind us that that service is not the cause of our salvation, the reason God calls us to Him in the first place, nor the guarantee of earthly success.