Worship is at 9:30 am at Crean Lutheran High School (event center/gym) located at 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA 92618:

Exit Sand Canyon from 405 or 5

Head East, towards the hills

Cross Irvine Blvd.

Turn right on Saint's Way and you'll be on the Crean Lutheran High School campus

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Tomorrow morning is a very important time for us at Saint Paul's. First, we will receive the Word of Christ and the Holy Sacrament.

The Third Sunday after The Epiphany is traditionally a Sunday on Missions and Evangelism celebrating that because Jesus is the Light of the World that His light has pervaded our lives and leads us to share His light...you Christian are now equipped to "let your light shine before men"...you are among the disciples of Jesus who share in the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow we will reflect on our shared mission and how we remain equipped to conduct this sacred and exciting mission in the world. Talk about a great reason to be alive...talk about a sense of drive and purpose that is so needed and so important! These things are yours because you are washed, cleansed, and forgiven...you are a new creation, born-again, and called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus...come and have Christ's light shine on you again!

Secondly, tomorrow we have a very important voter's assembly meeting. We need our confirmed members at this meeting. And I think you will agree, at Saint Paul's our meetings highlight what is important and President Fick and the other leaders keep things moving. Our meetings are efficient.

Tomorrow, we need your prayerful consideration over two vital matters:

1) First, we are asking you to consider calling in sacred assembly, the Rev. Dr. Steven P. Mueller to be our Assistant Pastor (part-time) here at Saint Paul's. This is an amazing opportunity for us. If you choose to call him, you will be making a statement about our commitment to grow the Kingdom here at Saint Paul's and to mark ourselves in having the highest standards for teaching and proclamation of the Gospel.

2) Second, the parish council has put in the hard work of preparing a 2014 budget. It can only be ratified and put into effect with you blessing and approval. Please plan on prayerfully considering this proposal.

We need you. You are important to our congregation. Please come and share the load with us. This congregation is worth it to say the very least.

May we all serve to the glory of the One who gave His blood to save us and whose light permeates His people so that others may also see the light of Christ!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon:

“Fishers of Men” (Matthew 4:19)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 26th, 2014
Pastor Espinosa

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Matthew, chapter 4 is not the first time Jesus called Peter and Andrew and other disciples. John, chapter 1 records that Jesus had already called them to be disciples. This call in Matthew, chapter 4 was a call to full-time ministry that would eventually lead Christ -- as recorded in Matthew, chapter 10 -- to send out the twelve with authority as apostles. The meanings of the two biblical words are good to know:

Disciple = is a hearer or a learner [and in application to the Christian faith, it is about hearing and learning the Word of Christ] and such a one follows Christ.

Apostle = is a sent-one of Christ who goes forth to proclaim the Word of Christ.

Every apostle in Scripture is a disciple, but not every disciple in Scripture is an apostle.

By the way, to be a disciple (or even an apostle) does not mean that you cannot still have a “regular” job in society. When the apostles were still disciples they were fishermen, but they did not totally forsake their vocation of fishing as we find them working the fish during one of Christ’s resurrection appearances (John 21). Furthermore, we know that St. Paul was a tentmaker by trade even during his apostolic ministry. Thus being a disciple or an apostle as presented in the Bible does not mean that you become a separatist! God wants you out in the world, living in your various vocations, living with your families, living in society and being God’s light to the world with Christ in your hearts and His word upon your lips.

Now strictly speaking, there are no longer any apostles in the biblical sense or original sense of the word. These sent ones were called directly and immediately by the Lord Jesus Christ. These apostles actually saw the risen Christ. The only exception to the rule would be Matthias who was appointed by the other apostles, but note that Matthias also saw the risen Lord (Acts 1:22). At any rate, there are no apostles in this sense in the world today.

There is still, however, an office that stems from the apostolic ministry that maintains the distinction between the following ones and the sent ones: the office of the public ministry (as well as its auxiliary offices). Those who serve in this office are called “pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4) and “evangelists/[missionaries]” (Eph. 4). When it became evident that apostles needed help to continue emphasizing the ministry of the Word of Christ, God also established the office of the deaconate. Deacons and Deaconesses serve the special needs of the people of God while enabling pastors to proclaim the Word and administer the Sacraments (Acts 6). These are exceptional servants who show the Servant Christ through their ministry of the Word and putting others before themselves. We are blessed to have an LC-MS deaconess in our congregation as well as having sponsored other deaconesses (“church daughters”) as part of the heritage of this congregation in addition to our having sponsored several men (“church sons”) who went on to become pastors. This has been a rich tradition here at Saint Paul’s and you’ll see this reflected in our missions budget proposal if you attend the voter’s meeting today…we continue to have a vision for future church workers in the Kingdom!

Now having these distinctions, the Christian might be tempted to think to themselves: “Well, I’m so relieved that this attention is put on apostles, pastors, deacons and missionaries…looks like I’m off the hook in terms of spreading the light of Christ and the Word of Christ!” But that would be an inaccurate analysis. It is easy to forget that the entire purpose of having pastors is so that the disciples – all of you – would be equipped through the Word of Christ (Eph 4:12). That is, yes, pastors are sent, but why are they sent? They are sent so that the disciples – all of you – would be equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit through the magnificent Word of Christ and the Holy Sacrament.

But at this point, we might also want know why it is that you as a disciple are to be equipped with the Word and Sacrament at all. Well, the reasons are under two major headings: One major answer to “why be equipped?” is “for your own salvation and benefit”. You are to be equipped with the Word so as to keep you in the forgiveness of sins. In this context of Matthew 4 Jesus takes up where John the Baptism left off; He was proclaiming, “Be repenting!” And under this heading of personal benefit, we often forget the significance of how Christ was preaching: His admonition and call isn’t “repent once!” but rather be repenting every day, constantly, perpetually, throughout your life until the day you go to heaven.

Thus pastors are to keep you in the forgiveness of sins, because it is possible to lose faith in the forgiveness of sins. No, we cannot ever take away the reality that Christ came to forgive us, but we can take away the personal benefit of this forgiveness by forsaking Christ when faith itself is forsaken. So you are equipped by remaining in the forgiveness of sins; constantly repenting; constantly having a living faith; ever holding to Christ so that you never fall away.

This is the self-sustaining purpose of your pastor feeding you. That is why we are called to thirst for the Holy Sacrament. “If you ask how often you must go [to receive the Sacrament], it may indicate a stubborn heart that wants to buy God’s grace as cheaply as possible and that does not really want to be with Jesus. If that is the case, you must pray God to convert you. If, on the other hand, you ask how often you ought to go, our Lord’s answer is, ‘As oft as ye do this,’ and that means that you must do it oftener than the great majority, who commune four times a year just for the sake of propriety. And if you ask how often you may go, you are showing the right hunger for grace, and my answer then is: Go in the joy of the Lord as often as you can. But do not be careless about the preparation!’” (Giertz, Bo. The Hammer of God, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1973: 79)

Think of your being thirsty for water because you’re dying of thirst. You would never dream of trying to quench your thirst by saying to yourself, “Well, I just had some water last week!” Of course not! If anyone ever dies of thirst, it is because they did not have water within a few days, while the sufficiency they received from the water before that is far less at issue! God calls us to thirst for the Sacrament. Why? For the forgiveness of sins! In this way we never come forward to receive the Sacrament because we are so worthy as forgiven people, but rather we approach the altar because once again we confess our sin and our need for forgiveness…needing forgiveness just as much as on the day we were baptized.

Some people foolishly and smugly say, “I don’t need the Sacrament like that; I already know that I’m forgiven!” To say such a thing is to reveal the most profound ignorance of what Holy Scripture actually teaches. Disciples, you are forgiven because Christ keeps you forgiven, and Christ keeps you forgiven by keeping you in His Word and Sacrament. Yes, the food is Christ who is our forgiveness, but the food is to be received and eaten constantly. Yes, Christ won our salvation, but that salvation must be distributed and received…stop receiving it and you and I may lose our faith.

Now all of that is just the first heading as to why you as a disciple must be equipped. The second heading is that you are equipped not only for yourselves, but for others. Now under this second heading, you as a disciple are called by God to be a blessing to others through the following: through your prayers, through your service, and through your witness: sharing the light of Jesus Christ with your neighbor.

In Jesus' Love,

Pastor Espinosa

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

God chose to reveal different and distinct facets of a gorgeous diamond which is our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Word of God. St. Paul takes one approach, St. John another. They are complementary of course and combine for a powerful overall way of knowing that your sins cannot keep you from God; your sin cannot keep God's love from you; and your sin could not keep God from saving you!

Tomorrow we are going to highlight John's way of describing Jesus' wonderful saving ministry for you. How is John's approach unique? It is represented in the words of our Gospel tomorrow: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29) Come and receive this powerful revelation from God to you.

We will also receive the Holy Sacrament so that even if the sermon is a complete flop, you will still be assured of the perfect forgiveness found in the body and blood of your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! In the meantime, I'll do my very best to make sure that the sermon is not a complete flop...but in the end, we'll leave that to the Lord!

We are now thoroughly in the midst of the season of Epiphany which does not get nearly the fanfare as Christmas, but this is the season in which the Christmas Savior is made known as the Glorious Lord. May this season of light and of truly seeing Jesus for who and what He is be a season that is light for you...seeing Jesus for who and what He really is for you: your Savior, your Best Friend, your Lord, your King, your Counselor, your God...He comes to serve tomorrow morning in Divine Service.

I hope to see you in God's house tomorrow morning. Invite a friend. This is a great way to share the faith even if you struggle on what to say...invite them to church...this even a child can do!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon:

“Who Takes Away The Sin” (John 1:29-42a)
Pastor Espinosa
Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 19th, 2014

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

Introduction: The shame of stains!

A. On one occasion I was utterly and completely drenched in sweat after a divine service. After taking off my alb, I saw that my light-colored clerical shirt was a mess! I was left with an embarrassing spectacle and did not have another shirt to put on! And this was just in time for another congregational event after the service! Eventually, someone found an extra t-shirt from an old church fundraiser to cover my embarrassment.
B. Have you ever been in this sort of situation? Think of how we feel when we get dressed up and then “something happens”…something is spilled or splashed or rubbed against and all of a sudden we are made to feel as though the whole world can see the defect. These little things can make us feel terribly self-conscious.
C. And culturally speaking, stains really are a big deal. Think of all the cleaning products people invest in to deal with stains. There are stain removers, busters, wipes, sprays…there is an industry that zeros-in on taking stains away. Stains are embarrassing and they don’t look good. We can joke about it and tell ourselves “no big deal,” but in some cases stains are perceived as catastrophes when people have to get in front of others at weddings and other once-in-a-lifetime events. Stains have been known to bring some people to tears when trying to look their best for their “big days”…the psychology of dealing with stains is serious business.
D. But these superficial stains are nothing in comparison to the deeper stains.
E. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the other women are condemning towards Hester Prynne. We’re able to listen in on their hard words: “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead.” (Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003: 47) But there is no getting past her stain. Another says, “Ah, but…let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” (ibid, 47). Finally Hester Prynne appears: “When the young woman – the mother of this child – stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” (ibid, 48). “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (ibid, 49) The condemning stares of the people reinforced their ways “where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!” (ibid, 50) “Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne.” (ibid, 51-52) She stood there “under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentred at her bosom. It was almost intolerable to be borne.” (ibid, 52)

Part I: And in our sin, we are drastically stained and even more so than what Hawthorne describes.

A. I like Hawthorne’s ability to highlight the stain of sin. “It is almost intolerable to be borne.” But the actual truth of the matter is that this statement when it comes to sin is wholly inadequate in that it isn’t severe enough. For us, our sin is impossible to bear. It kills us. That’s how devastating the stain of sin is.
B. But this helps us to understand why people react to it as they do. Hawthorne conjectures as to how Hester Prynne will cope. Will she be brazen? Will she enter into an imaginary world so as to escape from reality? Will she scream out loud? Will she go mad?
C. And these remind us of what people actually do. With the stain of sin comes being convinced that all we can do is “live with it” so that we succumb to further temptation and sin; or we try to repress it and try to forget it, so alcohol and substances are used to dull our senses and our memories; or we let our conscience dwindle to the point of apathy and the loss of hope. Again, stains can be devastating. Stains that say we have failed. Failed towards God; failed towards those we love…just failed. Our scarlet letters take on many and various forms and the stains are overwhelming.
D. And they are devastating and overwhelming to the point of death, talk about what is “intolerable to be borne.” The Lord proclaims, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) And the Word of God declares, “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a)
E. As part of my sermon preparation, I went to a unique book given to me as a gift when I left Texas. It is remarkable in that it is an extensive book of poetry that was published in 1876: A New Library of Poetry and Song…a huge book. There is a considerable section on “Bereavement and Death”…I wanted to share with you words of how distressing this stain truly is, but alas upon reading poem after poem, by Longfellow, Bryant, Vaughan, Milton, Shakespeare, and many others, the whole section was distressing not because of accurate biblical descriptions of death that I had hoped to find (and did not find), but because – in my opinion – none of the poems grasped the power of the stain. All of them were painfully optimistic – not expressing faith in Christ who is the Resurrection – but trying to spin some kind of emotional coping, negotiation, rationalization, unfounded optimism…trying almost desperately to deny the terrible effects of this stain that rises from sin, wanting to be friendly towards death and generate some kind of imagined bright side to the stain.
F. And I was reminded that some so-called “stain removers” don’t really work. It isn’t good enough to deceive oneself that the stain isn’t really there or really isn’t so bad when it is in fact terrible. And when we face reality, this is about the time when we are tempted to lose all hope.

Part 2: Enter our Gospel this day from John chapter 1.

[come and hear the amazing Gospel now from John's Gospel addressing the great stain of sin and death]

In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,

Pastor Espinosa

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ was baptized and joined to us. We were baptized and joined to Christ.

This new relationship through Holy Baptism produces a real life, but too many Christians go through life ignorant about it. Romans 6:1-11 teaches what it means to LIVE as a baptized child of God.

If you know it, then you know that God wants you dead...constantly dead...and He wants you alive...constantly alive. Come to Church to hear this important proclamation so that through the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacrament you will be all the more equipped to live in your baptism.

What a great privilege it is for me to serve you. I rejoice!

Please invite a friend. Let us gather for Jesus to serve us!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon:

“Wanted: Dead and Alive”
(Pastor Espinosa wrote this outline on Romans 6:1-11 originally published in Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 15, Part 3, May 22nd-August 21st, 2005, Concordia Publishing House; the inserted portion marked with an asterisk is from an essay written by Pastor Espinosa in the book, C.F.W. Walther Churchman And Theologian, Concordia Publishing House, 2011: 42-44)
Proclaimed at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine
January 12th, 2014
The Baptism of Our Lord

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

Introduction: In movies about the Old West we’ve seen the posters that say “Wanted: Dead or Alive!” The word or was quite significant! All that mattered was that the criminal was brought to justice! If the bounty hunter expedited matters, he would still collect his reward! The Lord our God posts a similar-sounding poster, but it’s significantly changed by replacing the word or with the word and: God wants us dead and alive. God wants to see the old man in us dead, but he’s even more resolved that a new man come forth very much alive. As Paul teaches us in our [epistle] text,

Through our baptism into Christ, our old man is dead to sin and our new man is alive to God in Christ.

Part I: Sin doesn’t live here anymore!
A. Just when the sinful flesh would confuse the Gospel with license to sin, God presents the impossibility (v 1)!
1. More sin, so more grace? Sounds logical.
2. Worse, it’s very appealing to the sinful nature, which will look for any excuse to make us return to its old ways (as, for example, in Rom 7:14-24). [consider specifically Rom 7:15b: “…I do the very thing I hate.”
B. It can’t be, however, because we died to sin (v 2)!
Illustration: 1 Cor 7:39 teaches, “A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.” When her husband was living, she was bound to him, but when he died, she was free to have a new husband. Now plug this analogy into what Paul is saying here at the opening of Romans 6: We were once married to a “husband” called sin, but then we died. The marriage is over. The person God raised from sin and death is not the old person once married to sin, but a new person. And guess what? We remarried, but this time we’re married to God! If old sin comes knocking on our door, the old spouse doesn’t live there anymore!

Part II: We sin against God and our neighbor when we try to do the impossible!
A. That is, we try to stay married to the old and new spouse at the same time!
B. Not only is this nonsense, but it is also impossible.
1. If we continue to live for sin as our master, then we simply do not live for God.
2. The heart that willingly gives itself over to the old sinful nature is no longer a believing heart. Faith has died.
*[C.F.W. Walther helps us to understand this threat of willful sins] “It is important to realize that Walther explains his position [about willful sins] through the terminology ‘dominating sins.’ Walther says, ‘man loses the new life he received in Holy Baptism through dominating sins.’ While dominating sins also involve volition, they are not merely volitional. Walther also says that the ‘old [teachers] by “willful resistance” understand malicious, stubborn resistance [emphasis mine].’ To further clarify Walther’s position: this state of dominating, malicious, and stubborn resistance against God is ‘a false sense of security, not feeling God’s wrath over sin in [the] heart, not believing that [one] is by nature a lost and condemned sinner still loving sin, and not having a broken spirit, and not yet despairing of [oneself].’ That is to say, Walther’s version of sinning ‘willfully’ means that the pseudo-Christians have lost their vital conscientiousness that they are sinners, the very condition St. Paul has in Romans 7. This is exactly why such a person is dominated by sin and the reason why sin is their master in contradistinction to St. Paul’s admonition in Romans 6. For Walther, if one is truly a Christian then that Christian will be painfully aware of his sin….

9:30 am at Crean Lutheran High School.

In Jesus' Love,

Pastor Espinosa

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,