Pray for American troops fighting for freedom and against terrorism.
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
THE BIBLE STUDY –
March 10, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings this Tuesday from the daily lectionary are Genesis 35:1–29 and Mark 9:33–50.
... View MoreTHE BIBLE STUDY –
March 10, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings this Tuesday from the daily lectionary are Genesis 35:1–29 and Mark 9:33–50.
In our Old Testament passage, the Lord calls Jacob back to Bethel — a return not only in geography but in repentance.
Jacob buries the foreign idols that were defiling his family, and stands again before the God who has never abandoned him.
The Lord renews His promises, reminding Jacob that His mercy is not fragile, even when His people are.
In our Gospel text, the disciples argue about greatness, exposing hearts still shaped by pride.
Jesus answers by placing a child in their midst—a picture of dependence, littleness, and trust.
True greatness in the Kingdom is not found in self-assertion, but in faithful service.
Martin Luther captured this beautifully when he wrote, “True humility does not know that it is humble. If it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue.” (LW 25:287). The moment we admire our humility, we have already lost it.
Both readings today call us to the same place: away from pride, away from the idols we tolerate, and back to faith in the Saviour who meets us in mercy.
In Christ, we learn of the humility that forgets itself, the service that seeks no reward, and the peace that comes from being saved by His grace alone.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, turn our hearts from pride and every false god that draws us away from You.
Teach us to walk humbly and serve our neighbour with joy.
Keep us steadfast in Your saving truth. Amen.
Our Hymn for the Day from Lutheran Service Book is LSB 655 “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ViZi7M5p4&list=RDS8ViZi7M5p4&start_radio=1
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
March 8, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
Lutheran Service Book –Divine Service Setting V (Pages 213 – 218)
... View MoreTHE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
March 8, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
Lutheran Service Book –Divine Service Setting V (Pages 213 – 218)
OUR OPENING HYMN: 693 “O Holy Spirit, Grant Us Grace”
Confession and Absolution Page 213
Introit
Psalm 84, verses 1-4; antiphon v.5
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God. 3 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise!
Glory be to the Father and to the + Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
The Salutation – Pastor: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And with thy spirit.
Our Collect Prayer:
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
OUR BIBLE READINGS –
First Reading: Exodus 17: 1-7
Psalm 95: 1-9
Epistle Reading: Romans 5: 1-8
HYMN OF THE DAY: 609 “Jesus Sinners Doth Receive”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RODV7z-UQhI&list=RDRODV7z-UQhI&start_radio=1
Gospel Reading: John 4: 5-30, 39-42
CREED “We All Believe in One True God” Hymn 954
THE SERMON –
The noon hour in Israel can be a brutal time of day.
It’s hot.
The Apostle John tells us it was about noon, or what they called the sixth hour, when Jesus sat down by a well in Samaria.
Many Biblical events happened around this spot, but John wants you to remember a well Jacob dug.
Jacob isn’t often remembered in our weekly readings.
He was noted in Genesis for almost superhuman strength.
He lifts the stone off the well for his ‘wife to be’ Rachel the first time he sees her.
He lifts the standing stone at Bethel, which has been found, and is massive.
He wrestles with God Himself.
But strength is not the only thing Jacob was known for.
He was also a sinner.
Jacob deceived his father, Isaac, and engineered the birthright away from his older brother Esau.
John wants you to think not of the founder of the Israelite nation, the faithful Abraham, but Jacob, the one who literally wrestles with God.
Yet the Lord loves him.
This is important.
Here is a well dug by Jacob in a land that became Samaria.
The Samaritans were a people of mixed ancestry, and because of this, the Jewish people didn’t accept them.
Jesus, as you know, once used the example of a good Samaritan to explain to a Jewish man just who his neighbour was.
At this noon hour, people would retreat to the thick adobe-like walls of their houses, waiting for the cooler time of day.
Jesus was travelling in hostile territory.
So, Christ could expect no welcome there.
And here comes this woman.
For people like us, who can just turn on a faucet, this has no impact.
But for the first-century audience of John, who all knew the habits of peasant women in villages throughout the Mediterranean, they would have known immediately what this meant.
Women always went together in the morning to get water.
It was community time, an occasion when they socialized in an otherwise dreary world.
No one got water at noon.
It was foolish, way too hot, but here she was.
Why?
Everyone knew the sorts of women who came out at noon.
It was the woman every mother in town warned her sons about.
The woman who was the subject of gossip.
Who had gone through a series of unsuccessful marriages.
And now she was a social outcast.
Here, in the middle of the day, she wouldn’t have to endure the stares and whispers behind her back.
She was tired of it all, so she came out when she knew no one else would be there.
But today, there was someone there.
God’s only Son.
Jesus asks for a drink.
She’s surprised.
How can He ask her, a Samaritan, for a drink?
Jews don’t even talk to Samaritans.
Christ has opened the door, and now He engages her in the real conversation.
He has living water, so she would never thirst again.
She’s thinking about the liquid kind, but Jesus has something else in mind.
At first, she’s skeptical, wary, even a little snarky.
She says, you don’t have a bucket, the well is deep.
And if you have this “living water,” give me some already, so I don’t have to come out here anymore in this heat to haul it.
She’s testing, even challenging Christ, with no idea of what she’s asking for, or who she’s speaking with.
And that’s God, in human flesh.
He knows her.
Unlike the villagers, He doesn’t shun her or call her names.
But the response to her attitude, to her sin, is simple.
Come back with your husband.
In order to give her the living water, Jesus has to break through the unbelief and the attitude.
The request touches home.
She doesn’t have a husband, and she says so.
She’s had five men in her life, and is living with a fellow now, number six, who’s not her husband.
The “living” water is not H2O, but the love of God given to a person exposed before His holiness.
Someone shown to be broken and sinful, as we all are, and yet loved by Him, despite what she has done.
Despite what all of us have done.
Jacob, who dug this well, knew God’s love when he wrestled with the Lord many years before.
By pointing directly to the darkest corner of her life, Christ is making it possible to give her the ‘living water,’ for it is the full, unmerited forgiveness of sin.
As Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark, “Repent and believe in the Good News.”
As Lutherans say, Law and Gospel.
She sets her water jars down and races back to the village.
She forgets herself, her place in the village, and the need for physical water.
She tells the neighbours: “This man has told me everything I’ve done.”
We can only imagine what went through the minds of people who heard her say that: “Everything she’s done?”
This, we’ve got to hear.
The poor, despised woman was the closest thing they had to a gossip magazine in that town.
And so, they all came out.
Meanwhile, the disciples return and offer Jesus some of the food they went to buy, but He’s no longer hungry.
He’s been eating and drinking the very bread and drink of Heaven.
He’s spreading the Gospel He came to share.
The true life-giving water.
It’s the reason He came to earth, to save sinners.
The disciples wonder why He’s talking to a Samaritan, and a woman no less, yet they don’t ask why.
But we need to.
Soon, the villagers start showing up.
John doesn’t have to record that exchange; it’s the discussion that happens whenever the Gospel comes to the lives of broken people.
John only tells us what happens next.
The woman's word has been confirmed.
They’ve seen it for themselves, and they ask Jesus to stay and tell them more.
Can you imagine people begging you to hear about Christ?
And it’s the very gossipers who drove our Samaritan woman out to the well in the heat of the day who now accept the Word of God and Christ as their Saviour.
Now they’re all there, sitting and listening to Jesus.
Miraculous.
Lift up your eyes, Christ says to us.
The fields are ripe; the harvest is waiting.
God has ploughed, and weeded, and prepared a crop through the work of His Law.
People hide in shame, they have compromised lives, and they’re aware of it.
They wait and long for someone who can say to them: God already knows this, and offers forgiveness through Christ.
Repent, and believe the Gospel.
Jesus knew all about the moral failings of this woman.
He replied only with a brief request.
He didn’t try to make her feel bad, to make her feel like dirt.
And this is because, as with other sinners, Christ loves her and will go to the cross to save her.
She already knew she had a problem.
She knew the hard truth of her life, but now she encounters the greater Truth, the One who is the very Water of Eternal Life, her Saviour.
Jesus has chosen the least likely candidate to be His instrument of salvation in this town.
If people in our town were to change things, they might go to the city council, or the richest or most powerful person.
Jesus starts with the outcast, the woman who is the example of what not to do.
Yet despite her, He works an even more profound change than all the power and wealth could have ever done.
This is the kingdom of God at work.
Some people feel that because they’re not perfect, they can’t be a Christian witness.
But neither this woman, nor the Apostles, nor any human being, is perfect.
Fortunately, God doesn’t deal with us as we deserve, but as He loves.
And Jesus doesn’t wait for us to get it right before He loves us, or before He asks us to serve Him and spread His Good News.
As forgiven sinners, we are the perfect ambassadors of God.
Because it’s all about Him.
It’s all about Jesus, and His righteousness.
May we receive the Good News of that forgiveness.
And may it embolden us, like the Samaritan woman, to go and tell.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH Page 215-216
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 216
THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 217 THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 217
THE PAX DOMINI Page 217
Agnus Dei (The Lamb of God) Page 198
THE DISTRIBUTION
Post-Communion Hymn 938 “In Peace and Joy I Now Depart” Post Communion Collect (Left-hand Column) Page 218 Benedicamus and Benediction Page 218
CLOSING HYMN: 543 “What Wondrous Love Is This”
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
March 1, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
OUR OPENING HYMN: 596 “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized”
... View MoreTHE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
March 1, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
OUR OPENING HYMN: 596 “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized”
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Page 184-185
THE INTROIT –
Psalm 25:1-2a, 7-8,11; antiphon: Ps. 25:6, 2b, 22
6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old. Let not my enemies exult over me. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. 1To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord! 11 For your name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. 6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old. Let not my enemies exult over me. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
Congregation: And with thy Spirit.
OUR COLLECT PRAYER –
O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
OUR BIBLE READINGS
Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-9 Psalm 121 Epistle: Romans 4:1-8, 13-17 Gospel Reading: John 3:1-17
THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192
HYMN OF THE DAY: 708 “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK6TdX7QME4&list=RDGK6TdX7QME4&start_radio=1
THE SERMON –
Grace, peace, and mercy be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text from John describes a nighttime conversation that reveals the light of the Gospel and the blessing of Baptism.
A Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness.
St. John tells us he is a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of Israel.
He comes because he’s seen the “signs” Jesus has done.
John calls them signs, not merely miracles, because they point beyond themselves.
They point to, they reveal who Jesus is.
Nicodemus senses that something divine is at work.
“Rabbi,” he says, “we know that you are a teacher come from God.”
He arrives at night, perhaps fearing what others might think.
Maybe the darkness outside reflects the spiritual darkness within.
Yet into that darkness Jesus speaks a word that shatters every human assumption.
“Unless one is born again — or born from above in the original Greek — he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus is baffled.
He thinks in earthly terms.
“How can a man be born when he is old?”
He can’t imagine a birth other than the physical one.
But Jesus speaks of another.
A birth “of water and the Spirit.”
A birth from above.
Here, our Lord speaks plainly of Holy Baptism.
The water is not ordinary, but water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word, as Christ later directs in Matthew 28:19.
It is the washing of regeneration of which St. Paul writes.
It is the dying and rising with Christ proclaimed in the Epistle to the Romans (Chapter 6).
In Baptism, something happens.
Not symbolically.
Not merely emotionally.
But actually.
God acts.
Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
We do not climb our way into the kingdom of God.
We are born into it.
And birth is not the work of the one being born.
It is God’s work.
This is where Nicodemus stumbles.
And this is where so many still stumble today.
Human reason, darkened by sin, resists the idea that God would use simple water and spoken words to accomplish something eternal.
Surely there must be something more impressive.
Something more spiritual.
Or maybe something simply within our control.
But Jesus says the Spirit works as He wills.
“The wind blows where it wishes… so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Baptism is not our decision.
Nor is it a public display of our obedience.
It is not a mere symbol.
It is the visible Gospel.
It is the Spirit’s work.
It is the moment when God applies the promise of Christ to the individual sinner.
This is why we confess with the Church in the Book of Concord that Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this.
In the Small Catechism, Dr. Martin Luther asks, “How can water do such great things?”
His answer is beautifully simple.
“Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God…”
In the Large Catechism, Luther writes, “To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by men but by God Himself.”
That is the heart of it.
Baptism is God’s act, His work in us.
Therefore, we baptize infants.
Because if Baptism depended on intellectual capacity or personal decision, none of us could be certain.
But if Baptism is God’s work — His promise, His Spirit, His grace — then infants can receive it just as surely as adults.
They can receive the Holy Spirit.
They can believe.
For faith itself is God’s gift.
Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, cannot yet grasp this.
He can’t comprehend how God could bring about spiritual rebirth through such humble means.
But that’s precisely how God works.
He called Abram out of idolatry in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 12, not because of Abram’s merit, but by promise.
He declared Abram righteous through faith, as St. Paul explains in the Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 4.
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Salvation has always been by grace through faith in the promise.
And that promise is now fulfilled in Christ.
Jesus says something even more astonishing.
“No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
Here, He declares His divine origin.
He is not merely a teacher sent from God.
He is the eternal Son who has come down from heaven.
And then He speaks of how this salvation will be accomplished.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
He is speaking of the cross.
He is speaking of His crucifixion.
Just as the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent and lived, so whoever believes in the crucified Son of Man will have eternal life.
And then comes the verse we know so well.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This is the Gospel in a sentence.
The motivation: God’s love.
The gift: His only Son.
The result: eternal life.
Notice that it says “the world.”
Not the worthy.
Not the spiritually advanced.
The world.
The same world that sits in darkness.
The same world that resists and doubts.
The same world that crucified Him.
God loves this world.
And He gave His Son not to condemn it, but to save it.
Dear friends, your Baptism ties you to this crucified and risen Christ.
It is not an isolated religious ritual from long ago.
It is your daily identity.
As Luther teaches, the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
That is the daily return to Baptism.
Each day we fall.
We sin.
And each day we return to the promise: I am baptized.
God has claimed you.
You have been born from above.
Psalm 121 declares, “The Lord is your keeper.”
He who began this work in you will keep you.
He does not abandon those He has reborn.
In this Lenten season, as we travel toward Good Friday and the cross, we remember that our salvation does not rest on our understanding, our performance, or our strength.
Nicodemus came in darkness.
But Jesus met him there with light.
And that same light has shone upon you.
You have been born of water and the Spirit.
You have been united to the Son who was lifted up for you.
You believe because the Spirit has given you new birth.
And so, as a baptized Christian, do not fear condemnation.
When the devil throws your sins in your face, you can say with confidence: I know I deserve death and hell — what of it?
For I have One who has suffered and made satisfaction for my sins.
His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God.
The Father did not send His Son into the world to condemn you.
He sent Him to save you.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 198 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201
OUR CLOSING HYMN: 918 “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer”
Pray for U.S. armed forces that are defending freedom and fighting terrorism.
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
THE BIBLE STUDY –
February 25, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings this Wednesday from the daily lectionary are Genesis 8:13–9:17 and Mark 4:1–20.
... View MoreTHE BIBLE STUDY –
February 25, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings this Wednesday from the daily lectionary are Genesis 8:13–9:17 and Mark 4:1–20.
The Lord who brought Noah through the flood is the same Lord who sows His Word generously into the soil of human hearts.
In Genesis, God’s covenant with Noah is pure promise—unearned, unconditional, grounded in His mercy. It is ultimately the promise of a Saviour.
The rainbow is not a symbol that celebrates or endorses sin.
God binds Himself to creation through the incarnation of His only Son, who died for our sins on the cross.
In Mark Chapter 4, Jesus teaches that His Word is scattered broadly, generously, upon all kinds of soil.
Some reject it, some receive it only for a time, and some—by God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit—bear abundant fruit.
The power lies not in the soil but in the seed. As Martin Luther writes, “The Word of God is the true holy thing above all holy things… Indeed, it is the treasure that sanctifies everything” (Large Catechism, Explanation of the Third Commandment).
The seed is holy because it is God’s living Word, and wherever it takes root, it brings life out of death—just as God brought new life out of the waters for Noah.
The covenant with Noah and the Parable of the Sower both reveal a God who delights to give life.
God preserves, promises, plants, and He continues to work through His Word today, creating faith in Christ, sustaining hope, and producing fruit that endures for eternity.
Prayer:
Gracious Father, thank You for Your covenant mercy and the living seed of Your Word.
Make our hearts good soil, that we may trust Your promises and bear fruit for Your glory.
Strengthen us daily through Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Our Hymn for the Day from Lutheran Service Book is LSB 577 – “Almighty God, Your Word Is Cast”
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