“He provides for the soul through the body. You can’t wash a soul. So you wash the body with water in the Triune name of God, and the soul is thereby washed. We call that baptism. You can’t touch the soul or feed it apart from the body. So Jesus feeds our bodies with spiritual food, with what the soul needs to be strengthened and cleansed. He does not sit in heaven and think nice things toward us. He actually enters into creation. He speaks through human words, in a human voice. He feeds us when bread and wine become His body and blood, even as He washes us with water.”

-David H. Petersen, author of Thy Kingdom Come

“Eve fell by eating. Jesus resisted taking food from the devil in the desert. And He redeems us by feeding. The same action that plunged the world back to near chaos, that which He denied Himself, now unites and reconciles God’s children to God. His body and His blood are better than manna in the desert. Here is balm for your wounds, courage for your fight, peace for your soul, and the strength you need to face temptation. Here is the Word of God written in stone in the flesh of Mary, hidden in bread, that you would not stand against the accuser but would live as God’s own holy child.”

–David H. Petersen, author of Thy Kingdom Come

Thy Kingdom Come
by David H. Petersen

This collection of sermons arises from the culture of an active parish life as a part of its usual worship routine. With over sixty sermons spanning Pre-Lent, all forty days of Lent, and the Sundays after Easter, this book now serves as an excellent daily devotion for both pastors and parishioners. Distinctive in his preaching style, Pr. Petersen fluidly interweaves the words of Holy Scripture with his own, immersing us in the text and applying Law and Gospel with sharp insight. As Luther explains in his catechisms, preaching the Word brings the kingdom of heaven from Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to the individual, always pointing us to Christ and Him crucified, died, and risen.

“Every one of Pr. Petersen’s sermons is a bloody mess of Law and Gospel. The mess of your sin and the mess of Jesus’ cross are on display in every sermon. No matter the occasion, no matter the readings, every sermon is about Jesus in His saving work, Jesus crucified for you.”                                                    -From the Forward, Rev. Todd Wilken

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Rev. David H. Petersen has been pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, since August of 2000. In addition to his pastoral duties, he is also a prolific writer and magazine editor, serving as editor of the Lutheran journal Gottesdienst, for which he writes on the life and liturgy of the Church. Rev. Petersen has been published in many other journals as well—both scholarly and popular—and is much in demand as a speaker and retreat leader. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity in 1996.

“We pray for daily bread not to remind God that we need it, but that He would lead us to realize that He is the giver and that we would receive it with thanksgiving. That word ‘thanksgiving’ happens to be the English translation of the Greek word ‘eucharist.’  Apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there would be no mercy and no providence, no bread for hungry people. It is only because the Father has reconciled us to Himself in the Son and declared us righteous that He loves us and that anyone, believer or not, has anything close to what is necessary for this body and life.”

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Pr. David H. Petersen — excerpt from his sermon on Laetare (John 6:1-15), included in his upcoming sermon book.