Category Archives: Sermon

Christ the King surprises us. We celebrate it year after year, as the last Sunday of Pentecost before we begin our church new year with Advent next week. Though the appointed scripture texts for Christ the king are different year to year, they always surprise me, because they don’t often depict Christ as the kindContinue reading “Sunday Sermon – 11/22/2020”

My husband Cole and I are both students at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and we lived on campus there for our first two years of classes. While we were there, my husband was an absolute menace to the grounds crew. He was never trying to be difficult or to make their lives harder,Continue reading “Sunday Sermon – November 15, 2020”

According to Wikipedia, in my lifetime there have been 46 major, notable, well publicized predictions of when the world was supposed to end. Some of them you might remember more vividly were the ancient Mayan calendar ending December 21, 2012, or Y2K when all technology ever was supposed to crash and cause mass destruction ofContinue reading “Sunday Sermon – November 8, 2020”

I imagine the crowds went to the mountain that day feeling the same way we would as elementary school kids going to assembly. You never knew when it was going to happen, but one morning you get to school and your teacher says, “leave your backpacks, we’re going to the cafeteria”. And your eyes lightContinue reading “Sunday Sermon – November 1, 2020”

Good morning everyone, happy Reformation week! To really get into today’s gospel text about freedom from sin, and in honor of a very well known Lutheran named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I’m gonna tell you about Bonhoeffer, and about grace, and about potentially getting eaten by bears, and hopefully by the end of this those three thingsContinue reading “Sunday Sermon – October 25, 2020”

In Jesus time, politics were sometimes a malicious conversation topic, especially when mixed with religion. Our gospel text for today brings us right into the middle of one of these tense, seemingly lose-lose standoffs. It’s the kind of conversation where as soon as someone asks that question, or brings up that topic, whatever it is,Continue reading “Sunday Sermon – October 18, 2020”

One of the many gifts scripture gives us is the ability to stand back, thousands of years later, and learn how countless generations have known and encountered God. Even looking at the experience of more recent generations, you can see how God has been active in different people’s lives in different ways. My faith isContinue reading “Sunday Sermon: 10/11/2020”

October 4, 2020 Vineyards aren’t something that I can very easily picture or relate to. My mind automatically jumps to old black and white movies where Italian grandmas in floral aprons are stomping barefoot on grapes in giant wooden barrels. But for the people of Israel, especially in Jesus time, vineyards and the grapes theyContinue reading “Sunday Sermon”

Exodus 3:1-12; Matthew 16:21-28 – August 30, 2020 INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 3:1-12 There arose a “Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.” He oppressed the Hebrews and asked them to make bricks without straw. This new Pharaoh was threatened by the sheer numbers of the Hebrew slaves and issued an edict that all the Hebrew baby boysContinue reading “Holy Ground”

Isaiah 51:1-6; Matthew 16:13-20; Romans 12:1-8 – August 23, 2020 INTRODUCTION TO MATTHEW 16:13-20 If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us anContinue reading “Rocks”