God Comes First God is, the theologians say, transcendent—beyond us, always exceeding our easy grasp. Recognizing God’s awesome transcendence brings a reevaluation of other values. The God of vertigo-inspiring infinitude is also the God who know the hairs of our head. Trusting this God, fear is defanged and faith becomes a sort of courage. We…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Who Is Jesus? Jesus’ true identity seems to remain a mystery for most of the disciples. Jesus can teach, preach, heal, cast out demons, challenge authority and more, but still they do not comprehend. You might say it is a case of mistaken identity as…
Good News All Over Again The desire to privatize the free love of God for all creation seems stamped on the human soul. While Lutherans learn early on in their faith formation about the abuses of the church through the sale of indulgences in the sixteenth century, the scriptures for Reformation Day remind us that…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. God Be Merciful We may expect the religious insider to be blessed, the moral person to be right with God. But as is so often the case, Jesus’ parable for today sweeps away conventional expectations. Jesus surprises the disciples…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. The Reality of Division Throughout the Gospel of Luke, Jesus calls on his hearers to turn their hearts away from greed and instead to generosity, to turn away from anxious self-preservation and instead to faithful self-giving. But such practice…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Sixth Sunday after Epiphany A fundamental decision is placed before us this day: Will we choose the way of blessing or the way of woe? The death and resurrection of Jesus is the pivot on which the decision turns.…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Called to Domestic Disturbance Jesus reads from the scriptures and is the talk of the town. At first, Jesus is seen as the hometown boy made good. Then something changes. Is it the mention of Jesus being the son…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. A Light in Our Darkness The longest night of the year has passed, but while the light is increasing, it remains so incremental it appears as though the darkness outside is triumphing. By the third day of January, the…
There will not be a recorded service for this week. Don’t Wait for the Kingdom—See It As Advent begins, we look forward to the celebration of Jesus’ first coming to the world in the light of a text that promises his final coming. We, like the gospel writer, Luke, live in the time between these…
The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Reformation Sunday Not Ashamed In many congregations, Reformation Sunday is treated as a sort of “Lutheran heritage” day, a time for singing chorales and remembering the theological reforms of the sixteenth century that gave birth to Lutheranism. In other…