Alive to God in Christ
3rd Sunday after Pentecost Today's readings: Romans 6:1b-11 ; Matthew 10:24-39 Happy Father's Day! Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Last week our gospel lesson had some troubling words for the perils of discipleship and again today we hear some not so comforting or appealing words from Christ. Jesus was a nice guy. Jesus’ life did stand for love, peace, harmony, and unity of all people, but that cle
Called. Empowered. Equipt.
2nd Sunday after Pentecost – Yr A Readings: Exodus 19:2-8a ; Matthew 9:35-10:23 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Lord said to Moses and the Israelites, “The whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” (Ex. 19:5-6) As we heard last week from Genesis, God created all the earth, all of humanity and called it good. So that got me thinking, why would God choose to give
Praise God, 3-in-1
Holy Trinity Sunday Today's Readings: Genesis 1 ; Matthew 28:16-20 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's sermon comes to us from the ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. You can watch the video here or read her words below. Thanks be to God! "Well, a lot has changed since last Trinity Sunday, not just the COVID-19 pandemic under which we live. But also, the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed, handcuffed black man by a wh
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Pentecost Sunday Today's Readings: Acts 2:1-21 ; John 20:19-23 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is traditionally the day we say ‘Happy Birthday’ to the Church! Now normally when we have birthdays we are bummed about getting another year older, but I think for the Church it might be the opposite.. how AMAZING is it that the Church has lasted SO long!? How powerful is our God, is the SPIRIT, for being present and mov
Wait and Pray
7th Sunday of Easter/Ascension Sunday Today's Readings: Acts 1:6-14 ; John 17:1-11 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. In our Creeds we confess that we believe in Christ who lived, died, rose again and ascended into heaven. In today’s readings we hear about this ascension and how 40 days after Jesus rose again, he mysteriously went to be with the Father. But as we heard last week, Jesus promised that we would never be left
God Lives In You
6th Sunday of Easter Today's Readings: A cts 17:22-31 ; John 14:15-21 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. This morning we hear from the book of Acts about the time the Apostle Paul visited the great, ancient philosophers of Athens, Greece. He was disturbed by all of the gods, shrines, and idols he found there, but then he came across a shrine labeled: “ To an unknown god .” Then Paul proceeded to explain to them
Fear Not, Troubled Heart
5th Sunday of Easter - Christ is risen! Alleluia! Readings: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 ; John 14:1-14 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Explaining God is a hard job. Explaining the Trinity, is even harder. Impossible, in fact! It is something our brains cannot comprehend even if we were to stand face-to-face with the Triune God. Some have taken this John text and used verse 6, “no one comes to the Father except throug
Road to Emmaus
3rd Sunday of Easter Reading: Luke 24:13-35 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen. I don’t know about you, but this past week was one of the hardest for me. For whatever reason, this was the week that it hit me, really settled into my bones, that this quarantined life is going to stay awhile. At first I took comfort in the ‘temporary,’ getting by with the ‘one day at a time’ mentality, but now, facing another month and probably
From Doubt to Discovery
2nd Sunday after Easter Reading: John 20:19-31 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is risen! Alleluia! We proudly proclaim this truth throughout the Easter season and throughout our entire lives. But just like the year 2020 keeps coming back at us like, ‘but wait! There’s more!’ so too does the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ rose from the dead! *But wait! There’s more!* Christ appeared
A Very Corona Easter
Easter Sunday 2020 - Mark 16:1-8 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia! I invite you to proclaim this good news throughout worship this morning, throughout the day today, and throughout your entire life as we remember the miracle of our faith! We are an Easter people, a resurrection people! ‘Do not be afraid! You are looking for the crucified Jesus, but he is
