SERMONS
Christmas/Epiphany Festival 2021
The liturgy on January 3, 2021 did not include a sermon, rather, it was a telling of the Christmas/Epiphany story by several youth group members with carols and choral music of the season.
Sermon 1/2/21: Welcome Home (Beau Surratt)
The Word is made flesh. All earth rejoices. Heaven and nature sing. God has come to dwell with us, to make us people of God, to make all things new. Will we receive him as he comes to dwell in us, as he comes to make his home in and with us, in all humanity, in all the earth? Will we find room, will we make room for God? Perhaps this is our work of Christmas in this new year of 2021.
Sermon 12/26/20: Finitum Capax Infinity (Pr. Ben Adams)
Just as God has embraced all things through Christ's earthly incarnation, God is also at work healing, redeeming, and restoring all things. Through baptism and communion, we finite humans intimately receive God’s infinite presence and grace, and we are God bearers for the world. A life of praise is the only appropriate response to such amazing grace and we take our place in joining the hymn of all creation.
Our very beings are capable of containing, receiving, and bearing the infinite. Jesus’ radical incarnation on this earth has brought heaven and earth together as one.
Sermon 12/25/20: Empty Chairs and Empty Tables (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Even on this day of fullness, we wait. And yet. And yet, even at empty chairs and empty tables, Christ comes. To empty, sorrowing hearts, Christ comes. Even in a miserable year, Christ is born! From his fullness we have received grace upon grace. This is God’s promise. This is our song. This is our hope. Evermore and evermore.
Sermon 12/24/20: Christmas is not canceled...or stolen (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
May the Holy One give us the grace to remember that we cannot create Christmas, we can only receive it. Just as the Grinch could not stop it, we can’t make it happen either. Because we learn over and over again that Christmas is more than boxes and tags and ribbons and bows. More than traditions and celebrations. God enters the world and lives among us this night, and for all our days, full of grace and truth. Full of love and promise.
Sermon 12/24/20: Directionless (Pr. Ben Adams)
Merry Christmas dear found ones, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you have done or not done, Christ has been born to you this day and is with you and leading you towards your ultimate destination, a place we can’t get to with a map because this place is not so much a place at all, but a new day where there will be no more virus, where all will live in unity, and where love and light will fill all creation to overflowing.
Sermon 12/25/19: Lullaby Love Songs (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
On this most Holy Day, we sing God’s love song of word becoming flesh and living among us, full of grace and truth. Darkness has not overcome him. Other voices have not drowned him out. God’s love song is not silent. And neither are we. We join with each other and with those throughout the generations in singing our own lullaby, our own lullaby love songs: “Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring. Evermore and evermore.”
Sermon 12/24/2019: To Know the Dark, Go Dark (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Christ is born, Christ comes, Christ is made known in beautiful, holy darkness. In this quiet, still place—in the cave of our hearts—is peace and hope beyond telling. Receive the Child this holy night. Feast on him at this table. Behold him in both strangers and beloved ones. Ponder him in quiet moments of wonder and gratitude. Savor the grace and mystery. Welcome him in the darkness!