Christ’s coming is always a surprise, always unexpected. Maybe the past ten months will make this Advent like no other. Come, Lord Jesus. Rip open the heavens. Wake us up. Make all things new! We’re waiting. It’s Advent and we’re waiting.
Sermon 11/22/20: Sheeple, and proud of it! (Pr. Liala Beukema)
In the dark days of the coming Advent remember…if you deepen your resolve to work for justice…You just might be a sheeple. If you join in the call for accountability by public officials and public servants…you just might be a sheeple…If you support small businesses during this economic struggle…you just might be a sheeple…If you learn about and support the concept of reparations…you just might be a sheeple…If you put the pantry on a monthly giving plan…you might be a sheeple…If you learn to include/utilize preferred pronouns…you just might be a sheeple…and good lord, if you wear a mask wherever you go…even when you aren’t required..because you care about others who might get sick even if you might not get sick, well…You ARE a sheeple…and Jesus is proud of it.
Sermon 11/21/20: Come, listen, and give thanks (Seminarian Taylor Walker)
Let us sing praises, and let us come into God’s presence, and let us fall down in worship, and let us listen. Listen to the readings from the voices of our friends. Listen to the same prayers recited this day across the country. Listen to the ways God is comforting us during this time, listen to the ways God is teaching us to love each other in this time, listen to the ways God is saying, “it will be okay one day, and I will never, ever let you go. No matter what.”
Sermon 11/15/20: Go Big or Go Home! (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
We practice generosity, so that we might be more generous, even on the days that are hard. We practice graciousness, so that we might be more gracious, even on the days that are hard. We practice joy, so that we might be more joyous- even on the days that are hard.
Practicing these gifts, and others entrusted to us, won’t always be easy, that’s certain. There may be times we prefer to go and hide in sorrow, anxiety, and grief. But I’m confident the Holy One can hold us in our anxiety and in generosity, keep us in graciousness, even in the midst of sorrow, and invite us into joy even when full of grief.
Sermon 11/8/20: More delays??? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Even when we can handle no more delays, Christ comes and welcomes you to the feast of life: in your midnights, in your sleepless nights, when you have nowhere else to turn, when your oil is running out, when you are foolish and hoard, when you are tired of waiting, tired of delays. Time is running out. The oil is running out. The darkening days of November reveal this.
Sermon 10/31/20: Meet You on the Other Shore (Pr. Ben Adams)
Iin the waters of baptism we connect to our cloud of witnesses who surround us, singing as a testament that these waters can be for us our sign of the end of all tears. One day we will meet with the saints on the other side of the river, but until then we listen deeply for their song and try to find our own part in the song. We join the hymn of all creation as we celebrate the baptized people of God, living and dead, who make up the body of Christ.
Sermon 11/1/20: Who's counting? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Who’s counting? We all are. Who can count the tears shed this year? Alas, we will sing through the tears. We will sing when our hearts are breaking, when the future is uncertain. Even when we can’t sing together, we will sing at home.
For in Christ all things will be made new. With this promise we mark ourselves with a water cross this day. With this promise we share bread and wine as a foretaste of a feast still to come. With this promise we sing, we sing: All of us go down to the grave, but even at the grave we make our song: alleluia.
Sermon 10/25/20: Love Your Neighbor (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
It’s not going to be easy, but it is possible to love my neighbor, even the ones I don’t particularly like, because this love is motivated by and expressed through the unconditional love we receive every day from the Holy One. Whether we deserve it or not, whether we feel it or not, God’s love for us overflows.
Sermon 10/18/20: Whose face do you see? (Pr. Ben Adams)
When you are upset about the driver in front of you and you speed up to give them the stink eye, you can ask yourself, whose face do I see in that other driver? Or better yet, if you do go through with giving them the stink eye, whose face would they see? Is it the face of God? Or when you look in the mirror, whose face do you see? Do you see the face of God whose image you have been created in? Or turning the conversation back to taxation, whose face do you see when you pay your taxes? Is it the face of God in the person on the street corner who could benefit from public housing, universal healthcare, and a strong social safety net? Or do you only see the face of those who use the tax system to exploit the poor and further enrich the wealthy?
Sermon 10/10&11/2020: Bishop Yehiel Curry
Sermon 10/4/20: Foolish Francis (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Let’s be fools in this community. Foolish enough to trust that God is making a new creation out of chaos and waste. Foolish enough be counter cultural. Foolish enough to find joy even when it looks like everything is falling apart.
God’s mercy is foolish, you could say. Despite our fickle foolishness, God is forever faithful.
Sermon 9/27/20: My Mind's Made Up (Pr. Craig Mueller)
As our country faces another bruising battle over a supreme court justice; as many worry whether the upcoming election could break America; as we prepare to discuss the fair tax and other difficult issues, as we prepare to rally, canvass and protest and vote; as we prepare to face the fearful difficult weeks and months, these are not easy words to hear. Most of us would rather be fired up to become more radicalized, rather than heed Paul’s words: be of one mind. Empty yourself. Look to needs of others before your own.
Sermon 9/20/20: Complaints (Pr. Matt James)
We, you and I, all of us, simple, ordinary (and beautiful!) human beings are gifted, called, knit, into God’s saving work in this world. Simple as we might be, were made to be God’s gift, God’s response to the needs of our fellow creatures in this world. In our own actions, in our own words, we are a sign of God’s never-ending love, not only for one another, but for this broken down, dying, lamenting world.
And when exhaustion, or physical or mental illness, or the forces of oppression hold one or a number of us down, we have one another gift: this community: this simple, beautiful, body of Christ to lament, to shout, to protest, to vote and help others vote, to wear a face covering, to simply be a sign of God’s grace, of strength, of hope, of love in this world. That as we make our way together, through the wilderness, in the midst of all that we cannot quite bear, God hears our cries, God responds in ways both big and small.
Sermon 9/19/20: Bread of Heaven (Pr. Ben Adams)
This God given bread for the journey is needed more than ever, because we need to be filled with something different than what the world is filling us with. I know for me personally, when I turn on the news, or open my social media feed I am filled with fatigue as we close in towards our eighth month of the pandemic, I am filled with existential fear for our climate future as wildfires and hurricanes rage, I am filled with frustration at the partisan divides that toxically pit us against one another, I am filled with anger at continued racism and police brutality, and now I am filled with grief over the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Filled as many of us are with fatigue, fear, frustration, anger, and grief, we might think there can’t possibly be any room for anything else, but there is still a hunger for liberation. And, in order for us to carry on towards our liberated promised land, we’ll need some bread for the wilderness journey, some true bread of heaven that comes from God and gives life to the world. And so, in this liminal space between departure and destination, we feast on the bread of heaven until we’re filled with the true presence of the living God who is leading us to liberation.
Sermon 9/13/20: Sing the Song of Freedom (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
We have all been set free to sing a song of freedom because God has won the victory for all. We worship a God--at the festive Easter Vigil, or in these ordinary, yet extraordinary times from our home--whose heart beats for the suffering and marginalized, but also extends to the influential and the privileged. By God’s grace alone, we are free to live a new life in Christ, reborn every day in God’s love and mercy for the world.
Sermon 9/12/20: Forgiven People Forgive People (Pr. Ben Adams)
Dear People, you are forgiven, and forgiven people forgive people. And if that act of forgiveness feels like an impossible task before you with all the frustration we feel with one another, trust that renewed in our baptisms, God will make all of us, signs of reconciliation in the world, and together we will move forward and find a future together. A future transformed, healed, and whole.
Sermon 9/6/20: What plagues you? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
The plagues were designed to bring Pharaoh to his knees. That he might realize the limits of his power. The plagues of our time bring us to our knees as well. Like an addict who hits bottom. Like someone at the end of their rope. For then there is a spiritual opening. A trust in God or some higher power or presence. Calling us to the reconciliation Jesus speaks about in our gospel. Calling us to fulfill the commandments through love as Paul writes about in our second reading. Calling us to be signs of justice and mercy.
Sermon 8/30/20: Holy Ground (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
God calls us to speak about unjust systems that oppress, even if we don’t feel equipped or well-spoken enough to make a difference. God calls us to stand with those who are hurt by violence and natural disasters, or who have no sense of belonging, even if we don’t know exactly what to do. God calls us to open our eyes and hearts to the pain and suffering of others. And God calls us to take off our shoes--to be vulnerable and open to the God who embraces us in our own pain and suffering. God is the one who always holds the action, is never stagnant or still. I AM loves. I AM restores. I AM forgives. I AM calls. I AM is with us whenever we find ourselves on holy ground
Sermon 8/23/20: In Her Own Words (Pr. Ben Adams)
Sermon 8/16/20: Mary, Mother of Our Lord (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Mary sings a revolutionary song: God lifts up the lowly. But there is more. Mary sings not of us remembering God, but of God remembering us. God comes to our help, remembering the promise of mercy to our forebears. Even when bitter sorrow pierces our hearts, Mary teaches us to sing the sweet praise of a tender God of mercy. A compassionate One who holds us close, even through our loss, even through our tears.