SERMONS
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 12/20/20: Interruption or Disruption? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
The disruption is an invitation. God waits. Will you consent? Will you be courageous? God sees you, favored child of God. This is not a test. In the disruption, even in the sadness, in the strangeness, there is breaking news, breaking good news. Nothing, nothing is impossible with God.
Sermon 12/19/20: Rejoice O Highly Favored (Pr. Ben Adams)
This good news of unmerited favor on us all was announced to Mary by the Angel Gabriel and it echoes for us to hear tonight. Through scripture, song, and sacrament we have been reminded not of our power and privilege over others, but of God’s favor and the Lord’s presence with us all, so rejoice O highly favored, the Lord is with you, and Christ is coming to make all things new.
Sermon 12/13/20: Waiting...Hoping (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
We are waiting for many things, some of which will come soon, like Christmas, and others that may or may not ever come. Paul's advice helps us to live fully in the present, grateful for all that God has provided for us. We may discover, in a paradoxical way, that we are waiting for what we already have. And yet we continue to sigh, and to beg, “Come Lord Jesus, come.”
Sermon 12/6/20: Setting the Stage (Pr. Ben Adams)
As we work through the dark winter months that will give way to spring let us sing and write our own songs with evergreen hope. Like Sarah Evans and Claudette Colvin who didn’t know their song of resistance would inspire Rosa Parks, we might not who is listening in the audience and is being inspired by our song, but we can comfort trusting that because of our song the world will be ever more excited and enthusiastic for the headliner who is coming after us, the one who is making and will make all things new, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the one, the only Jesus Christ.
Sermon 11/28/20: The never-ending Advent (Pr. Ben Adams)
As we begin this Advent, even though it feels like a never-ending Advent, we can look with hope to the promise of God who stops at nothing, not even death, to come and save us. God’s grace has made us ready for that moment. In the meantime, God sustains us, God strengthens us, and God our potter’s hands support us in our waiting.
Sermon 11/29/20: Everything will be okay? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
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
Bishop Yehiel Curry’s sermon from October 10/11, 2020
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.