SERMONS
Sermon 1/18/20: God's Secret Weapons of Non-Violence (Pr. Ben Adams)
Christian love operating through the Gandhian method of non-violence was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people. As God’s secret weapon, Martin Luther King, Jr. shows us how powerful non-violence can actually be when it becomes our secret weapon in bloodthirsty world. But the violence of this world eventually did take the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite his total commitment to non-violence, he was assassinated by a violent man with a single shot fired from his Remington rifle. King was yet another victim sacrificed on the altar of American violence. As followers of Christ, the Lamb of God, we must be like non-violent secret weapons of God destroying the altars and the idols we are sacrificing our own to. Because Jesus was the final sacrifice. Jesus’s death on the cross was meant to end all other sacrifices.
Sermon 1/19/20: What are you looking for? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
What are you looking for? Not just size twelve. Not just an iPhone in green. Not just the restaurant with the best Yelp review. What are you really looking for? What is most essential for you to grow and thrive and serve? What a gift that we can take a few moments on a Sunday morning to turn off the distractions and turn off the commercials and listen for God. And hear again the invitation: Come and see! Come, hear the good news. Come, remember your baptism. Come, eat, and drink. Come, be refreshed, and then depart to share in God’s liberation project for our world!
Sermon 1/12/20: Finding Your Voice (Pr. Craig Mueller)
When the voices in your head are overwhelming . . . when you don’t know what to make of the myriad voices in the news and in your feeds, come to this sacred space to listen. When your voice cracks and croaks under the strain of life, listen to the still, small voice within. Listen to the divine voice announcing forgiveness and grace. Listen to the radical message of impartiality that proclaims all are created in God’s image. Listen to the voice of hope that envisions a different future even when everyone else is shouting that the world is falling apart. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Jesus rises from the river with a voice—an identity, a calling. And we, too, find our voice. In baptism. Here. Together.
Sermon 1/4/20: The Gravitational Center of Grace (Pr. Ben Adams)
With our compasses oriented to the gravity of grace encountered in Christ, new roads emerge for us personally and collectively. And even when we lack the hope and strength to continue our journey, we can trust that the gravitational center of grace in Christ continues to hold us in orbit. And even in this new year with all it’s early tumult, God will continue to carry us in Grace through 2020. Sometimes moving within this graceful orbit will look like disobedience when unjust rulers issue deathly orders, but by these new roads we will experience life and love abundant. Whatever the circumstance, may the light and warmth of Jesus Christ, our gravitational center of grace, shine on us and reflect off of us for all in our orbit to experience.
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 12/21/19: Deep Blue (Pr. Ben Adams)
As we draw near to one another on this darkest bluest night of the year let the name Emmanuel echo deep within your heart reviving your hope that your dreams are not dashed but restored in the presence of Christ who is with us always. This birth, against all odds, is the hope we’ve been waiting for, the one who makes us one, the Emmanuel, God with us, who will be with us always. The darkness has been redeemed, and on this night our collective dreams and restored faith can shine bright like a beacon in the night for all the world to see.
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!
Sermon 12/22/19: The Walk of Shame (Pr. Craig Mueller)
It is into this messy, vulnerable, unfair, mysterious, and scandalous world Christ comes. Emmanuel, God with us. God with us in the shame and doubt. God with us in the questions and ambivalence. God with us in the disappointments and confusion. God with us in a world or a life that is not turning out how we always thought or hoped it would. Through the imperfect story of Joseph and Mary, and their walk of shame, comes our very salvation and healing.
Sermon 12/15/2019: Superblooms (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
Whether the wilderness we experience is here in the city, or in the burned down yet thriving mountains in Northeast Washington, or the desert blooming in the southwest, or the wilderness life experienced by John the Baptist, in a community of faith and a meal of bread and wine, God’s life-giving spirit is all around us. Look around you. Tell what you see and hear. God is giving us rare signs of super blooms and unexpected surprises along the way.
Sermon 12/7/18: Fires + Repentance (Seminarian Reed Fowler)
In the same way God delights in plants taking root and sprouting from ashes and stumps, God delights in our repentant, transformative growth, and God holds us through the fire as Mary will soon hold a screaming, wonder-filled Christ-child
Sermon 12/8/19: Chaff Set Ablaze (Seminarian Troy Spencer)
We continue our preparations by reflecting, changing, and growing. We look inward and seek the fruitfulness and the fruitlessness. The fruitfulness is gathered in and cherished while the fruitlessness is set ablaze in a love so deep that it cannot be quenched.
Sermon 12/1/19: Wake up, wake up! (Pr. Craig Mueller)
While you wait and watch and wonder,
wake up, wake up.
Christ is coming soon.
Wake up, wake up!
Christ comes this day in bread and wine.
Christ comes this day in community.
Christ comes this day in dark dormant stillness.
Sermon 11/23/19: Remembered (Seminarian Sarah Krolak)
Our stories matter to God. Even when we feel like we are on the cross, we are remembered. Because there is no story that God does not remember. Every mistake, every heartache, every sorrow, every joy, every promise, every epiphany. Remembered. Let this be our story and our song: we are loved and remembered by God.
Sermon 11/24/19: The End and the Beginning (Seminarian Melissa Hrdlicka)
Life keeps moving on. Life in this church, and life outside this church. Even when we feel like we are at the end and there is nowhere to go, when we feel like we cannot possibly begin again. When we feel like we are so deep in the grief of a loved one’s death, or the end of career, or the end of a relationship, or even in the midst of this climate crisis. We feel like we are at the hopeless end. Yet, we remember, by the grace of God and in the reign of Christ, life keeps moving on. There are new beginnings. There is life and resurrection in Christ for all people.
Sermon 11/17/19: How Lovely the Ruins (Pr. Craig Mueller)
It is easy to live with illusions. That we will live forever. That America is greatest country in the history of the world and will always be so. That the shiny and powerful objects we purchase and worship and carry with us constantly will protect us from the heartache of life. From time to time our illusions are shattered and we see reality—both frightening and liberating. Summer’s vibrant greens morph into autumn’s blazing rusts and oranges and reds—this year leading to the onset of an early snow and biting cold this past week. We wonder what is going on and whether we can endure. Yet we find hope in this sacred place. Solace in the poetry of the hymns. Sustenance in the bread and wine. Courage in the words of faith. Inspiration in the music and the silence. Support in the community. And resilience in the presence of Christ here among us. All we need is here—to endure and to persevere.
Sermon 11/16/19: Worshipful Work (Pr. Ben Adams)
There will be times though that this work feels pointless, fruitless, especially when it seems like we are only headed for the end times, or our maybe we feel like our work will never have an end time, and we struggle to sabbath, but even in our most exasperated and exhausted moments we trust that the grace of God covers us all, like a delicious ice cream sundae, no matter our success or failure in life, God’s gives food to all.
Sermon 11/10/19: Full-Bodied Resurrection (Pr. Ben Adams)
Our God is a God not of the dead, but of the living, and through faith we know that our redeemer lives. The resurrection with all of its mystery might not give us the instant gratification of heaven or an immortal soul, but I believe it does more to impact the way we live in our bodies here and now, because we trust and hope that at the last our resurrected whole selves see God. And it’s that full bodied future hope that becomes embodied present love.
Sermon 11/3/19: Saints Who Struggle
Believe me, I know, it doesn’t always feel like a “saintly” life. There is struggle. Martin Luther, in the middle of his reforms said that where there is faith, there is always struggle. And for this struggling saint, that’s good news. Doubt, feeling overwhelmed, wondering if God is out there are the marks of every saint, including my friend Scott from youth group. When we feel our most low, and wonder if we’ve lost our faith, God names us as the most faithful. Blessed are those who struggle.
Sermon 10/27/19: Taking A Stand
Here we stand. Not better than other people, not more or less sinful than other people. Here we stand, with a common human need for grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Justified not by our actions, our works, our good deeds—as important they are. Justified by a God whose power is made known in weakness. Whose love is revealed in suffering. Whose presence is always surprising. Whose image continues to be revealed in those different from us. Whose mercy never ends.
Sermon 10/19/19: The Heart of Persistence (Pr. Brooke Petersen)
We need to be reminded to pray and not lose heart. We get tired, our pleas fall on closed hearts and ears that refuse to listen. We get redirected or told we are too loud or too angry. We get frustrated and we break. We show up to protests and it’s hard to carry our signs and chant our chants anymore. And, so this parable is a reminder to us that it isn’t something lacking within us that we need to get right. We aren’t weak because we feel that the work of justice is hard. We don’t lack faith because we lose heart sometimes. God’s promises to us are written on our hearts, and our God, as persistent as a widow crying out in the street, will stand with us as we cry out to every unjust judge and every unjust system. Our God will join God’s voice with ours as we confront powers that do not fear God and respect no one. Our God will link arms with ours as we call for a world that is better, that is holier, that is full of more goodness, and more peace. Our God doesn’t just know that we cry for justice, our God demands it alongside us.