SERMONS
Sermon 4/10/20: The most Good Friday-est Good Friday I’ve ever Good Friday-ed (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
I imagine Mary standing at the foot of the cross eyes swollen with tears, her heart breaking, her lungs gasping for air as she watches her son dying for the suffering of the world. Her grief, our grief, the world’s grief are held in the arms of the crucified one this night and every night. Our suffering and sorrow, our doubts and despair, our agony and anguish are joined not only to Christ’s but to the brokenness of all creation. And yet, in John’s gospel what looks like defeat, is victory. What seems like an ending is new birth. Maybe all we can hope is that God will be here now, in our flesh. And that somehow, the cross will be to us healing and resurrection.
Sermon 4/11/20: Easter Arrives (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Though we shelter in place, we do not forget the fragile and those in need. We seek new ways to care for one another. To check on neighbors. To express gratitude to medical professionals, delivery workers, first responders. And Easter arrives. We long for that day when the stone is rolled away. We hope for the day when social distancing is past, our masks are off and we begin to see others previously camouflaged by our own prejudice or indifference. And Easter arrives. This is the night. Easter has arrived. And in the darkness light shines. Freedom dawns. Hope burns brightly. We step boldly into the future. And this night as always, alleluia is our song.
Sermon 4/9/2020: Love to the End (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Jesus loved this disciples to the end. Jesus loves us to the end. And calls us to follow his example of servanthood. Whether or not we wash feet ritually, we recommit ourselves to honoring and caring for bodies—our own and those of others, especially those most vulnerable. For in such acts of love and service, Easter already dawns.
Sermon 4/5/20: The Earth Moved Under Our Feet (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Around the table of the Lord—the table for which we long—we sing “hosanna in the highest,” in times of deep joy and times of deep sorrow. All these times coexist for us, as individuals and the people of God. God’s passionate mercy and love embrace us and all our suffering world this day. Holding us close, even as we are physically distant from one another. For as we walk the way of the cross, we trust the promise of spring, the hope of resurrection and new life.
Sermon 3/29/20: Breath Work (Pr. Ben Adams)
The death and suffering that the COVID-19 virus is causing might take our breath away and cause us to weep like Jesus did, but out of his love for us Jesus takes even that which is dead and dry and resurrects life. Life out of love is the same love that holds us together one to another, and holds us together personally when it seems like we have hit the rock bottom of our depths. So, as these weeks continue, let’s prophesy to the breath by reminding ourselves and others when we forget about the love that holds us all as one.
Sermon 3/22/20: Pr. Craig Mueller
A manuscript for this sermon is not available, however, you may listen to the audio of the sermon or watch the video of the entire liturgy, both linked in this post.
Sermon 3/8/2020: Comfort When Lost (Seminarian Troy Spencer)
Our faith may not bring to an end the feelings of being lost but our faith will be a source of comfort. And so as you feel lost this Lent, keep going, read on, and know that God has come as near as your very breath to offer you a place to rest.
Sermon 3/15/2020: Love Not Canceled (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
Church gatherings may be canceled for a bit, but we can still be part of the restorative work of connecting with and loving one another so that no one need be isolated during this time of confusion, frustration and uncertainty.
God’s love for humanity is not canceled. God is not distant, but as close to you as your own breath; wiping away your tears, calming your fears, embracing you with a love that is stronger than death.
Let’s all together, virtually through Facebookland, take a deep breath…
Breathe in…Breathe out.
The Holy One is here, offering you the water of life.
God’s love is like a deep well, that never ever runs dry.
Sermon 3/7/2020: Conversations by Night (Seminarian Sarah Krolak)
Doubt, fear, shame, questions, pulling back or taking space away – all of these are a normal part of our waxing and waning lives of faith. Sometimes, we, like Nicodemus, come to Jesus in the night. Whether literally or figuratively, we have all experienced a nighttime like this. But the night is a great time for conversations. The night led my friend Kate and I to deeper friendship. The night led Nicodemus to Jesus to ask questions that he might not have asked otherwise. And the night isn’t only a place of questions or doubt or fear. It is also a place of storytelling. The night holds creative power.
Sermon 3/1/2020: The Nature of Lent (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Welcome to your vision quest in the Lenten wilderness. Find some time alone. Find some time outside. Then find some time to be here in community. Here we will lament the worst of human nature, while celebrating that we are created in the image of God. Here we will face our mortality, name our losses, and grieve the ways human beings treat the earth and one another. Here we seek to worship God alone. Here God nourishes us with the word and the bread of life. When we reach Easter, we may emerge with a different version or ourselves, our true nature.
Sermon 2/29/2020: The Wilderness Inside (Pr. Ben Adams)
The internal wildernesses we dwell in must be named, must be shared, whether it is with a friend or family member, an anti-racism caucus, a licensed counselor or psychotherapist, or even here in this community of faith. People are suffering in their internal wildernesses, and because we don’t have safe and trustworthy spaces to share that suffering with others healthily, we transmit it to others in unhealthy ways. The wilderness can be a terrifying and tempting place, but together with God we can accompany through the wildernesses of our lives. And God knows the depths of our wildernesses. God in the person of Jesus Christ was led into the wilderness and was tempted. And because Jesus suffered in the wilderness, the wilderness can be redeemed.
Sermon 2/26/2020: Blessed Ash Wednesday (Pr. Ben Adams)
When we say to one another to “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” We are offering an invitation into a honest, blessed life that does not embrace death, rejoice in it, or welcome it, but holds death with a holy reverence and deep ritual. Death in this way does not have to be disregarded, but honestly acknowledged as we hold up the truth that through reality death will we experience the promise of the resurrection. It is with this faithful conviction, that we do not have to fear death.
Sermon 2/26/2020: #InvisibleCrosses (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
Today we remember that dust and ashes are Good News. They point us toward the power and love of God - both at the beginning and the end. They remind us that God is with us as we live between dust and dust, and that today and always, we are called to repent and return. Turn toward the one who created and keeps us in love's embrace.
Sermon 2/23/2020: Bring Your Whole Self (Seminarian Melissa Hrdlicka)
It is terrifying to be vulnerable. It is terrifying to give of yourselves to God and to your communities. But God bends down, touches you on the shoulder and calls to you, “Get up and do not be afraid.” Get up and do not be afraid to bring your whole, beloved, capable and lovable self to God and to this world.
When you bring your whole self, you are transfigured into the person God has been calling you to be since before the day of your baptism.
Step outside your dwelling place, come to the bottom of the mountain. God is calling to you and this community loves you. God and this community is waiting to rejoice with you in the good news, and cry with you in the bad news.
“Get up and do not be afraid.” You are God’s beloved.
Sermon 2/22/2020: Transfigured + Glorious (Seminarian Reed Fowler)
Jesus tells the disciples to not be afraid. To get up. He touches them, a physical moment of connection, and when they look up, Jesus is alone, in his dust-covered clothes, the transfiguration an image of memory. I have to think the disciples are changed by this moment, by witnessing Jesus being so fully himself. That this image, this glimpse, of Jesus fully himself follows them down the mountain, and on the road to Jerusalem. That the disciples hold onto the image of the transfigured Christ and see that even when the world refuses to.
Sermon 2/16/2020: Getting a Reaction Out of You (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Choose life! God desires shalom, a beloved community, a way of life that honors the dignity of all people. Rather than treating people like they are disposable, Jesus calls us to a righteousness that reflects the very heart of God. We call it the baptismal life.
I don’t know about you, but that’s why I need a community of faith. I can’t do it on my own. We practice our faith together. We take deep breaths together. We make a difference together. We confess our sins and faults together. We stand against injustice, not with contempt for those with different viewpoints, but with empathy for the brokenness under the surface.
Sermon 2/9/2020: Fire Starters (Pr. Ben Adams)
Let the light of your fire shine bright for all to see, loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn!
Sermon 02/01/2020: Pure Lies (Pr. Ben Adams)
Destructive purity binaries have separated us from one another and from our own bodies, and it’s time for us to experience true holiness through the pure, connecting, unifying love of God that holds us all in its divine embrace. We are beautifully complex people and it is wrong and dishonest to label ourselves according to a binary that disregards our complex humanity. We are not pure or impure, we simply are, and God has called us good
Sermon 02/02/2020: You Can Go Now (Pr. Craig Mueller)
God comes among you with comfort and hope. In word and sacrament, Christ is presented to you this day. With your eyes you see the promised One and at this table you receive his body in your hands as well. Even when all seems hopeless, we come together to hear again of God’s faithfulness, evermore and evermore. Oh, that we might live with such trust, as did Simeon and Anna. At the end of the liturgy each week is the dismissal. Go in peace. In other words, you can go now. Go to serve. Go with gratitude. Go with faith and hope and trust! Evermore and evermore.
Sermon 1/26/20: Simply BE (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
And when we affirm our baptism we’re asked, “Will you live among God’s faithful people, hear the word of God and share in the supper, proclaim and serve, and strive for justice and peace? So instead of job interview questions, let’s think of these questions and the promises of our call. Let’s tell baptism stories and remember our call to be, simply be, children of God.