SERMONS
Plenty to Worry About
Do not worry. That’s Paul’s advice today.
Oh, if it were that simple. Many are on anti-anxiety medication. We worry about the future. We worry about the effects of climate change. We worry about dysfunction in the nation’s capital. And especially after this week, we worry about violence in the world, especially the Middle East.
Beyond Measure
Like a loving parent, God continually calls us to be our best selves, and at the same time generously forgives us when we fall short. This generosity itself is a call for us to do the same with one another. We are made to be merciful. We forgive because God forgives. The forgiveness that we are to pass on to others is the forgiveness we have in union with Christ. Not because we are moral heroes or because we seek our own well-being, but because we are forgiven people.
This brief, singular, God-breathed life
Taking up the cross means recognizing Christ crucified in every suffering soul and body that surrounds us, and pouring our energies and our lives into alleviating their pain — no matter what it costs. It means accepting — against all the lies of our culture — that we will die. It means following up that courageous acceptance with the most important question we can ask: Given my inevitable death, how shall I spend this brief, singular, God-breathed life?
Who do you say that I am?
If we’re honest, we are probably more like Peter in his misunderstandings and foibles, than we are like Peter in his proudest moment in today’s gospel. Yet Jesus embraces us just as he does Peter. He continues to call his church together to proclaim God’s love, to forgive and be forgiven, to gather week after week around this holy meal. And as his followers, we continue to baptize and teach, feed the hungry and welcome the stranger, and call forth and encourage the gifts of one another. So that our whole lives are rooted in the identity given to us in baptism, “Beloved Child of the Living God.”
It's Personal
There is healing for you. There is healing in the word of grace that sets you free. There is healing as you eat and drink at this table. There are more than crumbs. There is enough for all. There is healing as you gather in this house of prayer for all people.
Famous Women: Barbie and Mary
Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, wanted people watching the movie to feel like she did at Shabbat dinners. Gerwig didn’t grow up Jewish, but would often be present for Shabbat dinners of close family and friends.
A Lot of Nothing
You see, so many of us know how to be afraid. We know how to say, well, we better keep what we have, because you never know. And God invites us, over and over, to imagine a world that is so radically different from the one that we know that it can only be described as divine.
Hidden
For Lutherans, the great treasure is the gospel. The good news that in Christ, we are set free from our addictions, our obsessions, our fears. We are free to be more than we thought we could be. And free to signs of hope for others struggling to find their place in our complicated world.
For the Sake of Honesty
As we receive that grace, we can offer it to others with the same kind of abundant generosity that God has offered to us. Our job is to bless the field, not curse it. The field is not ours, it is God’s.
Absurd Generosity
We are called to treat God’s love, God’s justice, and God’s blessing, precious as these gifts are, as if they were absolutely limitless in supply. Because they are.
Lighter Burden
Notice that the offer of a lighter burden is not extended to the powerful and the seemingly self-sufficient. It is offered to the weary and the burdened. It is offered to those who recognize that they just can’t make it on their own, no matter how hard they try.
I Can Still Hear Them Cheering
You wouldn’t think a bunch of church people holding signs would get cheers. Holy Trinity Lutheran. St. John’s Episcopal. Lakeview Presbyterian. And many, many more. But the loud cheering never stopped. You’d think we were celebrities receiving a royal welcome.
Know Who You Are
The mission of the church may seem hohum to many of us. But what if we saw it as transformational? What if we saw our identity and calling as a source of exhilaration and joy?
Annoying
I have not come to call the righteous, is Jesus’ response. This is a clinic. If you’re well, if you’re together, I’ve got nothing for you. But just maybe you have something to learn about genuine wholeness. If just being good and just being pious is more important than mercy for others, you may actually be the sick one, in need of help.
God: The Original They/Them
We are created in the image of God, and God is, well…they are relational. They are always in a co-equal relationship with each other, they are in a constant love relationship with us. They love us beyond measure. They love us unconditionally. They have named us and claimed us in baptism as their very own beloved child and they send us out from this place ready to be in relationship with their creation to the end of the age.
Windy City
Violent winds can be destructive. Think cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, dust storms. What is the violent wind that ushers in the Holy Spirit?
Look Up. Look Out.
For the reign of God is here, now. Not up there. Not up in the sky, not some other time and place in the future. But right now the spirit of Christ is among us, empowering us to open our hearts in joy and our hands in service. We are not called to crank our heads up toward the sky looking for Jesus to return, but we are called to joyfully bless God in our service to others who are among us now.
The Ache that Binds Us
Surprisingly, one of the greats aches of our times is loneliness. Who would have thought after the explosion of social media over a decade ago, we feel more alienated and disconnected to each other.
If These Walls Could Speak
We are now living stones built into a spiritual house. Not to dwell—to live— within these holy walls but sent out with a mission: to declare the mighty acts of God. To share our faith in word and deed. To work for justice and peace in all the earth.
The Joy of Abundant Life
Holy Trinity (in this time of transition, as you continue your call process of finding a new pastor for this congregation) as you continue to grow and reimagine what the future holds for you and God’s mission here in this community and space, know that the Good Shepherd will help guide you there….will lead you to abundant life.