Category Archives: Church Year

Identity Markers: Of the Same Mind – Sermon on Philippians 2:1-13

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A video of this sermon preached on September 27, 2020 is available here.

Note: The gospel lesson for this Sunday is Matthew 21:23-32, and should be read immediately before this sermon.

Imagine the frustration those priests and elders must have felt in the gospel reading we just heard! Jesus was always catching these leaders in their own words, making them look foolish in the eyes of the people. They liked the respect shown to them in the streets and the markets. They loved being the ones in authority. And here was this unschooled carpenter, teaching right under their noses, sounding like he knew God more intimately than any human possibly could. Continue reading →

Forgive Again – Sermon on Matthew 18:21-35

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Revised for September 13, 2020

I don’t think any of us call ourselves Christians with the idea of becoming less like Jesus as our goal. We’re all in it to become more like Jesus. Sometimes, it’s hard, though, isn’t it? Sometimes we’d like Jesus to let us off the hook a little bit, tell us what we are doing is good enough, pat us on the head and let us get on with being a little less like him. Right? But it never seems to work that way. Continue reading →

Discipleship 101: Dealing with Conflict – Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20

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Watch a video from 2017 of this sermon here.

Last week, we learned how following Jesus means surrendering our entire selves to God, just as Jesus did. We saw how discipleship connects the Kingdom of God to our earthly existence, and stretches our earthly walk toward God’s kingdom. We saw Peter rebuke Jesus, and Jesus rebuke Peter, and we were reminded that taking up our cross can often put us at odds with the world, and sometimes even with each other.

What happens when a brother or sister hurts us, or we have a sharp disagreement with someone? How are we supposed to be honest and loving at the same time? How do we maintain open lines of communication to promote healing and unity within Christ’s kingdom here on earth?

Continue reading →

Discipleship 101: The Marks of a Disciple – sermon on Romans 12:9-21

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Watch a video of this sermon as preached for the United Methodist Church of Le Sueur, MN on September 3, 2023.

Last week, we heard the Apostle Paul encourage us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We learned that we do this, not by being conformed to the world, but by being transformed through the renewing of our minds, so we can discern God’s good and acceptable and perfect will for us.

Paul went on to describe how we are each part of the Body of Christ, with many diverse gifts that help us equip ourselves, and each other, as members joined together in Christ. Living sacred lives in a secular world is really a call to discipleship. But what does that word, ‘discipleship,’ mean? What do I have to do in order to be a disciple? Continue reading →

Sacrificial Living – Sermon on Romans 12:1-8

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Romans 12:1-8

View this sermon as preached for Le Sueur United Methodist Church on August 27, 2023

Someone once said, “The problem with living sacrifices is they keep crawling off the altar.” Maybe people cringe from offering themselves completely to God because they focus on what they will lose when they make a sacrifice. Maybe it’s because our idea of a sacrifice is pretty gory, and always fatal.

But Paul asks us to consider a different meaning for the word “sacrifice.” He calls us to remember that the root of this word is the same as the word “sacred.” Instead of thinking of a sacrifice as something we have to give up, or give away, or kill, Paul invites us to recognize that true sacrifice means setting apart something as sacred or holy. The thing we are to make holy is ourselves, our whole selves.

This changes our focus from what we lose, to how we live. How can we, as devoted followers of Jesus Christ, live sacred, set apart lives, while still staying connected to the world in which we live? How do we live in the world without being assimilated by the world? How can the way we live our lives be so full of joy and peace, so different from worldly living, that our lives attract others to Jesus?

Continue reading →

Faith Focus – Sermon on Matthew 14:22-33

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April 3, 2022
Video

Young adults and teenagers are good at asking some really important questions:

  • “Is God real?
  • Why are churches so messed up?
    Why are so many Christians hypocrites?
  • Can I trust the Bible?
  • Is it wrong to doubt God?

Denying the power of these questions – or worse, ignoring them – simply feeds into the suspicion that our faith isn’t strong enough to handle doubt. But we don’t have to have all the answers. Admitting that we don’t is actually the first step toward establishing our credibility as faithful disciples. Continue reading →

Intersections: Arguing with God – Sermon on Genesis 32:22-31

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First in a four-part series: Intersections – Where Faith Meets Life
August 6, 2017
(No video is available for this sermon)

This week has been a struggle for me. On Monday, a dear sister in the Lord died after a long battle with cancer. Cancer didn’t win, but Evie will be greatly missed, especially by the congregation of Bethlehem Covenant Church, where Evie worshiped and served in many ways. Then, two days later, an explosion rocked Minnehaha Academy, where both Evie and I had taught. Two more people died. Friday, a childhood friend of mine, who thought she had kicked cancer, learned that the disease has spread into her bones and her liver. She is putting her affairs in order.

While I know that God can use every circumstance for his purpose, even the painful circumstance of grief, I have to wonder what good can come out of the sorrow experienced by so many this week. Uncertainty clouds the future. What has been difficult for me, as I learned of one tragedy after another, is that I’m too far away from any of the people directly affected to do more than pray for them. Whatever comfort I can offer my friends seems thin and meaningless. I feel helpless. My prayers have often turned into arguments with God this week.

I’m not the first to fight with God. Throughout the Bible, we are given plenty of examples of struggling with the Almighty. Continue reading →

Trained for the Kingdom – Sermon on Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

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Third in a three-part series: Parables – Stories that Read Us
July 26, 2020 (Pentecost +8A)

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been listening to the parables found in Matthew 13. These are parables that read us. How we hear them depends on the condition of our hearts. If we listen well, these stories change us. They teach us about God’s kingdom, and identify us as children of that kingdom, showing us how to live into that identity. Continue reading →

When Not to Pull Weeds – Sermon on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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Second Sermon in a Three-Part Series: Parables – Stories that Read Us
Watch a video of an earlier version of this sermon from 2017 here. 

Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Maybe you’ve wondered this yourself, or you know someone who has. I hear it often from people who are looking for help when they’ve reached the end of their rope, when it seems like life has dealt them more trouble than anyone deserves. It’s a fair question, but it’s a difficult one to answer. It’s the kind of question Jesus would often use a parable to explain.

Today’s gospel reading comes from the thirteenth chapter of the gospel according to Matthew. This chapter is a whole string of parables. The first one, about a sower who scatters seed everywhere, on all kinds of ground, is about the character of God. The seven parables that follow are all about the kingdom of God. In today’s reading, Jesus is still talking about planting, but he switches his metaphors a bit from the parable of the sower. In this one, something bad happens to a good farmer. Continue reading →

It’s Not About the Dirt – Sermon on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

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Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

[To the children:] This story Jesus tells is called a parable. A parable is a simple story about everyday things that teaches us a lesson. Jesus liked to use parables to help people understand what he called the Kingdom of God. That’s kind of a hard thing to understand, not just for children, but for grown-ups, too. Jesus knew that, so he told a lot of stories that started out, “The kingdom of God is like….” This parable about the different kinds of soil is more about how we receive the good news. And it would be easy to think that it’s really a story about us. But what you have to remember whenever Jesus tells a story is this: it’s always about God. So when you hear a parable, especially if it seems to make things more confusing than easy to understand, look for what the story says about God, and it might make more sense. Let’s pray.
Jesus, thank you for teaching us about God. Help us to listen with our hearts as well as our minds, so that we can know God better. Amen.

Continue reading →