Often, people picture Jesus as a calm and non-threatening presence whose message uplifts and moves them forward. Oh, He’s the person who welcomes you when you first meet Him. Regardless of being shattered, beat, feeble, or thirsty, He pours drinks for the wounded and weary and offers food to the hungry. Today, our Gospel text […]
Jesus Sends the 72
July 3, 2022 by
The Father dispatches Jesus into our world. Later, Jesus sends out others to continue His mission: first, the Twelve, followed by the seventy-two. The Gospel for today focuses on the second, whom Jesus “appointed” with His authority and mandate. Though His journey to Jerusalem is still underway, Jesus directs a larger group of disciples into […]
The Lamb Who Breaks Open the Seals
May 3, 2022 by
Dreamy and strange, eternity stirs with such peculiar creatures, with everything revolving around a Lamb. A mighty angel asks a question involving a manuscript in the court liturgy of heaven. In an earlier vision, old man Ezekiel beheld a hand clutching a scroll. Likewise, this parchment displayed writings on both sides, containing lamentations, grieving, and […]
God Surprises Us with Heaven, Here on Christmas Eve
December 24, 2021 by
Click here to go to our online recording of our Christmas Eve service. Whenever heaven greets earth, this becomes a time of fresh beginnings. Tonight, heaven’s splendor hides and holds back, cloaked in the trappings of peasant birth! Rife with visions, long foretold; let your heart dream those dreams of old. Deep in the bashful […]
Philippians 4:4-7: Rejoice
December 22, 2021 by
Watch the service and sermon here. In parallel with Lent, Advent pulses with penitential underpinnings, preparing the unprepared for Christ’s coming. Not only His birth, but His return to reign over His creation and Church. So, this preparatory season encourages you and me to consider our sin—the reason Christ came into our world. Yet, such […]
Luke 10:25-37: Inherit Eternal Life?
October 19, 2021 by
Love God and love your neighbor. What could be simpler? You can condense the entire Law of God in one word: Love. Is God’s Law that simple? Not when the lawyers are done! A lawyer, an expert in the Torah, came up to Jesus to test Him. That was his first mistake. Test Jesus, and […]
Mark: 10:2-16: The Disaster of Divorce, the Blessedness of Being a Bride
October 19, 2021 by
“Did God say?” So, the serpent slunk into Eve’s ear. Isn’t this the original seed of uncertainty and distrust Satan plants in us before he contradicts something God says? Today, the Evil One still succeeds in further seducing us, continuing the ruination of losing God’s image. Should we find ourselves surprised when others doubt and […]
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15: Brooding in Rebellion
October 19, 2021 by
In the eighth century BC, the people brood in rebellion. Though everything appears fine, Israel’s foundations crack in one place and crumble in another. Underneath an external veneer of strength lurks a coming catastrophe. After King Solomon’s death, a once-united country splits in two, Israel up north and Judah down south. The environment is rife […]
Joined to Christ: Betty Krause’s Funeral Sermon
August 31, 2021 by
In the beginning, God spoke light into being, calling forth day and night and time itself into existence. Soon, God separated the water from the land and made plants to bring forth fruit. The sun, moon, and stars, God gave for signs and seasons. The air, soil, and oceans soon moved with birds, fish, earth-bound […]
Mark 4:35-41: Jesus Stills the Storm
June 22, 2021 by
Jesus Stills the Storm No one’s life should be a ship, floundering adrift in faithless fear. Did God not create us for wonder, joy, hope, and love, to marvel at the mystery of existence? In our original sinlessness, divine beauty surrounded us as we grew in God’s wisdom, brightening the world in which we lived. […]
