Sermon Audio 1/15/2017, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Second Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year A

Isaiah 49:1-7 

It is too light a thing, God says, that you should save yourselves. Instead, through you I will bring salvation to the ends of the earth. As we prepared for our annual congregational meeting following worship today, this powerful message to God's people in Isaiah has much to say about the year we experienced in 2016 and what 2017 will hold for Lutheran Church of the Savior. 

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Sermon Audio 1/10/2016, Baptism of Our Lord C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Baptism of Our Lord, Lectionary Year C

Acts 8:14-17 

In preparation for our annual Congregational Meeting today, we remember how the Holy Spirit consistently surprises the church. 

As always, listen here, use this link, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by searching "Tengwall."

Sermon Audio 2/9/2014

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year A

Isaiah 58:1-12

As Lutheran Church of the Savior prepared to hold our Annual Meeting after worship today, this sermon reflects on what faithfulness looks like. For those listening to Isaiah in today's lesson, their traditional practices of fasting had ceased to be a faithful life in response to God's law. What can we learn from the hard lesson Isaiah had for them?

Isaiah 58:1-12

58Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. ²Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

³“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. ⁴Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. ⁵Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? ⁶Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? ⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

⁸Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. ⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, ¹⁰if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. ¹¹The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. ¹²Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.