Sermon Audio 2/21/2021, First Sunday of Lent B

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

First Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year B

 

Genesis 9:8-17

 

God's covenant with Noah and all animals serves as an early indication of God's unending grace.

 

To hear this podcast: listen here, use this link, or use iTunes or Google Play Music to subscribe or listen by searching "Tengwall," or find it on Spotify by searching "Reverend Killjoy."

Sermon Audio 7/19/2020, 7th Sunday after Pentecost A

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year A

Romans 8:12-25

Paul writes the good stuff in Romans, and here it is. God's promise of redemption is for our whole selves and the whole creation.

To hear this podcast: listen here, use this link, or use iTunes or Google Play Music to subscribe or listen by searching "Tengwall," or find it on Spotify by searching "Reverend Killjoy."

Bonus post: Sr. Ginny Jones Audio 4/27/2014

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Second Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year A

John 20:19-31

Today Lutheran Church of the Savior celebrated our annual Earth Sunday by hearing a message from our dear friend and neighbor Sr. Ginny Jones, CSJ. This year Sr. Ginny challenged us to live out our commitment to faithful stewardship of God's creation, beyond words or Earth Sundays to action on behalf of the world God loves.

Sermon Audio, 4/28/2013

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C

Revelation 21:1-6

This might be my favorite part of the whole Bible, so as you might expect I got a bit worked up about it. God will be with us. God is already with us.

No Sermon Podcast This Week, So...

... instead I'll just share some awesome links I've been hoarding.

Since Sr. Ginny Jones was again this year willing to grace us with her presence for an Earth Day homily, I have no sermon audio this week. (I didn't want to go through the whole mess of teaching her to use my phone to record herself). To get a taste of her message, check out her article on p. 26 of this SSJ publication.

A friend of mine from Yale just won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, so that's awesome. Caroline Shaw is the youngest winner, and apparently the first to win with a piece for unaccompanied voice, and it couldn't have happened to a kinder, sweeter person. See here and here for more. I've been listening to this piece almost daily since I found out about it. In fact, I think I'll turn it on now in my office.

As usual, some great suggestions from Living Lutheran, in this case about celebrating volunteers and an idea for Reconciliation Sunday, a rethinking of our traditional Lutheran Reformation Sunday celebration. Living Lutheran has new content and great links pretty much every day, and is a great way to keep up with the wider church and some of the great work going on across the ELCA and beyond.

Did you hear this little Jonathan Rundman tune about biblical interpretation? It certainly challenges some of the assumptions we make about the Bible, but ultimately does a great job of illustrating how ELCA Lutherans understand the Bible.

40 Days of Blogging

Lent is upon us, and this year I'll try something completely new for a Lenten discipline: I aspire to make this blog a more regular part of my life. My plan is to post 40 times during Lent, sometimes with reflections on my Lenten journey, other times with lengthy diatribes or links to interesting corners of the internet, and probably at some point I'll post just to fill in numbers toward reaching my goal. At any rate, I hope that blogging here will encourage mindfulness and reflection and prayer, rather than just be one more thing I have to do in a day. We'll see.

If you have yet to come up with something, consider using this Carbon Free Lent Calendar from Michigan Interfaith Power & Light. You can also use this calendar if you have already come up with another Lenten discipline, but just want to stay mindful of our relationship to God's earth. We at Lutheran Church of the Savior will be celebrating Earth Day again this year, though because Earth Day falls on Good Friday, we will put off our celebration until after Easter, on Sunday May 1st. We have again invited our neighbor Sr. Ginny Jones, CSJ, to preach on that occasion. Following the calendar above would be a great way to build up to the new life we celebrate and share at Easter, followed only a week later by this Earth Day celebration.

What other plans do you have for Lent this year?