Sermon Audio 6/26/2022, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost C

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul (in person and live on Zoom)

 

Third Sunday after Pentecost, Revised Common Lectionary Year C

 

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

 

Sometimes the news of the day frames the way we need to share the gospel. Freedom and bodily autonomy and loving our neighbor. It's a lot. 

 

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Sermon Audio 1/30/2022, 4th Sunday after Epiphany C

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul (Gathered online using Zoom)

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year C

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

 

Paul's famous lesson about love is a model for the life of the church together. 

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Sermon Audio5/2/2021, Fifth Sunday of Easter B

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year B

 

1 John 4:7-21

God is love. What does this mean for us? How do we love one another?  

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 4/25/2021, Fourth Sunday of Easter B

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year B

1 John 3:16-24

Our second lesson from First John gives us a powerful vision of what it can look like to live out the love of God we have received in Jesus. How can the lessons of that community so long ago shape our church's faithful response today? 

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 11/15/2020, 24th Sunday after Pentecost A

 Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

 

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year A

 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

 

What can we say about these times? More importantly, how can we spend this time in faithfulness to Jesus?

 

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Sermon Audio 5/19/2019, 5th Sunday of Easter C

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C

John 13:31-35

Love one another. Jesus' new commandment on his last night with his disciples sounds simple, but our experience tells us it's anything but simple. 

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Sermon Audio 4/18/2019, Maundy Thursday

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

What does foot washing have to do with Jesus' new commandment to his disciples on that last night? 

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Sermon 4/29/2018, Fifth Sunday of Easter B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year B

1 John 4:7-21

Acts 8:26-40 

This passage in the first letter of John summarizes the teaching of John's Gospel in such powerful phrases as "Love one another" and "God is love." What does this love look like? Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch show us on the road.

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Sermon Audio 2/18/2018, Lent 1B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B

Genesis 9:8-17 

God's promise to Noah and his family is the first of the covenants in which God attempts to build a healthy relationship between humans and God. What does it mean that God is the one who changes in this covenant? 

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If you want to support this podcast and the ministry of Lutheran Church of the Savior, you can do so here. Thanks. 

Sermon Audio 4/13/2017 Maundy Thursday

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 

Jesus' new commandment to love one another comes with an example that shows love to be much more than just a feeling or an idea. 

To hear this podcast: listen here, use this link, or use iTunes or Google Play Music to subscribe or listen by searching "Tengwall."

Sermon Audio 1/29/2016, 4th Sunday after Epiphany A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year A

Micah 6:1-8

Matthew 5:1-12 

Two of the most famous passages in the Bible tell us how we can worship God and follow Jesus. Justice, kindness, humility and blessing can shape our lives and our response to those around us.

This is one of those days when experiencing the entire liturgy really enhances the experience of the sermon. The prayers, music, and entire liturgy echoed and reinforced the message of the Beatitudes, Micah, and our reading from 1 Corinthians (1:18-31). Our hymn following the sermon was Let Streams of Living Justice (ELW 710), and I could not stop crying through the entire thing because the song so clearly explained the gospel message for today. Below is the text of that hymn, as an example of the rest of our liturgy today.

Sermons Audio: 12/24/2016 Christmas Eve and 1/1/17 Name of Jesus

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve, Lectionary Year A

Luke 2:1-21

Two sermons, a week apart, on mostly the same Gospel story and thus similar in theme: the birth of Jesus is the incarnation of God among us. What does this mean?

To hear this podcast: listen here, use this link (12/24/2016), this link (1/1/2017) or use iTunes or Google Play Music to subscribe or listen by searching "Tengwall."

Sermon Audio 5/22/2016 Holy Trinity C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Holy Trinity Sunday, Lectionary Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

A baptism on Holy Trinity provides the opportunity to think about God not in lofty theological terms, but in how God relates to us. An alternate translation of our Proverbs lesson, along with an assist from the repeated refrain of our Psalm (8), helps show us what God does for us in baptism.

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Sermon Audio 1/31/2016 4th Sunday after Epiphany C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo [Link to https://www.facebook.com/LutheranChurchOfTheSavior]

4th Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year C

Jeremiah 1:4-10

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Luke 4:21-30 

Presidential election season is upon us. Lord have mercy! In some ways this process brings out the worst in us, so we turn to Jesus (and Jeremiah, and Paul) to help us figure out how to engage in a helpful way. 

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Sermon Text May 17th 2015

I was away on May 10th, so no sermon audio for that day. Then May 17th my phone (recording device) completely malfunctioned and my sermon audio did not record. This is the second time that a sermon did not record, and the second time it was a roller derby-themed sermon that I thought people would want to listen to. Oh well. Instead I will post the text from which I preached that sermon. It contains much of what I said, though as always the audio is the real sermon and the text is merely my guide. In particular, I suspect there was more to points 3 and 4 below, but oh well.

Sermon Sunday May 17th, Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Acts 8:26-40

1.    It’s still the season of Easter, so one more time I’ll begin my sermon with the Good News: Jesus died and rose again for us, to forgive our sin and set us free to love God and love one another.

2.    Our first lesson from Acts today is one of my all-time favorite examples of the freedom we have in Christ, freedom to love God and love one another. The Ethiopian eunuch is the most outside of outsiders – foreign, dark-skinned, fabulously wealthy and powerful (which wouldn’t make him an outsider except that by that time Jesus’ followers had all given their money and possessions to the church and become poor), and a eunuch, a sexual minority explicitly excluded from worshiping God by the Law of Moses.

Sermon Audio 4/26/2015 Fourth Sunday of Easter B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

1st John 3:16-24

Love one another. The First Letter of John (not to be confused with the Gospel of John, similar though they are) is a great resource for understanding this phrase, so central to what it means for us to follow Jesus. 

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Sermon Audio 4/2/2015 Maundy Thursday

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

"Love one another" is Jesus' most powerful, challenging command to his disciples. He gives this new commandment during his final meal with them. How can we follow such a simple, complicated commandment? In this meal Jesus shows us how to love one another. 

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Sermon Audio 2/8/2015, Epiphany 5B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Mark 1:29-39

This was my first sermon after two weeks listening to the fine preaching of others. I tried to avoid the trap of saying everything when I got back to it, though the length of this sermon would suggest I was not as successful as I'd hoped to be. Still, it was fun to be back at it, and I enjoyed talking about Jesus' miraculous healing of "Grace" (the name we gave to Peter's mother-in-law, who deserves to be called something other than "Peter's mother-in-law.") Jesus frees us to follow him wherever he goes, wherever we go. 

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Sermon Audio 1/4/2015, Second Sunday of Christmas B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Ephesians 1:3-14

The Christmas season offers us so many ways to see and experience the overwhelming grace of God. Today's lesson from Ephesians is actually one incredible run-on sentence bursting with images of God's powerful grace for us and the world God loves. 

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Sermon Audio 8/31/2014, 12th Sunday after Pentecost A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Romans 12:9-21

Today's lesson from Romans offers my favorite instruction in the Bible: love one another. This simple, profound, difficult instruction is only one of about 29 ways Paul instructs Christians to act toward others, each as obviously good and near-impossible as the next. How can we do the things God wants us to do? 

As always, listen here or listen/subscribe on iTunes by searching "Tengwall."