Sermon Audio 3/26/2023, 5th Sunday of Lent A

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lindstrom MN

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A

John 1:1-45

I haven't been posting audio recordings of my sermons at Trinity because I'm busy and they're already on YouTube somewhere. I wanted to make an exception for this week since I got to talk about a song I really like, Tomorrow, Wendy by Concrete Blonde. I think people want to hear it. 

To hear this podcast: listen here, use this link, or use Amazon, Spotify, Audacy, iHeartRadio,  or other sites by searching "Reverend Killjoy" or “Tengwall.”

Sermon Audio 5/17/2020 Sixth Sunday of Easter A

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year A

John 14:15-21

Today's lectionary gives me a chance to talk about some of my favorite choral music, as an example of the comfort Jesus' promises can bring in this time of pandemic and uncertainty.

(This sermon post comes out of order; I will publish four sermons on May 31st, and did today's first before returning to the previous three.)

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 1/13/2019, Baptism of Our Lord C

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

Baptism of Our Lord, Lectionary Year C

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Jesus' baptism teaches us about the grace of God in our own baptisms and throughout our lives.

This sermon features a baptismal song by Paul Friesen-Carper. 

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 11/12/2017, 23rd Sunday after Pentecost A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year A

Amos 5:18-24 

"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." These powerful words from Amos cut through all the madness of our news cycles. If our worship and faith practices do not direct us toward the needs of our neighbors, then who are we really worshiping?

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

If you want to support this podcast and the ministry of Lutheran Church of the Savior, please click the church link above and scroll down to donate. Thanks. 

Sermon Audio 12/11/2016, Third Sunday of Advent A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Third Sunday of Advent, Lectionary Year A

Matthew 1:2-11 

Today's guest preacher is Rev. Sarah Friesen-Carper, Assistant to the Bishop for Congregational and Leadership Excellence of the North West Lower Michigan Synod of the ELCA. The sermon ends with the preacher's rendition of Jackson Browne's "The Rebel Jesus," with the preacher's father on piano and her husband on percussion and backing vocals. 

Apologies for the poor quality of the music recording; it was just my phone on my music stand, which is why the drum is entirely too loud in the mix. And the viola is mostly lost. 

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 4/24/2016, Fifth Sunday of Easter

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C

Revelation 21:1-6 

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." Faithful and confounding and enormously talented, Prince has a lot to teach us about my very favorite thing in the Bible, the vision of the Holy City in Revelation. 

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

Sermon Audio 12/13/2015, Advent 3C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

Third Sunday of Advent, Lectionary Year C

Luke 3:7-18

This sermon has everything - holiday party advice, tales of life and death, funny voices, guest musicians, and even the Krampus. This is the Advent sermon I've been waiting for.

This is the only sermon I've ever recorded that I listened to again. That's how much fun I had preaching this sermon. I talk too fast when I get excited and/or confused. Also, this sermon recorded on a different device than usual, so I wonder whether than will affect the sound quality at all. I guess we'll see (or hear, rather).

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

Links for the Turn of the Church Year

Over the recent Thanksgiving weekend, when I had plenty of time to myself due to my family being away, I did a fair bit of online reading. Here's some of what kept me interested this weekend, from the political and controversial to the heartbreaking and beyond. I am reminded that the ELCA has Social Statements on many of the pressing social and political issues of our time. I'll finish with some hopefulness.

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.

2012 Lent 19: Good Friday Sermon, in Which I Performed a Hymn Verse I Wrote

No, I don't have video, or audio. Sorry, Mom. I preached something like this at Lutheran Church of the Savior on Good Friday 2012. I sang each of the three verses a capella: the first two in the joyous, dancing, incongruous way I know from recent years, and the third slow and sad, my voice breaking on the final few lines as I choked up and nearly wept on my manuscript. Not that I stuck to the manuscript, but still.

1.    As I have prepared for Good Friday, prayed about it, reflected on the death of our Lord, read theological treatises and counter-arguments (seriously, you should see my Facebook feed today), one song has constantly come back to me. No, it’s not our next hymn tonight [O Sacred Head, Now Wounded], though that's where the smart money would be, on my all-time-favorite Good Friday song, though we’ll sing it, and it’ll be absolutely amazing, like it always is, and I’ll probably cry, like I usually do. 

2012 Lent 18: Good Friday Links, ctd

James MacMillan's Seven Last Words are gorgeous like ice is cold.

 This is just the third part. Of seven. It melts every part of me.

I first heard this live in Battell Chapel at Yale, performed by my colleagues and friends, and wow. What a privilege it is to experience such beauty in such a world.

2012 Lent 7: Gathering for Worship

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to worship God and celebrate Holy Communion in three very different settings.

The first, of course, was the regular Sunday gathering of Lutheran Church of the Savior. We instituted some changes to our worship on Sunday in an effort to increase the visibility and experience of some central parts of our gathering. Our Assisting Minister carried our lectionary book - the book from which we read Scripture together - in our opening processional, following the Cross, to demonstrate the centrality of the Word of God to our gathering.

Later, our ushers also carried the elements for communion - bread, wine, grape juice - in our offering procession, along with monetary gifts. The idea here was to recognize that not only our money, but our whole lives and all of creation are part of our offering to God. Grains from the earth and fruit of the vine, fashioned by human labor into bread and wine, all come from God. We offer the first fruits of the earth and of our labors, our time and our money, to God the giver of all good things.

2012 Lent 6: March Newsletter Article

Divine eternal lover,

you meet us on the road.

We wait for lands of promise

where milk and honey flow,

but waiting not for places,

you meet us all around.

Our covenant is written

on roads, as faith is found.

- Sylvia G. Dunstan, “Bless Now, O God, the Journey,” ELW 326

The season of Lent includes the entire month of March this year. Sure, we had a few days in February, and we’ll have the tail end of the season in April, but this year March is an entire calendar month to reflect on our relationship with God in Jesus Christ and to participate in disciplines drawing us closer to God and God’s will for us. 

My own Lenten discipline this year is that I will attempt to blog (at my official LCS Pastor’s Blog, unexpectedandmysterious.blogspot.com) for all forty days of Lent. I made a similar effort last year, but, um, well… let’s just say that I am again deeply grateful that the grace and love of God has the power to overwhelm and redeem my frailties and failings. 

2012 Lent 2: Ash Wednesday, cont'd.

Though I had thumbed Ash Wednesday ashes and been thumb-ashed before, it felt wholly different this week. Somehow, the power and vulnerability, the intimate connection of touching another's forehead and speaking those words - "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." - grabbed onto me in a new and unexpected way. This seemed like that rare ritual in which no one was just going through the motions. This mattered in a way my mouth could not explain, but my hand and my eyes could attest.

My Ash Wednesday ended unconventionally; I joined some friends at a local karaoke establishment for some much-needed unwinding. We immediately talked about Ash Wednesday, and how could we not, given my maximum pastor garb - best black suit, round Anglican collar, sweet clergy vest* - and of course, the ashes prominently marking my forehead. As I stated on Facebook, I was reliably informed that the words "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" are "totally metal." As in, those words would fit into the culture of the metal wing of rock music, stereotyped to be loud and dark and sometimes anti-Christian. I barely know the first thing about that music, so I won't burden you with my ignorance on the subject. 

Christmas 2011

"Have a joyful, hopeful, peaceful, love-filled Christmas, and share it with whoever you can."

Thus concluded my Christmas Eve sermon last night, which focused on the four words of Advent - joy, hope, peace, and love - and how they are the manifestation of all that we have been waiting for, and all that we celebrate today.

This morning there was no sermon, but as I said to the hearty few gathered with Lutheran Church of the Savior, everything I wanted to say is contained in the text of the newer hymn "Love Has Come," by Ken Bible, and set to the beautiful French tune we know as "Bring a Torch Jeannette, Isabella." 

Love has come - a light in the darkness!
Love shines forth in the Bethlehem skies.
See, all heaven has come to proclaim it;
Hear how their song of joy arises:
Love! Love!
Born unto you, a Savior!
Love! Love!
Glory to God on high.

Advent 2: December 2011 Newsletter article

“Comfort, comfort now my people;

tell of peace!” So says our God.

Comfort those who sit in darkness

mourning under sorrow’s load.

To God’s people now proclaim

that God’s pardon waits for them!

Tell them that their war is over;

God will reign in peace forever.

- Johann G. Olearius, tr. Catherine Winkworth, “Comfort, Comfort Now My People,” ELW 256

The words that begin the beautiful Advent carol quoted above come from Isaiah, and open our first reading on the second Sunday of this new church year. The prophet was writing to a people who for nearly sixty years had toiled in Babylon under their imperial captors, a people who had nearly forgotten their God and despaired that they would be slaves forever. Trudging through endless days of servitude, stripped of power and choice, God’s chosen people had little reason to hope that tomorrow would be a brighter day for them or for their children. 

Into this bleakness the voice of God spoke these words of balm to the heavenly host: Comfort my people!

On Mutual Inspiration

Read these two posts by my dear friend Amanda about the process of leaving her job at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC. I met Amanda when I was a Short-Term Recruiter for Lutheran Volunteer Corps in the fall of 2008. Because we worked just down the hall from one another (LVC was founded by, and remains housed by, Luther Place), the other STRs and I got to know Amanda, and kept up with her after I'd moved on to other adventures after that fall. After her year of LVC with the Steinbruck Center, she was hired on at Luther Place to do all sorts of awesome work, including the two artistic pursuits detailed in the blog posts, creating the Bethany’s Women of Praise choir and painting beautiful murals on the doors of the old church.

What I love about Part One is the way choir and conductor learn from each other and inspire each other to reach beyond conventional limits. Amanda is a gifted musician, and is off to study choral conducting with my old friends, but I am willing to bet she learned some lessons from her singers at N Street Village that her incumbent singers (Yale grad students and undergrads) could never have taught. Specifically, what motivates a singer to show up for rehearsal or for a concert? How does a conductor truly engage a choir member, reaching the heart of a singer in order to draw out their best effort, their most impassioned interpretation of a piece of music?

Lent 2: Ash Wednesday Reflection

I suppose it is fortunate that I did not find this excellent meditation on Ash Wednesday and giving up until after the day was over. I would've needed to struggle mightily against the impulse to just read the whole thing in place of a proper sermon. For helpful highlights from the same meditation, see Sullivan.

Also, I love the images in those posts - the campy covers of "The Disembodied" and Bowie's epic "Ashes to Ashes" somehow ground the deep reflection on human nature in the actual world I recognize (and I have a hilarious and mildly tragic story with that Bowie tune as the punchline, for what it's worth).

Even the punk-haired ash-marked head that adorns Sullivan's post beautifully illustrates the vastness and closeness of our shared human experience. We're all individuals, distinct and as different as night and day, each facing our mortality, and yet in this together, people. It makes the mystery of the Trinity not seem so terribly complicated, somehow: I'm me, and you are you, and yet I would not be me if not for my relationship with you. Yes, you.

Rock and roll, etc

So as the internet will attest, I listen to a whole lot of music. I broadly (and at times ironically) refer to most of this music as "rock and roll," in an apparent effort to make that term meaningless. Maybe some other time I'll explain what I mean by it, but for now I just want to point out a line in a song that caught my ear today. The song is When My Time Comes by the young California band Dawes (you can download the song free at that site for subscribing to their mailing list, it turns out). The line in question is "...and if heaven is all that was promised to me why don't I pray for death?"

I think this is a good question. I have no indication this band is "Christian" (a uniquely loaded term in popular music, and that's maybe not what I mean) though a number of their song titles and lyrics on their album North Hills do seem to point to frameworks Christians use when addressing life's big questions. Such a question might fit well in the voice of one who is questioning or rejecting faith in Jesus, making the assumption or expressing their experience that heaven is the sole focus of Christian faith and life. I often find that I can learn a great deal about  following Jesus by listening to those who question faith, and this is one of those questions.

In brief response to the question, I would say that heaven is far from the "all that is promised to me," and if anything I at times eschew talk of heaven altogether in favor of talking about the full, rich, vibrant, engaged, passionate life to which I feel called right here and now. This is the only Earth God has given us, and our time here is fleeting, and whatever heaven turns out to be, God sent Jesus to this world to be with us. This smelly, cranky, selfish world is the one God created and called good, and is the one God sent Jesus to redeem - not to replace, not to reject, but to redeem. And various New Testament texts are clear that Jesus will return to this earth - not to replace it, but to bring God's love to bear on this creation in a way that makes this world the best it can be. This despite the common misunderstanding of these same biblical texts applied by some who see this world as merely fleeting and disposable, like fast-food wrappers that the careless throw out their windows on the highway.

I need to wrap this up - I have a sermon to finish, and I seriously doubt that this will fit into it - but I guess the point I want to make is that God is working in the world, speaking through the lyrics of so-called "secular" rock songs, through random magazine articles, through the words of strangers in grocery stores. So many of us show up on Sunday mornings seeking Jesus, and while that's important (maybe even vital or necessary), it's not the whole story. We gather for worship and liturgy not because Jesus lives in this building with this mortgage we're paying, but so that we can in this community of faith learn to recognize God's voice, God's hand, God's face outside that building, in the rest of the wide world we are given. If we are followers of Jesus, then God is calling us into the world, the real world, the young-rock-and-roll-band-from-California world, the people-sure-do-drive-like-selfish-maniacs-on-the-highway world, the that-little-girl-at-Meijer-looks-like-she-could-use-a-hug world.

So keep your ears open.Unexpected and mysterious, indeed.