Sermon Audio 3/2/2022, Ash Wednesday

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

 

Ash Wednesday, Revised Common Lectionary Year C

 

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

 

As we return to God amid so much turmoil this Lent, what are the spiritual practices we will engage in to ground ourselves? 

Also worth noting that I started this sermon laughing because the music playing for the childrens' hip hop dance class directly below us had just cranked up to a festive new level. 

 

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Sermon Audio 6/6/2021, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost B

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

(gathered via Zoom for live online worship)

Second Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 10, Year B

 

Mark 3:20-35

As demonstrated in today's challenging scriptures from Mark's Gospel and from Genesis, evil and division and mutual enmity break our relationships with each other and with God. But that's not the whole of our story in Jesus.

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 3/6/2019, Ash Wednesday

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58:1-12

Repent; turn back to Jesus. Remember what God can do with a broken vessel.

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Sermon Audio 2/24/2019, 7th Sunday after Epiphany C

Hope Lutheran Church, Saint Paul

Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year C

Luke 6:27-38

Some of Jesus' most famous words - "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you... Do not judge, and you will not be judged," make for one of his most challenging lessons in Luke's Gospel.

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Sermon Audio 1/28/2018, 4th Sunday after Epiphany B

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year B

Mark 1:21-28 

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus' first public act is to teach in the synagogue and set a person free from an unclean spirit. Can we recognize and confront evil like Jesus did? 

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Sermon Audio 4/9/2017 Palm / Passion Sunday

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion, Lectionary Year A

John 12:12-19

John 18:1-19:42

The juxtaposition of Palm Sunday's raucous proclamation of Jesus as king and the Passion's stark abandonment of Jesus to the authorities shows us much about who we are as people and as followers of Jesus. 

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Sermon Audio 12/4/2016, Second Sunday of Advent A

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Second Sunday of Advent, Lectionary Year A

Isaiah 11:1-10 

John the Baptist helps us see how repentance leads to Advent hope, and Isaiah shows us just what it is we are hoping for. 

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Sermon Audio 9/11/2016, Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C

Luke 15:1-10 

Jesus tells his parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin in the midst of two audiences: the tax collectors and sinners with whom he eats, and the grumbling Pharisees and scribes. With which of these audiences do you identify, and how does that change how you hear the parables? 

As a bonus I talk about how "All lives matter" in response to "Black lives matter" is merely the grumbling of jealous Pharisees. 

Newsletter Article March 2016

March 2016 Newsletter Article

See how its branches

reach to us in welcome;

Hear what the Voice says,

“Come to me, ye weary!

Give me your sickness,

give me all your sorrow,

I will give blessing.”

-  Király Imre von Pécselyi; tr. Erik Routley, “There in God’s Garden,” ELW 342

Sermon Audio 2/21/2016, Lent 2C

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo  

Second Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year C 

Acts 2:1-21 [Link to Oremus]

Luke 13:31-35

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Last night there was a mass shooting here in Kalamazoo. It began less than a mile up the road from our church building. To paraphrase Jesus: “America, America, the country that shoots its own people and shouts down those who ask why so many are shot!”

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Sermon Audio 2/10/2016 Ash Wednesday

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

Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58:1-12 

On fasting, sin, and the size of grocery stores nowadays. 

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

Sermon Audio 6/27/2015, Day of Repentance for Racism and Mourning for Charleston Victims

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo 

Day of Repentance and Mourning

In response to the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, we heeded the words of our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton with a Day of Repentance and Mourning. The alleged shooter is a member of an ELCA congregation, and two of the victims, Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney and Rev. Daniel Simmons, were graduates of the ELCA seminary in South Carolina. It should not take these ELCA connections for our churches to rise up for racial justice, and that it did is one of the realities of which we repent. 

Thanks to Rozella White, ELCA Director of Young Adult Ministries; Rev. Meghan Johnston Aelabouni; and President Obama. Each brought us a necessary Word this morning. Links are to the full texts quoted in part in this sermon. 

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

Sermon Audio 3/9/2014

Lutheran Church of the Savior, Kalamazoo

First Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year A

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus' temptation occurs only after he has fasted for 40 days and is famished. For over 1 billion people living today, hunger is not a spiritual practice but a daily reality. This Lent we will explore hunger, both physical and figurative, as we await Jesus passion and resurrection. What do we hunger for, and how can we satisfy our hunger? What does our neighbor hunger for, and how can we satisfy our neighbor's hunger?

Matthew 4:1-11

4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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