“The basis upon which Christians can speak to one another is that each knows the other as a sinner, who, with all his human dignity, is lonely and lost if he is not given help…. This recognition gives to our brotherly speech the freedom and candor that it needs. We speak to one another on the basis of the help we both need.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
April 6, 2025 – The Fifth Sunday in Lent
Old Testament: Psalm 126
Epistle: 1 Peter 4:1-6
Gospel: Luke 23:13-31
Sermon Title: “I Need This… and This… and This…)"

Many of our contemporaries alter their faith when tough times come. “I can’t believe in a God who would…” 1 Peter 1:6-9 gives insight to keep us grounded in the grand narrative of Christian salvation even when we want to cry out with Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

March 30, 2025 – The Fourth Sunday in Lent 
Old Testament: Psalm 32
Epistle: 1 Peter 1:6-9
Gospel: Luke 22:66-23:12 
Sermon Title: “I Can’t Believe in a God Who Would”

“Modern Christianity tends to think of the church either as a place where individuals come to find answers to their questions or as one more stop where individuals can try to satisfy their consumerist desires. As such, Christianity becomes intellectualized rather than incarnate, commodified rather than the site of genuine community.” (James K.A. Smith) March 23, 2025 – The Third Sunday in Lent Old Testament: Psalm 63:1-8 Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-11 Gospel: Luke 22:47-65 Sermon Title: “Who Am I?”

Modernism has left us with nothing. Back in the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, leading thinkers believed that science, reason and logic could lead us to perfection. Reason failed. 1 Peter 1:3-5 presents the story—the Gospel word—by which the Spirit of God defines us amid all the stories swirling around us. This is the grand narrative to which Peter gives witness, that God has acted for us by enabling us to live lives of hope and purpose based in the resurrection of his Son from the dead. Our Life Together as a congregation is living in this story amidst all the stories clamoring for attention in contemporary America.

Old Testament: Psalm 27
Epistle: 1 Peter 1:3-5
Gospel: Luke 22:7-23, 39-46

Peter reminds his readers that their “Life Together” came from the Word of God. That word came in baptism (“you have been born again”) and in preaching (“this is the word that was preached to you”). By obeying the preached word, a working of the Spirit, they were purified (“you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth”).

That true and eternal word produces love for one another in our ever-changing lives (quoting Isaiah 40:6-8).

Jesus is literally radiating when He was transfigured in the account we read in Luke 9. In similar fashion, Moses, after his direct encounter with God on top of Mount Sinai to receive the commandments, was also literally radiating. Paul connects all these dots, wrapping us into the Story. We, too, radiate, reflecting the Lord’s glory as we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. As we wrap up our Radiate! series and prepare to move into the season of Lent, we end with strong encouragement and promises of the power of our Savior and how we continue to radiate His light and His love.

The story of Joseph’s life at the end of Genesis is an amazing story of how God can and does work good out of the most difficult of situations – which also echoes what St. Paul writes in the very familiar (and also powerful) Romans 8:28-39. Joseph continued to trust and God continued to work. We’ll think about circumstances we face and how we can take Joseph’s story and the Lord’s promises through St. Paul to heart, especially when we find ourselves in difficult or challenging times.

1 Corinthians 15 is known as the great resurrection chapter of the Bible as St. Paul expounds on what the promise of the resurrection brings to us and to all people – hope! What we believe is not futile. We have hope in Christ and that hope is real. It is this gift of hope, of resurrection, of life that we are called to radiate and share with a world filled with despair, confusion, uncertainty, and hopelessness.

Isaiah, St. Paul, and Peter all acknowledge their sin before the Lord. In each case, God’s grace and forgiveness flow freely, and God demonstrates not only His willingness but His desire to use these broken people to radiate His message of forgiveness and grace to all. We, too, must acknowledge our brokenness before the Lord and before each other, and out of that brokenness, we receive healing and forgiveness and the Lord’s charge to preach the Good News of the Gospel!

We hear Jeremiah’s call from the Lord and what a powerful word that is – not only for Jeremiah but for all of us, knowing that Jesus knows us and that in Him, we have a real purpose in this life.

What’s the purpose? - Like Jeremiah, it’s to share and radiate and speak God’s message of hope and love (from 1 Corinthians 13) without fear – with boldness and confidence. Why? Because God is the one who is putting His words into our mouths, hearts, and lives. Even Jesus, in Luke 4, when He nor His message were accepted in His hometown, shared how God’s message of love and life was for all people, even by way of Old Testament examples He shared. And we can be confident in what Jesus lays before us – perhaps even be amazed as the people were when they heard Him, because His message had authority!