Our preaching text is Luke 3.7-18, in which the prophet John declares the people called together are a brood of vipers. And that's supposed to be good news. John is baptizing, so we're thinking about the gifts of baptism, as well as the very human temptation to assume that baptism is the final act. That God is done, we're good to go, eternal promise of life and all that. Except, our world is broken, destructive, and unjust. Could baptism be an eternal promise AND a call to serve? #sermon #Advent #welcomejesus

Our gospel reading begins with obscure, historic references that don't mean much to us. We have to do a lot of work to figure out each name or place, and in doing that work, may miss the promise of God's movement declared. The same can happen to folks we meet who may not know the stories of Jesus or our local church. What matters dearly to us may mean nothing to people we encounter and worse, we run the risk of using stories to keep people out. What are the stories you can tell that could point straight to Christ? What stories do our neighbors tell that speak of God's presence? #sermon #Advent #storyoflife #welcomejesus

A question that rises up out of the gospel reading, and lingers in the back of our minds. Why must death be the way we know Christ? Why cannot Jesus eliminate death after destroying it on the cross? The answers are distant and beyond reach. However, in our sadness, doubt and anger, Jesus listens. And responds with his presence. John 11.32-44

The disciples are on the move, and something has changed. Maybe it took some time to get there, but the disciples are looking at Jesus and themselves differently. As they wrestle with their place in the kingdom, they are asking a question every church secretly wonders. Is there a congregation that is greater than the others?

The reading the week of August 25 2024 closes a three part series on the letter to the Ephesians that sends us to the cosmos. We humans do like a good argument, and our reading with all of its military lingo could be used as a defense for picking a fight. But, the fight is not with other humans. The battles we wage every day are eternal. They go all the way to Creation. How can we possibly gear up for that? #sermon

The text for August 4 2024 is an encounter between Jesus and the crowds after he has fed them. So they know what free bread tastes like. No shame in asking again. Jesus points them past the moment to God's promises revealed, and to stories from deep in the past that still speak of grace and life. #sermon

Our text the week of August 11 2024 is from Ephesians, and bears the promise that grace is a gift, unearned and undeserved. It is a promise so complete and remarkable that we choose not to believe it. We cannot abide by the notion that we are fully, eternally loved by God. #sermon

Christ has destroyed the power of death! Yet, we encounter death every day. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice! (Martin Luther King, Jr) Yet, racism and hate speech has found new voices and new ways to destroy Black and brown lives in the public square. How do we deal with promises made that don't line up with lives lived? The apostle Paul wrestles hard with these questions, as we do, and offers a word that might give us the courage to keep striving through Christ. Philippians 3.8-16

On this Earth Day, we give thanks for God's creative energy bringing life with a word. In our reading from Isaiah, God is responding to the Israelites, who are struggling to believe. As we are encountered by God today through scripture, God may find us struggling to believe what God can do. Or, if God is even around. Seeing the difficulty and doubt of God's people, responds by calling them (us) to look to the natural world. God even notes how God's breath never leaves and returns without creating life. You are part of God's creative energy. #earthday #easter #Isaiah #happytrees

What might you be able to do to gain the grace of God? This is not an unusual question since we're told pretty much everywhere in our lives that we must earn to achieve, and achieve to earn. God says something different, speaking grace into the world through Christ.
Throughout October, we at Trinity are reflecting on ways that being "Lutheran" makes us unique in the diverse world of Christian faith. Each topic or idea is vital to our identity, even if we don't describe like that to others. Though, maybe it would be good to consider how we can speak of grace not in worldly, work related terms, but closer to gift given. You are loved, friend. You are enough.