Sermons Out of Rural Ministry

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

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

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

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.

Who is outside? Probably easier to define who is inside, with us. In our gospel its a group of outsiders who define the kingdom of God and adjust the trajectory of the story. As we are called to follow, we are also being called to walk beyond ourselves. #sermon #PalmSunday 

This is where our gospel begins, with an innocent question pointing to the deep divisions we create between ourselves and our neighbors. There is nothing inherently wrong with the man born blind, as Jesus proclaims, yet the entire community-and all of the disciples-can only define him by the sin they perceive. Even after Jesus demonstrates that there is no separation between the man and God, still, the people cannot see him. They see only their reaction to him. The man born blind can be a reflection of the countless we are willing to banish from our communities because we see them as "other" or separate from God. Though, Jesus reminds that he will continually leave the community to be with God's people. Whether racism, ageism, economic policies or LGBTQ+ youth and adults, we as God's people have a history of casting God's own off. Yet Jesus leads us out of ourselves and leads us to where mercy and grace are needed, on the margins outside of town.