Sermons Out of Rural Ministry

He is risen indeed! Alleluia! This is the day many of us have been waiting for, maybe for weeks or months. We arrive to hear about Christ and our gospel reading from Luke does not have him. "He is not here." Luke helps us to remember how faith is a lived experience and like the many characters in the story, we experience Christ's resurrection differently. The gift of faith, as the gift of new life given freely by Christ, is that it is not dependent on our wisdom, our prayer life or anything we say or do. It is from God. Which means we can rejoice, even if we're not sure, because Christ is among us, as we are, to reveal joy and hope at work in our world.

A night set apart in the church year for mystery and doubt. It may seem like we should have it all figured out before we set foot in a church. The Vigil of Easter is exactly the opposite. This service is for the doubters, the disbelievers, those of us who are not fully healed from our suffering and pain. This is the night of "not yet." We might have an idea about God's love, we could even have a little hope for what is to come, but we're not there. And thanks be to God, we don't have to be there. God meets us here where we are, in the shadows.

As we enter into the final Three Days before Easter morning, God brings us together around a table. We share a simple, ordinary meal and share our faith to hold each other up. Around us are signs of death. Where will see signs of life? 

It is okay, even appropriate to feel joy on Palm Sunday. The joy we hear about in the gospel is not a happy moment nor a fleeting smile that passes. It is rooted in the cross, pain, disappointment and suffering. It is founded on a promise from God that Christ is with us in the midst of our trials and chaos. Because God never promises to alleviate us or protect us from pain; faith is not a free pass. Instead, God demonstrates through Christ that wherever we find ourselves, our LORD is there, too. So be joyful because Christ is here!

In our gospel for this weekend (Luke 13), Jesus hears that his life is in danger. His response? Keep going without hesitation. He continues his cry for the poor, oppressed, captive, blind and all bound up in their debts. He does not stop healing the sick, casting out demons and bringing justice into this world. He will not sit back and let words and acts of hate have their ways of intimidating and silencing God's people. And he invites we followers to make ourselves vulnerable, for the sake the vulnerable. To keep moving and striving and silencing hate with a word of peace and a presence of love and Grace. Our sermon series, "Turn to Me," continues with a thought on racism and the powers of hate that try with every means available to stop God's kingdom.

We come to Jesus for some wisdom and advice and he simply does what he does, as if he's nothing like us. As he moves through the wilderness, he swats away temptations that we would willingly fall for. He is encountered by the devil and doesn't flinch. He is everything we are not. What is there to learn from only being observers of Jesus at work? Our first sermon in our Lent series, "Turn to Me: A Season of Reconciliation."

Ash Wednesday is a sacred night in many churches, a time for people to remember our mortality as we give thanks that Christ brings life through ash and dust. Then we gather in the shadows and hear from God in Isaiah, who wants nothing to do with our sacred nights of worship. Particularly if they do nothing to reveal justice for God's suffering ones. God reminds us that, as we choose to fast, many neighbors don't get to choose whether or not to eat. As we change our clothes and our liturgical paraments for the season, folks down the street from us can only wear the same old rags they keep stitched together. God doesn't want our rituals and piety, God is bringing divine justice into our broken world. And when we reach the point when we feel utterly helpless to respond to the powers and sins around us (and in us), well, that's the moment of our joy. A sermon on Ash Wednesday rooted in Isaiah 58.1-12.

Obviously we want to be on the side of God. We want the blessings, definitely not the woes. The woes sound bad, so we humans do what we can to get on the side of God. The side with the blessings. And since it sounds like there are sides anyway, and we want to see ourselves on the God side of things, our minds will begin to imagine that there are some who deserve the woes. Who are not worthy of God's blessings. There must be a divide or separation that exists between God's people, Jesus names it. What happens, then, we find ourselves on the wrong side of the divide? A sermon on walls and lines in the sand and Jesus' ability to heal based on Luke 6.17-26.

How do you measure up? How will you know that God loves you? These are questions that we have asked ourselves and asked of each other (though maybe not out loud). In our gospel today, Jesus brings success after success and we would love to hold onto it forever. We want to feel successful and we give thanks to God when our lives are successful, until they aren't. Then, like the disciples, we are probably going to walk away. Forgetting that it was never about bigger boats and larger crowds and tons of fish. Our sermon series, "Superheros Checklist," continues with Luke 5.1-11, a story of Grace that may, or may not, measure up to our expectations.

Nothing like an offensive sermon to rally the hometown crowd against Jesus. He returns to his roots and offers a message about God's promises being fulfilled, except his family synagogue begins thinking they'll get a double portion of Grace because he's a son of the community. Jesus reminds his people, through old hero stories they know well, that God's Grace extends beyond our limits and imagination. It is for the suffering ones, the cast out ones, the ones trapped on the other side of borders and walls, the ones who cannot find enough food or shelter, even the ones we call our enemies. For his message of unhindered Grace, his family church tries to execute him. It is at this moment, on the brink of a cliff staring at death, that Jesus reveals his superpower. Our sermon series, "Superhero Checklist," continues with Luke 4:21-30.