As in, be loud and direct. Be in public, on the square, in the presence of the powerful. Our gospel points us to a woman who does not wait, she does not hold back, and she will not be silenced. She speaks God's Word and mountains are moved for justice. Jesus offers her explicitly as a model of prayer. Through Christ, we will be called on to speak a prayer on behalf of others; may we pray out loud. #lutheran #sermonsoutofruralministry #prayoutloud #dailygenerosity #justice #fannielouhamer

In such a short reading we are confronted by our own dread of incompetence, our want to value others, slavery, systemic racism, and eating at restaurants. Jesus moves us through a lot of history to confront a lot of ourselves here and now. How we see our place in God's kingdom is how we see others with us in the presence of God. #sermon #Lutheran #forgive #systemicracism #dothework

There's a reason we call them blind spots. As much as we are called to see all people as God's own, we are human enough to admit we don't see all people equally. Some we see only from a distance, hoping to keep them far enough that we cannot imagine that we are equals. Our gospel exposes a deep blind spot with one character who lived right next to another. How we see our neighbor, especially those whose names we know, is how we see God. #chasms #sermon #lutheran #cross #nameofGod 

Our gospel reading is a story from Jesus that goes in many directions. Or at least, does not go in a direction that many of us are following. A clever financial manager is praised for doctoring the books to benefit himself. Its not for noble gains or to serve those in the community impacted by poverty or illness. Jesus ends his parable with a series of one liners that also move from side to side, making the entire text tough to manage. Still, there is grace, and patience from God when we cannot see where Jesus is trying to take us. #sermon #grace #lutheran

Our gospel contains two stories of losing and finding objects, and the people possible responsible for the loss. Often we'll hear these and imagine pastoral ideals of Jesus finding us who have either gotten lost or wandered away. There's a hitch in that thinking, though, and its in the text. What are we missing? Or to put it another way, who might we have lost along the way? #sermon #forgiveness #lostfound #rejoice

Where is that for you? We all have a line in the sand across which we cannot go, even for God. This week Jesus calls on the crowds to hate our families and if we can't do that, we can't follow him. That feels like a hard line for most of us and it means he must be cutting at something other than simply disowning those whom we love. Within these harsh words we find a painful truth about ourselves and our relationship with God, one that can only be named and transformed by the cross. #intheway #grace #forgiveness #whodoyoulove #lutheran #sermonsoutofruralministry

This is also our 200th sermon published. Thank you for participating and supporting this endeavor.

Our text this week is a bit unusual for the author, Luke. Luke's gospel is full of concrete, tangible, earthy examples of Jesus, or direct commands from Jesus that make him somewhat easy to imagine. We can picture his presence near ours through those stories. Then, we get to this ending piece, in which Jesus disappears and (we) the disciples are left staring at the clouds. We live most of our faith in mystery and doubt. How do we live our what we cannot actually see or touch? #sermon #careforcreation #Lutheran #ascension

We all have them, at least one moment in which the clouds formed and we were surrounded in fear. Our gospel is a storm story that reminds us of many others in the Bible, as well as a promise from God spoken after a great storm had finally receded. God does not declare an end to storms; instead, God promises to remain within them. It is the power of the storms drawing us from faith that Christ rebukes. What is your storm story? When were you aware of the nearness of God within it? #lutheran #sermon #careforcreation #stormstories

SHOW LESS

For people of faith, one of our hopes is to be encountered by God. Sometimes we will create spaces or being quite intentional about preparing ourselves for God's Word. In our gospel from Luke, we hear of a group who are doing all they can to experience the Word of God. Then there's the fishermen down the shore, who don't seem to care much at all that Jesus, our Jesus, is so close. A reminder for us in worship spaces that not everyone takes Christ quite as seriously, and that Christ doesn't always need our best, most focused selves to find us. #sermon #sermonsoutofruralministry #WordofGod #Jesusfindsyou #Lutheran

Jesus teaching us how to pray. Turns out the prayer is not simply the words, which are beautiful, he is also teaching us how his prayer shapes our walk in the world. He is transforming how we see our neighbors, and how we can love each other. Its not just a prayer for ourselves. Its an expectation placed upon us. #sermon #LordsPrayer #ourfather #dailybread