Sermons with Reverend Killjoy

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: John 17:20-26. In which I start with a long story of how I learned to translate churchy language into normal people language, so that I can talk about Jesus praying for us and for the unity of the church. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Revelation 21:10, 22-- 22:1-5. That's hard to read, but the parts it skips are descriptions of the Holy City and its gold and precious stones, rather than the stereotypical scary Revelation stuff. Anyway, I told the story of using Tree of Life imagery to reshape my old congregation in Kalamazoo, so shoutout to those folks for making this one possible. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Today we had the best scriptures - John 13:31-35 ("I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you should love one another." is 13:34), Revelation 21:1-6, Acts 11:1-18. Plus it was Synod Assembly for our Saint Paul Area Synod, so I gave a brief recap of the action there. John 13:34 and Revelation 21 are my two favorite things in the whole Bible, so I got into that in addition to the Synod Assembly stuff. I also made some family references that my mom liked. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. In which I get to talk about Revelation and Jesus the lamb as the shepherd who guides us. I included part of my standard Revelation introduction here and tied it into this congregation's interim status, so it was a fun one for me. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. In which I talk about college and Revelation and mention the other scriptures as well. Festive!

My third Sunday at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Today the church had moved out of their historic sanctuary space for a renovation, so we met for the first time in their recently-built Gathering Space, which worked pretty well. One wall is windows looking at trees, and overall it's somewhat crowded but nice high ceilings and good sound and a big visible screen. Anyway, it's the second Sunday of Easter, so the sermon was about what sermons are about every year on that day, with some local flavor. 

Easter Sunday! I talked about my favorite Easter three years ago, and the parallels and differences between here and there. 

Maundy Thursday was First Communion for ten kids in third through fifth grades, so I invited them forward and sat with them and gave this sermon as a children's message to them and the whole congregation. It got festive as I struggled to keep their attention. I've been here an entire week already, so why not change it up?