Simply Grace

2023.10.08 Sermon We are like vineyards, we will survive through collaboration and fellowship.

Sermon 10.01.2023

Sermon 2023.09.24 Wesley Menke Jonah was angry at God. Jonah was angry enough to die. Why? He was angry for two reasons. The first was that he wanted the city of Nineveh to be completely destroyed, but God did not destroy the city, because the people repented. Jonah hated the city and the people in it so much because he considered them to be his enemy. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and like all empires they expanded by killing and pillaging. They did this in Palestine and Israel. For a time Nineveh was the largest city in […]

Sermon 2023.09.17 One of my children was talking about baptism at school with his friend. He told his friend that God forgives all your sins when you are baptized. His friend asked him, “What if you kill 1,000 people?” So my son said, “Well…God will forgive you, but he also will give you a consequence.”  Consider Genesis 50 and the death of Jacob. For better or worse Jacob was a patriarch who maintained a status quo. He was in some ways good, and in other ways not so good. He was kind of at the heart of a dysfunctional family. […]

Sermon 2023.09.10 Rev. Wesley Menke Sometimes it is hard to go to sleep at night, and sometimes it is also hard to wake up in the morning. I remember not so long ago waking up on a particular day that I had a lot to do and I had some difficult things to do. I groaned and felt weighed down. I prayed to God to help me. I prayed for the strength to get up and I prayed that some of this burden would be lifted. After I asked all these things of God in prayer I paused for a […]

Sermon 2023.09.03 Wesley Menke One of the really big challenges we have to deal with as Christians is the way our religion has valorized and spiritualized suffering. Jesus says that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering. Jesus goes on to say that anyone who wants to be his disciple must deny themself, take up their cross and follow him. Does Jesus valorize and spiritualize suffering? It has been the contribution of black liberation theologians like Delores Williams and James Cone to make the point that these texts have been misused to oppress and exploit black people. Once […]

Sermon 2023.07.23 I was listening to the radio this week and I heard a program about life after death. The person speaking had a near death experience and was telling how joyous and wonderful it was. Then I thought about the record breaking heat all over the planet, and the conflicts threatening life itself. If we are so sure that life after death is so much better, why bother living at all?  St. Paul writes in Romans, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For […]

Sermon 2023 July 9