Rooted in the past and growing into the future, the church must always be reformed in order to live out the love of Christ in an ever-changing world. We celebrate the good news of God’s grace, that Jesus Christ sets us free every day to do this life-transforming work. Trusting in the freedom given to […]
View the Sermon (PDF)October 20, 2024, Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
In today’s gospel, James and John asked Jesus to appoint them to sit at his right and left, in his glory. Jesus’ response, “You do not know what you are asking,” led him to teach that greatness is not achieved with worldly power and force, but only in becoming servant and slave of others. We […]
View the Sermon (PDF)October 13, 2024, Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a rich man, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Jesus’ verbs, “go, sell, give, come and follow” direct us toward lives of self-denial, self-giving, and discipleship to him. In […]
View the Sermon (PDF)October 6, 2024, Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s gospel combines a saying that makes many of us uncomfortable with a story we find comforting. Jesus’ saying on divorce is another of his rejections of human legislation in favor of the original intent of God’s law. Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples who are fending off the children should challenge us as well. What […]
View the Sermon (PDF)September 29, 2024, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Someone who wasn’t part of Jesus’ circle was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and the disciples wanted him stopped. They appealed to Jesus, as Joshua did to Moses about the elders who prophesied without official permission. Both Moses and Jesus refused to see this as a threat. Jesus welcomes the good being done in […]
View the Sermon (PDF)September 22, 2024, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Walking with Jesus, the disciples quarreled with one another about who was the greatest. Jesus taught them that in serving and welcoming even a child, they were also welcoming him and the one who sent him. We are given wisdom and strength, not for our own ambition, but to seek to do the will of […]
View the Sermon (PDF)September 15, 2024, Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
In today’s gospel, Jesus asks his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responded, “You are the Messiah.” Yet Peter did not understand, and so Jesus then taught the crowds and his disciples, saying, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” […]
View the Sermon (PDF)September 8, 2024, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
James reminds us that we are given faith for a reason: we are to demonstrate our faith through love for others. Faith is the power to love God and our neighbor. Love is the demonstration of faith. In today’s gospel, Jesus responded to the faith of a Gentile woman, and restored hearing and speech to […]
View the Sermon (PDF)September 1, 2024, Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus protests against abandoning the law and holding to human traditions, saying that true uncleanness comes not from external things, but from the intentions of the human heart. James writes that God gives us birth by the word of truth, Jesus Christ; therefore, we are to be not simply hearers of the word, but doers […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
In today’s gospel the disciples take offense at Jesus’ teaching about the bread of life, and many of Jesus’ disciples no longer went about with him. Against this, Peter confessed, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Paul also reminds us that God’s word is like armor that protects […]
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