What James and John fail to understand is that service in the kin-dom of God is not a second class means to a first class end. Service is the end. Service is abundance. Service is power. Service is glory.
Sermon 7/25/21: Impossible? Possible. (Seminarian Jonas Ellison)
Jesus shows us that God is not in the fix-it business. God is in the resurrection business. Where we see limitation and lack, Jesus sees abundance. May we trust the work of God that breathed life into the moon and stars. Who pulses the heart in your chest, even while you sleep. Who sent planets and galaxies spinning into motion… All out of nothing. Newness is coming and God is here.
Sermon 7/4/21: Hometowns, Homelands, and Beyond (Pr. Craig Mueller)
So many different hometowns all looking down on those who think differently. Jesus rejected by his hometown folk. Where does this lead? Jesus seems to get on with it and invites us to do the same. He sends out disciples. He goes about his business of teaching, healing and proclaiming the good news. Some will reject it. Yet Christ sends us forth this day, to live our faith in word and deed. Honoring and praying for the country we love, indeed. Yet pledging our ultimate allegiance to divine grace that embraces all people and all the countries of the world.
Sermon 6/20/21: "After the Storm" Beau Surratt
Sermon 6/13/21: "The Unexpected Reign of God" Pr. Michelle Sevig
Would you be willing to be on the lookout this week--maybe this entire summer--and share when you experience God’s reign of extravagant, wild, out of control grace being shared. Where are the places you see hope coming to life among death and fear? When do you sense God at work in the world? Let’s help each other see what Jesus was helping his disciples to see, that God comes among us in the unexpected, that the reign of God is made known in the mystery of Christ among us.
Sermon 6/6/21: "Hide and Seek" Pr. Michelle Sevig
I know intimately and well, maybe you do too, the hunger to belong, to have someone safe and loving to belong to. We know what it’s like to yearn for someone who can hold all of who we are, and love us still, without flinching. That is exactly what Jesus does for the crowds that day. He invites them in, their whole selves, with their flaws and hurts fully exposed and he asks them to stay, and he makes them family. So, stop hiding. Come out come out wherever you are! Jesus—the gardener, the healer, the one who loves you fully, without flinching, welcomes you into his family.
Sermon 5/30/21 "Learning to Walk in the Dark" Pr. Ben Adams
The Holy Trinity is mysterious, and this place Holy Trinity will always be synonymous with mystery to me. And It’s precisely because of this openness to the mystery that we can be bold to learn about and dismantle racism together even when it implicates us, we can be bold to provide our confirmation students and our Life Together catechumens an opportunity to ask questions without trying to appease them with easy answers or cliches, we can be bold co-creators with God as we labor together and birth the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven, and near or far we can be bold to risk another step together putting one foot in front of the other as we vulnerably, but bravely learn to walk in the dark.
Sermon 5/23/21: "Language of the Spirit" Pr. Craig Mueller
The language of the Spirit is beyond words. Beyond belief. Beyond the boxes we religious people put God in. Or other people in. I believe the Holy Spirit is always blowing our minds, enlarging our vision, and calling us to be more than we thought we could ever be. Christ is risen, and with us forever in the Spirit. So let’s learn the language of the Spirit. Don’t just talk. Listen. Groan. Moan. Sigh. Sing. Act. And let’s dream a new world together.
Sermon 5/16/21: Up, up, and away...(Pr. Michelle Sevig)
The angels asked, “...why do you stand here looking into the sky?” The mission-field Jesus calls us to is down here, in front of us, to our right and to our left. We are not abandoned, but given an opportunity to love fiercely and boldly in Jesus’ name. The Holy Spirit is with us now and empowers us to receive the fullness of God’s love and to share that love and peace with others. May go out this day to boldly serve in Jesus’ name right here in our neighborhood and to the ends of the earth.
Sermon 5/9/21: Doing Power Differently (Pr. Ben Adams)
Dear people Jesus is sharing power with us. No longer are we in a master/servant relationship where Jesus has power over us, but he has shared his power with us as friends. That is how Jesus loves us, by sharing his own power with us so that we can then love others as Jesus has loved us by sharing our own power with others. This sharing of power is a demonstration of love that gives us the ability to act together as one and to conquer the world wherever worldly power has distorted our relationships through racism, queerphobia, classism, or any other ism.
Sermon 5/2/21: "Out on a Limb" Pr. Craig Mueller
We abide in Christ. And Christ abides in us. There are other branches on the tree. Some weak and withering. What prevents us from going out on a limb, raising our voices and taking risks for all those rejected and forgotten? Nothing. For the gospel is not merely for our personal salvation. It is for the good of all the branches of the tree. The fruit of Easter.
Sermon 4/24/21: “Lay Down Our Lives” Seminarian Taylor Walker
How is it possible for us to keep giving when it feels like the ground beneath us is pulling away? It is possible for one reason. There is another here with us. Jesus is the cornerstone, Peter tells us, of the new world we are building now. God restores our souls, David tells us, and our cups will overflow because the love of God is deeper and wider than all of the sin in this world. Jesus is the good shepherd, John tells us, and he will not leave us alone as we do this work.
Sermon 4/25/21: "Lay Down Your Cards" Pr. Craig Mueller
Certainly, we are called to lay down our lives for the sake of others. To lay down our cards, so to speak—to make our intentions known—that is, to live our baptismal faith not only through words but deeds. But sometimes we just want to give up, to lie down and cover up. In such troubled times, Psalm 23 reminds of God’s tender care. We lie down in green pastures. We rest beside still waters. We hear the song of birds. We marvel at buds and shoots, blooms and flowers. The earth restores us. Before we rise and face the daunting tasks before us, lie down. Lie down and bask in divine grace and mercy.
Sermon 4/18/21: "A Little Good News" Pr. Michelle Sevig
We shout through muted masks, “Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!” While still in our disbelief and wondering we go out to be the good news for others. We hold one another in grief, we speak up when we see systemic oppression, we stand with our neighbors who are hurting. And in sharing our scars with one another, new life springs forth. Resurrection and rebirth are enfleshed within each other’s scars. We proclaim to one another, “Can you believe it?” Well…no and yes. The good news of Christ’s resurrection and God’s embodied grace is hard to imagine sometimes, and yet it is the best news I’ve heard all day.
Sermon 4/11/21: "Of One Heart and Soul" Pr. Ben Adams
As Jesus was sent to us to share his peace and Holy Spirit with us, we too are sent to share ourselves and the spirit of the living God with others. That is to live as the people of Easter. To trust, to share, and to experience the good, pleasant, and complete joy that is built up when we are of one heart and soul. Alleluia! Amen
Sermon 3/21/21: "A Dirty Sermon" Pr. Craig Mueller
Reverence this earth. Look down at the dirt. Honor the soil. Let’s call a spiritual moratorium on stigmatizing dirt! But also look up this day to Jesus lifted high on the cross. A sure sign of spring and the world becoming new. Hear Jesus’ words to you this day: “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”
Sermon 3/7/21: "Crowded Table" Pr. Ben Adams
Jesus turned the tables in the first place because they were set in such a way that actively discriminated against the poor and ritually unclean to the extent that there was no place for them at the table, and Jesus cannot abide so he overturns the table to communicate that the Lord’s table has a place intentionally prepared for each and every one of us. It was set with you and me in mind. In response we are not only called to be table flippers, but table setters as well, inviting all to God’s table of mercy.
Sermon 2/28/21: "Standing in the Center of the World's Pain" (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
We are called to take up the cross and expect that God is fully present in the suffering and brokenness of the world. We are called to take up the cross and be honest about our brokenness and demonstrate our willingness to enter into the brokenness of others. We are called to take up the cross because we follow the One who not only took up his cross, but also revealed that nothing in this world, not even the hate and darkness and death can defeat the love and light and life of God.
Sermon 2/27/21: "The God of Improbable Outcomes" (Pr. Ben Adams)
We can easily talk ourselves out of improbable divine things with some probable human things we would rather put our trust in. But, as we will soon see come Easter, death, evil, hatred, and darkness have already lost and we need not give them any more power because victory is ours, victory is ours through God who loves us.
Sermon 2/21/21: "Not the Journey We Expected) Pr. Craig Mueller
Even in the wilderness, even in the pandemic when we are stuck at home and in the city, even what feels like an endless winter, God shows up. Angels minister to us and then we become messengers of mercy of others. It’s not exactly the trip you probably want right about now, but may God bless your Lenten journey. With the beasts. Where the wilds things are. The presence of Christ always with you.