Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter - "Hunger and Nourishment" (Bread for the World Offering of Letters)

Tonight our Lutheran Campus Ministry was joined by a local Bread for the World group inviting us to take part in the 2012 Bread for the World Offering of Letters.  So, fortuitously, the gospel reading addressed eating and community.  Sometimes pastors get lucky like that.  

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter - To Be a Child of the Light

            You know this song – sing it with me:

                        I just wanna be a sheep – BAAAAAA.

                        I just wanna be a sheep – BAAAAAA.

                        I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

                        I just wanna be a sheep – BAAAAAAA.

            What if we wrote a verse about Thomas?  Would it go like this?

                        Don’t wanna be a doubting Thomas.

                        Don’t wanna be a doubting Thomas.

                        Don’t wanna be such a total wuss.

                        I just wanna be a sheep – BAAAAAA.

           

More than a Sentence

In addition to being Holy Week, last week saw the annual publication of articles from major newsweekly magazines addressing faith, the church, God, etc.  Andrew Sullivan's piece for Newsweek/The Daily Beast, "Christianity in Crisis," was a valuable contribution to the conversation about the end of Christendom and the new reality in which we who profess faith in Jesus find ourselves.  But I was dismayed by one sentence in particular: 

 For their part, the mainline Protestant churches, which long promoted religious moderation, have rapidly declined in the past 50 years. 

Sermon for Good Friday - "Behold the Life-Giving Cross"

O sacred head, now wounded,

with grief and shame weighed down,

now scornfully surrounded

with thorns, thine only crown;

O sacred head, what glory,

what bliss till now was thine!

Yet, though despised and gory,

I joy to call thee mine.

Sermon for Palm Sunday: Caught In The Act

Mark 12:1–34, 14.1-2

Jesus spoke to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip. ² When it was time, he sent a servant to collect from the tenants his share of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they grabbed the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again the landowner sent another servant to them, but they struck him on the head and treated him disgracefully. ⁵ He sent another one; that one they killed. The landlord sent many other servants, but the tenants beat some and killed others. ⁶ Now the landowner had one son whom he loved dearly. He sent him last, thinking, They will respect my son. ⁷ But those tenant farmers said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “ So what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this scripture, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹¹ The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes? ”

¹² They wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew that he had told the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.