Sermons

Isaiah 66:10-14
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

A mother can give her child milk to drink, but our precious mother, Jesus, can feed us with himself. God does so most courteously and most tenderly, with the Blessed Sacraments, which is the precious food of true life. With the sweet sacraments he sustains us most mercifully and graciously. That is what he meant in these blessed words, where he said, “I am that which holy Church preaches and teaches you,” that is to say, “All the health and life of the sacraments, all the virtue and grace of my word, all the goodness that is ordained for you in holy Church, that I am.”

[Then] God showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally this way, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God. In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love [14th century]

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

This summer we are doing a little experimenting with worship—trying some new things out. And so Pastor Krey has very wisely selected these two beautiful paragraphs from Julian of Norwich, a nun from the 14th century in England.

She uses a very unusual image to illustrate creation. In the palm of her hand, she says she saw creation the size of a hazelnut—just a little thing. And though all of the universe, in its billions of light years of width and depth, might seem like an impossibly large thing to us… if we stretch our imaginations, like Julian of Norwich has asked her readers to do, to God, all that has ever existed is just like a little nut. And as Julian says, seeing it resting there, “I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness.”

Continue reading “The Outrageous Claim—Jul. 7, 2019”

1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21
Galatians 5: 1, 13-25
Luke 9: 51-62

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

The words of Jesus seem harsh. The words from the Old Testament are just as hard too. Maybe not the kind of Gospel lesson you would like to hear right before you sit down to brunch with your family, and your Church family! In both, a leader calls a follower, and the follower hesitates. The picture here is about turning the corner in life and making a clean break.

Elijah from the book of Kings was a big deal kind of prophet, a person that spoke on God’s behalf. He was from the time when the people of God were split apart, when the kings were selfish, and they ignored God’s pleas for spiritual purity and caring for those in need.

Just before our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures today, Elijah was on the run. Elijah had just enraged the king and queen, by proving how powerful God was, and showing these leaders to be corrupt. Elijah was on the run for 40 days and nights because of this, and found himself in a cave on the very same mountain, where tradition tells us that Moses received the 10 commandments. Here in this cave God finds Elijah, and God says, in so many words, “Hey Elijah, what’re you doing?”

Continue reading ““For freedom Christ has set us free”—Jun. 30, 2019″

Isaiah 65:1-9
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

It seems to me, demon possession is not a topic we like to talk about seriously anymore. At least not in our culture, here in this Eastern part of the United States in 2019. Still, demons do capture our culture’s imagination. There certainly still are tons of scary movies about demons.

And, really, what is more captivating, too, than the story from Luke this morning, with demons that are cast out into a herd of pigs and who go and drown themselves in a lake! When the 4th, 5th, & 6th graders got to this story in the winter months here in Sunday School—you bet there were lots of imaginative drawings of pink piggies taking dramatic dives into blue crayon waters.

Continue reading “National Demons—Jun. 23, 2019”

Acts 2: 1-21
Psalm 104: 24-34
Romans 8: 14-17
John 14: 8-17

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

I’m sure you all have, at one time or another, believed in God. At some point in your life you had an encounter with God, whether ordinary or extraordinary, and that’s why you’re here in church this morning. But, to be realistic, doesn’t the intensity of our beliefs sometimes come and go?

And maybe, if you were like me as a young person, sometimes you kinda half-believed in God. And part of that half-belief was that God was all the way “up there.” And we, well, we’re just “down here.”

Continue reading “Not “Out,” Not “Up”—Day of Pentecost, Jun. 9, 2019″

Acts 16:9-15
John 14:23-29

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA & the Lutheran Community at Telford, Telford, PA

Grace and peace to you from God, our Source, and our Brother and Lord Jesus Christ.

As Pastor Krey, I’m sure, knows well: a big part of being your pastor is going out and being in your community. Pastor Krey is always out making visits with new members (apparently 500 since he’s been with you)! And we both like to have meetings in public places, to let people know we are here and unashamed of God’s call upon us. And just this week, as you might have seen on Facebook,  Jenna Detweiler and I were in Harrisburg with lots of other people of faith talking to our state Senators about what they can do to help end hunger and food insecurity in PA.

When Pastor Krey and I do all this public stuff, it’s a kind of evangelism. He and I both are kinda traditional in many ways, and in public we very often wear our clerical collars. In doing this, we are sharing that our relationships with Christ stirs us to action, to be public figures of hope and peace and justice.

But people have all kinds of reactions to us and these symbols of God and the Church. And these reactions run the whole gamut, from folks who’ve been hurt by the Church with very angry words, to great kindness and generosity, even free stuff for Pastor Krey over at The Perk!

So, most recently, I was out running an errand with my collar on. And an older gentleman eyed me, and said, “You look like you know the Lord.” Taken aback a little I said, “Yes, well, I guess I do!”

Continue reading “Found & Saved—First Holy Communion & Memorial Day, May 26, 2019”

Acts 9: 36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7: 9-17
John 10: 22-30

As I was doing a little research about Mother’s Day this week, and thinking about what it really means to celebrate mothers—I realized it is a very complicated holiday, for both women and men. No one has the same view of motherhood. Mothers and children in our world can experience everything from violence and absence, to love and tenderness.

I’m even a little nervous even to broach the topic. But I do believe our God today speaks a powerful word about both parenting and Mother’s Day.

Continue reading “Mother’s Day is complicated…—May 12, 2019”

Genesis 2:4-17
Acts 5:27-32
John 20:19-31

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

As I’ve gotten to know you here at St. Andrew’s I’ve grown proud of you. I’m proud because there is a great amount of political diversity here: Left, Center, & Right. And the fact that we can all worship God together—celebrate the transformative resurrection of Christ together in unity—is a sign of the great peace of the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit among us. Because our national unity is in shambles.

Continue reading ““Shamar”—Earth Day, Apr. 28, 2019″

Romans 6: 3-11
John 20: 1-18

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

“So we too might walk in newness of life.”

Paul writes to the church in Rome: we have been buried with [Jesus] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Our tradition has dutifully taught us that Resurrection means we will wake again on the last day, in heaven, and that all persons will be reunited at the great big supper table on the front porch of eternity. Yes, Amen, may God grant us this mercy.

But John’s Gospel tells us that Mary Magdalene experienced the Resurrection sooner than this last day. She walks in newness of life.

Continue reading “Walking in Newness of Life—Vigil of Easter, Apr. 20, 2019”

Isaiah 42: 10-16
Romans 8: 18-25
Luke 23: 13-47
John 19: 31-37

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s United Church of Christ, Perkasie, PA

I have entered a new, awkward age in my life: I’m in between generations. Old enough that all the teenagers and young adults I am pastoring often seem surprisingly and sometimes even distantly young to me. Yet, everyone else at my church, I’m pretty sure, still really wants to call me “kiddo” as they shake my hand after services on Sunday—to them I am very young. So it goes, I guess, being in your thirties: too old for some, still shockingly young for others.

This is all a preamble to say that in the late 1990s I was a teenager. And during those years there was one movie that seemed to be constantly playing on TV. It was on so often that I’ve almost learned it by heart.

And that film was Shawshank Redemption. It’s a pretty powerful film, maybe you know it, with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It’s based on a book by Stephen King, which was—fun fact—based, actually, on a novella by Leo Tolstoy.

Continue reading “Our Mother the Cross—Good Friday, Apr. 19, 2019”

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA

“You’ve got to use your cheek as the anchor!” grumbled the archery teacher a few weeks ago at the Clover Leaf Archery Club. There was 5 teenagers, feet at the line, bow strings pulled back, arrows ready to fly at brightly colored balloons pinned to the targets. Almost at the same time, their fingers released, the arrows swished through the air, and the room echoed with balloons popping.

Continue reading “Arrows of Mercy—Maundy Thursday, Apr. 18, 2019”