Sermons

Pentecost 14-C 9/11/22 St. John’s Luke 15:1-10; Exodus 32:7-14; 1 Timothy: 12-17 During my internship year we moved from seminary housing into the neighborhood where our new church was. During that first week settling in I went shopping at the local supermarket to stock up on groceries. My predecessor had told me that lots of…

Pentecost 17-C 9/26/04 I like to switch things up once in a while so here’s a song by Hank Williams about today’s gospel reading. THE TRAMP ON THE STREET Lyrics Only a tramp was Lazarus’ sad fate. He who lay down by the rich man’s gate. He begged for some crumbs from the rich man…

Pentecost 15-C 9/18/22 St. John’s Luke 16:1-13 Stop me if you’ve heard this one: St. Peter is sitting at the pearly gates and sees a man walking across the clouds toward him. The man stops and looks around in wonder. He says “This must be heaven.” St. Peter says, “Yes it is.” The says “Can…

Pentecost 9-C 8/7/22 St. John’s Luke 12:32-40 Most families have some lore – you know what I mean, stories that get told over and over again; and that are even passed down generations. How great, great grandma escaped from slavery, How grandma and grandpa emigrated from Europe or Mexico. How Mom held the family together…

Pentecost 8-C 7-31-22 St. John’s Luke12:13-21 This parable about the rich farmer today reminds me of some folks in my former parish in rural Wisconsin. We had a lot of farmers in that community they were mostly small family farms that struggled along. But there was one family in the congregation, who had a big…

In today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus doing something he does a lot in scripture, which is to pray. In the gospels Jesus prays all the time, in private, or when other people are around; he prays to give thanks, he prays for strength in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays from cross in the…