Prepare Ye

This is the text for my Easter sermon, my final sermon at the ONE in Christ Lutheran Parish. The text is John 20. One Thursday morning a month, I have led a communion service at the Clark County Health Care Center. A couple of months ago, as I was preparing to lead the service, one of the patients asked where the regular pastor was. Since I had been leading that service for the almost 2 ½ years since I added Nazareth to my pastoral responsibilities, I assumed I WAS the regular pastor. One of the staff members said I WAS the regular pastor. He said, “No. The other guy wears orange shoes.” I had taken to wearing these orange crocs for one reason. They are comfortable. Yes, they stand out a bit. I thought I had other characteristics that were more memorable and distinctive, but for this person, it was all about the shoes. So I made sure that I wore these shoes every time I went out there, so I could be seen and known. Mary Magd...

Below is a draft of my sermon for December 3, the First Sunday of Advent, on the lesson from Daniel 3 in the Narrative Lectionary. The lesson is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As I mention in my message, the inspiration and most of the message that I gave came from a sermon that the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on November 5, 1967. A transcript of that powerful message was done by Austin Smith and is here . A recording of Rev. Dr. King's sermon is on YouTube and is embedded below. Two of my attempts, which pale next to the message of Rev. Dr. King, are at the bottom of this post. This lesson is a Sunday School classic. It has repetitions, strange and fun to say names, and comes to a conclusion with a moral. But there is so much more to this, especially right in the middle of this story. The leaders and prominent people from Jerusalem had been taken into exile in Babylon, and put to work in the B...

This is my Ash Wednesday message, based on the lesson from Luke 9:51-62, where Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. I've always some issues with this lesson, especially the "Let the dead bury their own dead" (see http://prepare-ye.blogspot.com/2013/06/let-dead-bury-dead.html ) So I started writing questions, hoping to have some answers. Then I realized my questions, while not having answers, had a message, and that, I though, was enough. What does it mean to set your face to go to Jerusalem? What does it mean to accept your fate? If Jesus accepted that his fate was to die on a cross for our sins, can we accept that we are sinners? Can we accept that our only hope of redemption and salvation had to come from God, and not from anything that we could do? Knowing this, how do we NOT love the Lord our God with all our heart, and mind, and soul and strength? Can we admit that we are sinners, no better than, but no worse than, anyone else? C...

This is my sermon text for Sunday, January 31. The lesson was Mark 6:1-13, In today’s lesson, Jesus and his apostles give an example of what it means to be on a mission, to live focused on sharing the Good  News and God’s love. And it doesn’t seem to go that well. Jesus returns to his hometown, and impresses his former neighbors with his teaching. Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! But being impressed soon changes. The people who saw him grow up, who are neighbors to his brothers and sisters took offense at him.  I’m sure they thought, who does he think he is? Actually, he is the Son of God, but let’s put that aside for right now. Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. An...

This is my sermon text for January 24th. It is based on the Narrative Lectionary text for the day, Mark 5:21-43. My thanks go out to Bishop Craig Satterlee of the North West Lower Michigan Synod for the inspiration from his video , and prayers for his recovery. Just as I was getting ready to work on this message on Friday, I scanned Facebook, and saw a post from a friend who I went to seminary with in Gettysburg. He is serving a church not too far from my hometown, and the post was a video from his Bishop, called “Waiting for Ananias.” I looked down at my Ananias, sleeping at my feet, and thought, what did you do now? Bishop Satterlee’s message was about how he is dealing with his vision problems. He is legally blind but has enough sight in one eye to be able to read, use the computer and many other things. Or he did until recently; his vision in that eye has become compromised. His video to his synod explains what is going on, and says that he is waiting on Ananias, the ...

These are my sermons for January 17th. The text for this day is Mark 4:1-34. The center piece of these four parables is the Parable of the Sower. It is by far, my favorite parable, and I chose not to preach on it, other than in my Small Talk (Children's Message.) Instead, I preached a different sermon at each of the three churches. The reason for my madness is explained at the beginning of each message. These are my written manuscripts. What I actually said is probably close to this, I think, because I'm scheduling this post on Saturday night, after the Packers game. SMALL TALK ( the same at all three churches ) In the lesson I’m going to read, Jesus tells some stories to describe what God’s Kingdom is like. One of the stories is about someone who sows seeds. That doesn’t mean they go out with a needle and thread, but that they scatter seeds. When they scatter them, some fall on the path or roads and can’t get into the soil, so birds come along and eat them. Some ...

This is the text of my Christmas sermon. Text in italics are quotes from Luke 2. Just in case your Christmas shopping isn't done, or you need to get something extra for someone because they ignored limits or went over the top, I have a gift for you to give. It isn’t a two-pound bag of frozen lutefisk, but if that seems appropriate, there are some bags still in the freezer at Our Savior’s. Actually, I’m going to tell you to give the gift given on the first Christmas morning. I’m not suggesting gold, frankincense or the ever-popular myrrh. It is actually much worse than that. I’m asking to you share the Good News of the birth of Christ. Yes. I am suggesting that you re-gift. Now, I have a problem with re-gifting, where you take a gift that someone gave to you and re-wrap it and give it to someone else. Personally, I have one exception – fruitcake. I think there really is only one fruitcake in the world and it is involved in a global game of hot potato. If you are in pos...

This is the written text that I preached from on December 27. The lesson was Mark 1.1-20. Today, you are not getting a sermon. Instead, you are getting a smorgasbord of thoughts and meditations on this text. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels, and is assumed to be the first one written. It was written to be read in one setting, to tell the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That line alone would have gotten a reaction from the first hearers. The word Gospel, which means Good News, was only used to announce a victory, usually a military victory. The word Christ, which means the anointed one, or messiah, would have caught the attention of any Jewish hearers, because this was the one promised by God who would deliver them. The title, Son of God, was treasonous in the Roman Empire, where the first listeners would have been. No one could claim to be the Son of God. That was a title reserved for Caesar, and only Caesar. Not a bad way to start y...

This is the text of my Christmas Eve sermon. Text that is in italics are quotations from Luke 2. Text that is in bold italics are quotes from the song, King of Kings by the Toad Lilies. I REALLY hope that your Christmas shopping is over. But I realize you might not be done because there is always that ONE person. You know what I mean – and if you’re sitting next to them, try not to stare. But everyone has that ONE person for whom, trying to buy any present, let alone the right one, is a struggle, possibly even near impossible. For me, this was my mom. My dad was easy to buy for. He was an avid reader. He collected figurines of Santa Claus dressed in different outfits. Dad was a duck hunter and deer hunter. Dad was SO easy to buy presents for. Then there was my mom. I love her dearly, but she was SO hard to shop for. She really didn’t have any hobbies. She did crafts; she would make Christmas ornaments to sell at local craft shows, but she would get her own supplies. She w...

This is my manuscript for my sermon for October 4 on the Narrative Lectionary text of Exodus 1:8-14 and 3:1-15. I don't read from my manuscript, so what I actually preached was different. There is a lot that has happened between last week’s lesson and todays. So let me catch you up. We left Jacob who was just given the new name of Israel and was about to be reunited with his older brother Esau. Their reconciliation went well. Israel and his 12 sons settled into the land of Canaan. One of Israel’s sons was Joseph, who was so annoying to other brothers they sold him into slavery. Despite being a slave, Joseph managed to rise into power in Egypt, eventually becoming second in power, only being behind the Pharaoh in control. Because of his gift to interpret visions, Joseph saw a famine coming and planned ahead so others could survive. When the famine struck the land of Canaan, Israel sent some of his sons to Egypt to see if there was food there. After a series of shenanigan...

Today's lesson in the Narrative Lectionary was the Temptation of Jesus from Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 4.1-17) The temptation of the young people mentioned was in our Children's message, I did a variation of the Marshmallow experiment. I gave them an Oreo and told them if they could resist the temptation to eat it right away, and showed me the cookie at the end of the service, I'd give them a candy bar as well.   While we have just heard of Jesus being tempted by Satan, and I have tempted our young people, I want to tell you another story of temptation. My bulldogge Ananias likes to chew on things. So I have bought a number of chew toys and bones for him. He has hidden two bones in his kennel, just in case. That is in addition to the three other bones that are scattered around the house. Beyond that there are several rubber chew toys, ropes and crinkle toys for him to chomp away on. Now, the crinkle toys don’t have a very long life expectan...