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LCH Sermons—Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany 2009/10
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Last Epiphany: Transfiguration Sunday—February 14, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Exodus 34:29–35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12—4:2; Luke 9:28–43
Summary: This year’s Gospel for Transfiguration goes beyond the mountain-top experience and includes the story of Jesus healing a boy. In this story, Jesus leaves aside the politeness church people expect and calls the disciples a perverse generation because they cannot heal the boy. We in the church are often too polite, and this robs our faith of some of its power. Jesus is direct, with unveiled words. When we put away our need to be polite, we can proclaim the Gospel with courage, boldness, and love, so the world can be transformed.
Time after Epiphany • Lectionary 5—February 7, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 6:1–13; Psalm 138; I Corinthians 15:1–11; Luke 5:1–11
Summary: In today’s Gospel, Jesus (a carpenter) tells Peter (a skilled fisherman) to go into deep water and fish in an unfamiliar manner. The result was a spectacular catch and Peter answering the call to become a fisher of people. Deep water is full of both danger and opportunities, and our caution can keep us from following the call. We as individuals and as a church have the skills and resources to go deeper, and Jesus calls us to leave our comfortable shallow waters so we can move out, take chances, and be renewed.
Time after Epiphany • Lectionary 4/Reconciling in Christ Sunday—January 31, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Jeremiah 1:4–10; Psalm 71:1–6, 1 Corinthians 13:1–13; Luke 4:21–31
Summary: Today’s sermon takes the form of a play where a visitor from a congregation conflicted about recent changes in the ELCA talks with Pastor Jeff Lilley about Reconciling in Christ Sunday. Pastor Jeff speaks about Jesus’s message of freedom for the oppressed in today’s Gospel and Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians. We don’t need to agree, but we need to be reconciled.
Time after Epiphany • Lectionary 3—January 24, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Nehemiah 8:1–3, 5–6, 8–10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12–31a; Luke 4:14–21
Summary: Today’s lesson from Nehemiah is the only place in the Bible we hear about someone reading the Bible for a long period of time. As a preacher, it is exciting when someone discovers God’s grace in the Bible. Many only see judgement and fear because there is no one to interpret it—to open it up. The power of today’s Gospel is Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah. We all need to be engaged with the Word of Life that sets us free and sends us out.
Time after Epiphany • Lectionary 2—January 17, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 62:1–5; Psalm 36:5–10; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 2:1–11
Summary: Someone once said weddings are accidents waiting to happen, and something certainly did happen at Cana. In this unexpected moment, God poured out accidental—and delicious—grace. Epiphany reveals the joy God has in store for us—a joy like the joy of a wedding. God wants our religion to be full of joy and full of grace.
Baptism of Jesus—January 10, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 43:1–7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14–17; Luke 3:15–17, 21–22
Summary: Baptism predates Christianity and has a variety of meanings, but in the Baptism of Jesus, there is a radical change. God does something incredible with the common elements of water and words. The water in the baptismal font is just tap water, but it gains power through God’s words and promise. In baptism, God calls us by name. There is no application process; it is God’s gift. This day reminds us that in baptism God says to each of us, “You are my child, and in you I am well pleased.”
Second Sunday after Christmas—January 3, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Jeremiah 31:7–14; Psalm 147:13–16, 20–21; Ephesians 1:3–14; John 1:1–18
Summary: I love that for us it is still Christmas. We have heard the story from Luke, but today we hear from John, who brings us a metaphor of light. The world tells us to be happy for the month or so before December 25, but we know that Christmas is not always about feeling good. Sometimes there is darkness. For many, Christmas can be unbearable. But John tells us that the light shines in the darkness and is not overcome by the darkness. Whatever darkness there is in our lives, the light of Christ pushes it back.
German Vespers for New Year’s Day—January 1, 2010
Preacher: Pastor Fritz Fritschel
Lessons: Ecclesiastes 3:1–13; 2 Corintihians 5:17—6:23
Summary: There are many competing narratives trying to make sense of this world, but no universal narrative—not even music. Not all music appeals to everyone, but music does reach the inner life. We might imagine a 21st century cantata in which all the myriad feelings of the universe are received into God’s experience. Listening deeply to today’s music may evoke many feelings within you and your neighbor. It will likely not capture the full range of feelings, but enough so that we may recognize an empathy and compassion upon which we may act. The music may remind us of a kind of universal narrative grounded in worldly, bodily, cosmic feelings.
Read the English translation of this sermon.
St. John the Evangelist—December 27, 2009
Lessons: Genesis 1:1–5, 26–31; Psalm 116:12–19; 1 John 1:1—2:2; John 21:20–25
Festival of Lessons and Carols—No sermon.
Christmas Day—December 25, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 52:7–10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1–12; John 1:1–14
Summary: We need to be in church on Christmas Day because God has done something marvelous that cannot be adequately experienced in words. We experience the spirit of God moving in song. Just as we have to work to understand what the crying of a child means, we have to try to figure out how God is speaking to us through the child Jesus.
The audio for this sermon is not available.
Christmas Eve—December 24, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 9:2–7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11–14; Luke 2:1–14 (15–20)
Summary: As a child, I was not much of a church person, but I loved to experience the way light pushed back darkness on Christmas Eve. The world of the first Christmas was dark with pain and suffering, and God sent a child—one candle. In the darkness, one candle is like a beacon. And this child—born to a scared mother—was a light that spread from person to person until it became a bonfire of hope.
The audio for this sermon is not available.
Advent IV—December 20, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Micah 5:2–5a; Psalm 80:1–7; Hebrews 10:5–10; Luke 1:39–55
Summary: From today’s lessons, we see that Christmas happens in an unexpected way and amid adversity. It reminds me of the movie “Juno,” which resolves with Juno asking “Are you in?” and unexpectedly getting the reply, “I’m in.” In Christmas, God asks us “Are you in?” Are you?
Advent III—December 13, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Zephaniah 3:14–20; Isaiah 12:2–6; Philippians 4:4–7; Luke 3:7–18
Summary: It is difficult to listen to the words of John the Baptist in today’s Gospel. He calls the people a brood of vipers, tells them that being descendents of Abraham will do them no good, and then sends them to bear fruit. This does not sound like good news. Rather than being judgmental, John is calling them to radical transformation. When repentance and forgiveness are available, judgment is good news. We are called to be grain separated from the chaff to be made into bread for a hungry world.
Advent II—December 6, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Malachi 3:1–4; Luke 1:68–79; Philippians 1:3–11; Luke 3:1–6
Summary: Today’s lessons can be hard to hear as they ask who can endure the day of God’s coming. John is calling us to clean up our lives just as we clean our homes when a visitor is coming. How will we as congregations and communities prepare to welcome Jesus, the Guest in this world? We need to live every day as if we are preparing the way of the Lord.
Advent I—November 29, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Jeremiah 33:14–16; Psalm 25:1–9; 1 Thessalonians 3:9–13; Luke 21:25–36
Summary: Today’s Gospel is about the end times. I don’t know what the answer is to the question of end times, but I do know that we are God’s people living between a certain beginning and an uncertain end. The real message from Jesus is to live in the present as if God’s promise to be with us is certain. Times may be dismal, but we should not look for the end of the ages to save us. The lessons urge us to be ready. This is not a call to be perfect but a call to compassion, justice, service, and hope in the cross.
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