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For recorded sermons since Easter 2007 and earlier sermon texts, visit our Sermon Archive.
Transfiguration of Our Lord—February 11, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: 2 Kings 2:1–12 | Psalm 50:1–6 | 2 Corinthians 4:3–6 | Mark 9:2–9
Summary: In our Gospel lesson, Jesus and four disciples are on the mountain top and Jesus is transfigured and stands with Moses and Elijah. The disciples are excited and want to stay, but Jesus leads them down from the mountain and back to his work. These days we see many Christians chasing after the next mountain-top experience. However, the real point of this Gospel is that Jesus walks with the disciples and with us, and that journey with Jesus transforms them and us. When we walk with Jesus and listen to Jesus’ Gospel of love, we experience true transformation.
We expect this sermon to be available soon.
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany—February 4, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 40:21–31 | Psalm 147:1–11, 20c | 1 Corinthians 9:16–23 | Mark 1:29–39
Summary: In today’s Gospel, after Jesus has healed a man possessed by a demon, all the people gather around for healing. Jesus then heals Peter’s mother-in-law and the lifts her up and calls her to serve. The word Jesus uses is the world for deacon, showing a pattern of calling people to follow and then serve. When we follow Jesus, we become individuals renewed and ready to serve. Mark is a Gospel of urgency, so the next day Jesus is eager to go on to the next town and preach the good news. Our mission is to proclaim the good news of God’s liberating love. God lifts us up with a strong hand to proclaim the good news in our lives and in the life of this congregation.
We expect this sermon to be available soon.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany/Reconciling in Christ Sunday—January 28, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Amos 5:21–24 | Psalm 111 | Romans 8:31–39 | Luke 10:25–37
Summary: When we hear the story of the Good Samaritan in today’s Gospel, we like to think that we would be like the Samaritan, but in our country many who do not fit in are treated even worse than the man in the story who fell among thieves. Many years ago, when I was in seminary, LCH decided to welcome an intern who had come out as gay and was barred from ordination. This was one of the first steps on this congregation’s journey to becoming a Reconciling-in-Christ congregation. Of course, some folks in LCH at the time were upset about this, but you persisted. Welcoming neighbors can disrupt our lives and at the same time those neighbors show us how to love Christ. As we expand our radical welcome, it will challenge us, but there is nothing more exciting because eternal life happens when justice rolls down like a mighty stream.
We expect this sermon to be available soon.
Third Sunday after Epiphany—January 21, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Jonah 3:1–5, 10 | Psalm 62:5–12 | 1 Corinthians 7:29–31 | Mark 1:14–20
Summary: In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the people to repent because the kingdom of God is at hand. Like our own time, this was a time of great political upheaval, and people were looking for a savior. Jesus doesn’t ask people’s qualifications; Jesus takes them exactly as they are. The disciples don’t choose Jesus; he chooses them and they follow. God chooses us and we respond and follow. How beautiful to know that God calls us exactly as we are to follow and love one another.
We expect this sermon to be available soon.
Second Sunday after Epiphany/Martin Luther King, Jr., Day—January 14, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: 1 Samuel 3:1–10, (11–20) | Psalm 139:1–6, 13–18 | 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 | John 1:43–51
Summary: In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus calls the disciples and they quickly follow. However, in today’s lesson from John, Nathaniel is doubtful and only follows when he has met Jesus personally. Most of us are not aware of the ways our faith changes over the years. The ELCA is probably the whitest mainline denomination, and we are starting to ask why. Our social statements acknowledge the ways we have fallen short on racial justice and call us to confront racism and other barriers, but we have a long way to go. We are called to open our vision and hear the still, small voice that welcomes all as beloved children of God.
We expect this sermon to be available soon.
Epiphany of Our Lord (transferred)—January 7, 2024
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Isaiah 60:1–6 | Psalm 72:1–7, 10–14 | Ephesians 3:1–12 | Matthew 2:1–12
Summary: Epiphany is about manifestation, like the sun rising in the morning. The magi followed the star, and their news of a new king frightened Herod. God still appears to us, not in pillars of cloud and fire but in a child. Go is still leading us by the light of the star. If we are open to transformation, if we are willing to give away the abundant life God has given us, if we make the curiosity of the magi the core of who we are, then we can listen to the Spirit, become what we are going to be, and go home by another way.
First Sunday of Christmas—December 31, 2023
Lessons and Carols—no sermon
Christmas Eve—December 24, 2023
Preacher: Pastor Margethe Kleiber
Lessons: Isaiah 52:7-10 | Psalm 98 | Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12) | John 1:1-14
Summary: Birth stories often foreshadow what will follow in adulthood. Each of the Gospel birth stories tells us something different. John’s birth story has three different messages. First, the birth of Jesus is God speaking the Word, light, and life for the world, and that Word, which exists beyond time, lives with us. Second, the fact that the world did not know Christ foreshadows the cross and resurrection. Third, though there is darkness in the world and in us, the Word will live in us, bringing life and making us children of God. The Good News of Christmas has everything to do with us.
Advent IV—December 24, 2023
Preacher: Pastor Margethe Kleiber
Lessons: 2 Samuel 7:1–11, 16 | Luke 1:46b–55 | Romans 16:25–27 | Luke 1:26–38
Summary: Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew that the world was rigged against her, and then the angel tells her that God had chosen her to bear a child who will reign forever, and she said yes to God’s call. In saying yes to God, Mary disbelieves all the fear and dismay of a rigged world. In our baptism, we renounce the worlds of the devil and the injustices of the unfair world. This morning we join Mary to sing the Magnificat, a song of disbelief in the powerful, a song about faith in the God who lifts up the lowly, and song of saying yes to God and no to any who deny God’s reign.
Third Sunday of Advent—December 17, 2023
Preacher: Pastor Margethe Kleiber
Lessons: Isaiah 61:1–4, 8–11 | Psalm 126 | 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24 | John 1:6–8, 19–28
Summary: Years ago Apple launched a campaign asking us to Think Different. In his own time, John the Baptist was someone who thought differently and could not be ignored. So in our Gospel, the religious authorities send people to interrogate John, who replies that he is the voice crying in the wilderness. John does not follow tradition but the light of Christ, and he points to the Messiah standing among them. What would it mean for us to think and see differently? We know that God sees us and the world not just as sinful but also with the possibility of redemption. As we move towards Christmas, let us allow ourselves to think differently and see the world as it may become.
Second Sunday of Advent—December 10, 2023
Preacher: Pastor Margethe Kleiber
Lessons: Isaiah 40:1–11 | Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13 | 2 Peter 3:8–15a | Mark 1:1–8
Summary: I’m a big fan of ”Finding Your Roots” on PBS because knowing where we come from can profoundly affect the way we understand our identity. Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ ancestry back to Abraham and Adam, Mark sets Jesus’ beginning with the prophets and John the Baptist. John is God’s messenger announcing the coming of the Messiah and calling for baptism and repentance to restore the glory of God. John points to Jesus, who choose human birth and is our brother. The baptism of Jesus connects us to the roots of our creation as children of God and siblings to Jesus and all humanity. When we know our roots, we are reborn to create justice, peace, and love.
This sermon was not recorded because of technical issues.
First Sunday of Advent—December 3, 2023
Preacher: Pastor Margethe Kleiber
Lessons: Isaiah 64:1–9 | Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19 | 1 Corinthians 1:3–9 | Mark 13:24–37
Summary: All around us the world proclaims this is the most wonderful time of the year, and yet our Gospel lesson if full of the terrors of the last days. If we imagine ourselves in the small Jewish-Christian community following the fire in Nero’s Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem, we would be comforted to think of the coming of the Messiah and know that God’s promises will endure longer than the world itself. We too recognize the troubles of the world around us. And we know that through the cross death has been defeated and that God’s promises endure. After this winter of suffering, the Messiah is near, and this is, indeed, the most wonderful time of the year.