Explore past sermons from Peace Lutheran Church. Read a summary, find the scripture references, and download the original sermon manuscript.
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Learning a New Tune
Above the lower altar in the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, is a fresco by Giotto di Bondone depicting the wedding between St. Francis and Lady Poverty. Bondone portrays that moment when Francis slips a ring onto her outstretched finger. The eyes in Lady Poverty’s gaunt face gaze intently—even intensely—at Francis, as if to…
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Being Salt
Salt is in our cupboards and in our text, and it’s only getting more complicated both to buy salt and to be salt. Gandhi showed us how salt, when used as a symbol could mobilize a whole nation. Jesus warns that we’ll all be salted by fire. In the polarized context in which we live…
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Dealing with Fear
Fear comes in many different packages… There’s the fear you feel when your life is under threat. And the fear you feel when someone you depended on is gone. There’s the fear that comes when you’ve lost control of your life. And the fear you feel when you’ve messed up big-time and await the consequences….
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Sown Seeds
God had a dream to bring life to planet Earth, life that would be self-perpetuating, self-sustaining, and evermore complex. Seeded plants were integral to that plan. From the coniferous forests of the Cascades and Olympics, to the orchards of central Washington, to the grain fields of Eastern Washington—and even in our backyard gardens—it’s impossible to…
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We Are the “They”
When he was six years old, award winning film and stage actor James Earl Jones moved with his grandparents from rural Mississippi to rural Michigan. Soon afterward, deeply impacted by the move and the complex and at times traumatic realities that accompanied being raised by his grandparents, James Earl Jones began to stutter. And for…
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The Last Lecture
Our first lesson today has a “last lecture” kind of feel to it, with Moses poised with the children of Israel on the edge of the Promised Land. He knows he’s not going to get there personally, but his people will, and he has one last thing he wants to tell them. It goes on…
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Meeting the Forces of Evil with the Power of Love
While teaching at Holden Village, Belfast pastor Gary Mason unpacked the story of generations of “bad theology” and violent acts between Protestant and R. Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. His insights, combined with Paul’s ironic image from the final chapter of Ephesians, remind us where true power is to be found: in the one who…
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Of Orcas and Incarnation
Residents of the Puget Sound region and around the world have been captivated by the fate of the resident orca whales who struggle for survival. Recently a mother in the J-pod, named Tahlequah, carried her dead calf for 17 days and 1000 miles in a rite of grief that captured the world’s heart. Another emaciated…
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Bread of Life x 3
Building upon her experience as the mother of a toddler, guest Preacher Sarah Kunze Bliss points out how Jesus uses repetition to try to help his hearers digest what he’s saying: I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.
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Maturing Beyond Tolerance
Building on Paul’s message, guest preacher Katharine Menstell asks what an evolving and maturing individual or congregation might look like. The call to maturity as Christians is a call to move beyond mere tolerance of others to a place of radical acceptance, an acceptance we find modeled in Jesus.