Explore past sermons from Peace Lutheran Church. Read a summary, find the scripture references, and download the original sermon manuscript.
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Dog? Or God’s Child?
“I cannot read today’s gospel without Charlottesville and all the hateful words and actions that have occurred since Charlottesville – and of course – before Charlottesville. I cannot read Jesus’ words, ‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,’ without…
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Words and Seeds
In our age, words are losing their meaning. They stream at us from Internet, TV and radio. Their sheer volume on social media overwhelms us. We are surrounded by words, but the greater their number the lesser their capacity for value and meaning. The words we find in the mouth of Jesus are an antidote…
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God Hears, God Blesses
This sermon is the first based on the semi-continuous 1st Testament readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, which follows the saga of Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. God appears to Abram in chapter 12 and commands him to leave his country and family. God promises to bless Abram and give him offspring through whom the…
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Cosmos
On this final Sunday of a 3-week Season of Creation we take out our telescopes to behold a universe more vast and complex than our wildest imaginations. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reminds us that the very atoms that comprise life on Earth–including the atoms that make up our human bodies–are traceable to stellar crucibles. Our…
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On Being Human: Reflections from Africa
Marcia Olson, the messenger for this second of three Sundays in a Season of Creation, has traveled to Africa twice in recent years: to Botswana and Namibia in 2015, and to Namibia again in May of this year for the Lutheran World Federation Assembly. In this sermon, she reflects on our common origins as a…
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Microbiota
The message on this first of three Sundays during a Season of Creation is written in the form of a skit with three characters: a scientist (microbiologist), a student, and a friendly colony of microbiota. Elements of our liturgy during this series are excerpted from several sources, including worship materials that were used at the…
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Transformed for Good
The Pentecost experience reminds us how needful we are of experiences where barriers are broken down in the service of the Triune God’s mission in the world. For instead of finding common ground we’re losing ground, becoming more fractured, more suspicious of those who don’t resemble us; or who speak a language other than our…
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Becoming Witnesses
Memorial weekend marks a transitional time of the year. It tells us the end of school is near and summer is just around the corner. On the Christian calendar, this time of the year is also a time of transition; and a time of waiting. Today’s lesson from Acts brings us alongside the first disciples…
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Standing Firm
Kyle Bernd, a graduating high school senior, delivered this message to the congregation on the Sunday he received a Peace Scholarship.
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The Aroma of Community
This Sunday we catch the aroma of early Christian community life in ACTS. How realistic is Luke’s report? Without the letters of Paul, we might conclude that every early Christian community functioned with harmony and generosity abounding. But with the letters of Paul we know the situation on the ground in a number of the…