Explore past sermons from Peace Lutheran Church. Read a summary, find the scripture references, and download the original sermon manuscript.
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Which Framing Story?
Our gospel readings in September cluster around the questions: WHO IS JESUS and WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FOLLOW HIM? And today’s reading from chapter 8 marks a turning point in Mark’s story of Jesus, the moment when the central themes of Jesus’ path—rejection, suffering, death, and rising—are articulated clearly for the first time. Every…
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Who Matters?
Who matters? Who is allowed inside the circle and who is excluded? How wide is God’s embrace? And to what degree are we expected to follow? Our readings from James and Mark wrestle with these questions; which remain every bit as germane in the 21st century as they were in the 1st century. The image…
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Inside Out
In the opening scene of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, we meet Tevye the milkman as he makes his rounds through the village of Anatevka. Introducing us to his community, Tevye summarizes their way of life together with one word . . .TRADITION! Every relationship and every role within his family and community is governed by…
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Ingesting Jesus
In his final comments on the subject of bread, Jesus manages to offend even his followers to the point where most of them no longer want to hang out with him. His offence? The relationship he calls for is a bit too organic for them: he calls them (and us) into a relationship of total…
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A Fixed Orbit Around Grace
This Tuesday the New Horizons spacecraft, after traveling for 9 ½ years at a speed of nearly one million miles a day, will fly within 8,000 miles of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, a journey, all told, of over 3 billion miles. “It’s an amazingly rich system for such a small place,” says astronomer…
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Strength in Weakness
Themes of vulnerability sound in the stories from Scripture today. There’s something here about bringing our fragile selves into the service of God’s kingdom as disciples of Jesus. On the heels of this rejection in his hometown, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission, and he invites them to choose vulnerability. As we’ve marked…
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Eye of the Storm
This sermon was preached the Sunday after nine members of Mother Emanuel A.M.E. congregation, Charleston, South Carolina, were murdered by a white man during a Bible Study the man attended. The sermon looks through the lens of Mark’s story of Jesus calming the storm and through the experience of the early church to ask what…
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Fully Alive in Creation
NOTE: For the past four months we’ve been worshipping under the branches of this Tree of Life (on the East wall of our sanctuary). From the beginning of Lent to today, we’ve traced the journey of this Tree from its origin in the first chapter of Genesis to its destiny in the final chapter of…
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All in the Family
NOTES: This sermon was preached on a Sunday when new members were being received into our congregation. There’s a certain logic in the pairings of these two texts today. Paul talking about how we bear the story of Jesus crucified and risen in the clay jars of our lives; and then Mark speaking of Jesus’…
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Called into the Mystery
This Trinity Sunday, two baptisms–one adult and one infant–help us reflect on the mysteries of being born of water and Spirit. Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space telescope, and looking back over those years, it’s hard to exaggerate the importance this one scientific instrument has had in revealing the vast mysteries…