Explore past sermons from Peace Lutheran Church. Read a summary, find the scripture references, and download the original sermon manuscript.
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Murky Waters
As we begin the season of Lent, today’s texts beckon us on another murky voyage, a voyage whose context is the underbelly of the human story. THE GREAT FLOOD – HELL’S PRISON – WILDERNESS TEMPTATION… each lesson is an invitation to plunge beneath the surface of our outward, ego-driven selves to grapple with the appetites,…
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Two Pockets, One Tree
“Each of us should have two pockets,” the rabbis teach. “In one should be the message, ‘I am dust and ashes,’ and in the other we should have written, ‘For me the universe was made.’” The invitation, of course, is to live our lives in that place of paradoxical tension between these two realities. Tonight…
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Like Moths to a Flame
Some things cannot be explained…they can only be experienced. And if we try to dissect them, to take them apart, to break them down into component pieces, we only diminish them…diminish them and still end up missing their meaning. Two such encounters with the Divine greet us this morning—the first tells of Elijah ascending to…
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Healed to Serve
In one episode after another Mark shows us how Jesus touches people where they are most vulnerable, and makes their broken lives whole again. In these early chapters of his gospel, Mark doesn’t replay for us the conversations Jesus had or the sermons he preached, instead Mark shows how Jesus was a man of action:…
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Beast Mode
From Moses we learn the marks of a true prophet. Those (five) marks form the backdrop when we step into the Capernaum synagogue with Jesus. And the people are astounded because he speaks with a vitality and authority that they haven’t experienced in generations—since before their tradition lost its power to transform. When institutional religion…
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The Centripetal / Centrifugal Rhythm of God’s Call
Today’s sermon explores examples of being called by God that are shown in the texts for the day, including Jonah’s reluctance and 4 fishermen’s wholesale endorsement. It goes on to describe a third way of answering God’s call that doesn’t involve leaving the world as we’ve known it behind. It cites the story of Zakir…
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Listening in the Dark
Am 8th grade field trip to limestone caves leaves a deep impression, and an experience of absolute darkness. God calls Samuel during a time when the light in Israel was flickering and about to go out. Martin Luther King Jr., like Samuel, was not afraid of the dark. A community gathered around him and that…
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Rivers of Life: Where Does the Water in Your Font Come From?
Where does the water in your baptismal font come from? It was a deceptively simple question we were being asked. But the more I reflected on it, the further and deeper the question took me: One moment I was climbing Glacier Peak with crampon-clad feet; next I was soaking my feet in Railroad Creek at…
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Shining Light into Darkness
What if, as we begin this New Year, we were to set our stake in the ground and say that 2015 is going to be all about us being light-bringers? What if in every situation, every interaction, every opportunity set before us, we seized on our calling of showing and sharing and shining light in…
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New Sign for a Worn World
Tonight is a night of surprises. First and foremost the stunning surprise that in this world which worships prestige, success, and raw power, the Creator of the Universe comes to us as a baby: vulnerable, defenseless, and needy. This is how God chooses to reveal Godself: A naked infant wrapped in birthing blankets, tucked away…