Explore past sermons from Peace Lutheran Church. Read a summary, find the scripture references, and download the original sermon manuscript.
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Occupying the Public Square
Six weeks after chants of “WE ARE THE 99” began, the OCCUPY WALL STREET movement has successfully dragged the issue of economic inequality and corporate greed back into the public square. The gulf in this country between the “haves” and the “have nots” is most definitely widening. But we shouldn’t be surprised by tax cuts…
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The Backside of God
Sometimes, when you enter a Bible story mid-stream, it’s hard to get your bearings, and that’s what’s going on in this lesson from Exodus 33. God and Moses have been having an ongoing discussion about what the relationship between God and God’s people Israel—ought to look like and whether the marriage will last—or bite the…
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Burning Bush Part Two: The Call
“Spiritual, but not religious” has become a catch phrase in contemporary America. To say “I’m spiritual but not religious” means I don’t need organized religion to lead a life of faith. The phrase is now so commonplace that it’s spawned its own acronym and Facebook page: SBNR.org. Now, I’m not into bashing SBNR people. There’s…
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Burning Bush Part One: Turning Aside
Paying attention to what’s around us and what’s happening within us, is hard to do these days with so many voices calling to us. According to the storyteller of Exodus, Moses was tending his father in law’s flock in a place beyond the wilderness when he noticed something…a bush that appeared to be burning and…
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The One Who Dwells With Us
Whether facing a personal battle with cancer or the senseless violence of an Oslo gunman, we are not alone. The Holy Spirit joins us, walking alongside, interceding with “sighs too deep for words.”
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Fresh Start?
On the lam from the broken relationship with his brother Esau, Jacob has a dream that reveals God’s graceful companionship even with a serial cheater. The place of this encounter becomes Bethel, “House of God.” When my life is tethered to God’s promises, my world becomes larger. The map extends beyond personal needs and goals…
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For Better and For Worse
Throughout July and August our First Testament readings trace the story of our Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs as they live out their destinies within the frame of God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah. What makes these stories so compelling is the fact that they’re given to us warts and all. And because of this honesty,…
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At the Pass
There are times in our lives when we arrive at the top of a pass and are afforded a view that allows us to look clearly in two directions: where we’ve come from, and where we’re going. And that’s the frame I’m suggesting we use this morning as we take in the view we’re given…
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Fire and Water
Water and breath—we need them both in this life. And today we celebrate them both—the WATERS of BAPTISM and the BREATH of the SPIRIT who calls us through these waters to a GOD-BREATHED LIFE. To a life where there’s as much room as we need to be ourselves fully, and to do so not alone,…
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Pebble in a Pond
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Here’s the book of Acts in a nutshell: the people of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, telling and living the Jesus story,…