Sermons Out of Rural Ministry

On this Earth Day, we give thanks for God's creative energy bringing life with a word. In our reading from Isaiah, God is responding to the Israelites, who are struggling to believe. As we are encountered by God today through scripture, God may find us struggling to believe what God can do. Or, if God is even around. Seeing the difficulty and doubt of God's people, responds by calling them (us) to look to the natural world. God even notes how God's breath never leaves and returns without creating life. You are part of God's creative energy. #earthday #easter #Isaiah #happytrees

What might you be able to do to gain the grace of God? This is not an unusual question since we're told pretty much everywhere in our lives that we must earn to achieve, and achieve to earn. God says something different, speaking grace into the world through Christ.Throughout October, we at Trinity are reflecting on ways that being "Lutheran" makes us unique in the diverse world of Christian faith. Each topic or idea is vital to our identity, even if we don't describe like that to others. Though, maybe it would be good to consider how we can speak of grace not in worldly, work related terms, but closer to gift given. You are loved, friend. You are enough.

Who is outside? Probably easier to define who is inside, with us. In our gospel its a group of outsiders who define the kingdom of God and adjust the trajectory of the story. As we are called to follow, we are also being called to walk beyond ourselves. #sermon #PalmSunday 

This is where our gospel begins, with an innocent question pointing to the deep divisions we create between ourselves and our neighbors. There is nothing inherently wrong with the man born blind, as Jesus proclaims, yet the entire community-and all of the disciples-can only define him by the sin they perceive. Even after Jesus demonstrates that there is no separation between the man and God, still, the people cannot see him. They see only their reaction to him. The man born blind can be a reflection of the countless we are willing to banish from our communities because we see them as "other" or separate from God. Though, Jesus reminds that he will continually leave the community to be with God's people. Whether racism, ageism, economic policies or LGBTQ+ youth and adults, we as God's people have a history of casting God's own off. Yet Jesus leads us out of ourselves and leads us to where mercy and grace are needed, on the margins outside of town.

Our gospel this week takes us to the troubled lands of Samaria, where Jesus crosses a few lines to hang out with a woman at a well. She does not receive him well, and her reasoning is sound. It is right for her to be skeptical. As she and Jesus dig into a conversation, our opinion of her begins to change and suddenly we realize we're the ones creating the skepticism, not her.  She is moved in faith as soon as she is seen by Christ. We are called by Christ to see our neighbors before we see what we expect of them. #lent #WordofGod #exvangelical #speakgrace #ReadtheBible

No one likes to be manipulated or told what to do. And yet, every single one of us is shaped and crafted by our families, cultures, and communities. How we encounter another person is oriented by our stereotypes, assumptions, stories, and experiences. Is it even possible to meet a person without our own biases? Jesus hangs out with a guy who shows up at night (that's bad) and by most other measures, is a person not to be trusted. Rightly. Instead of following the assumptions Jesus no doubt lived in, he sits with them man and hears him out. And out of that moment comes one of the most important verses in the Christian writings. #sermon #biases #stereotypes #crossofChrist #vision #GodsWord

Jesus gathers a small group to follow him up a mountain, where he hangs out with some famous people. Its all going splendid until God appears (through a cloud) and commands the disciples to listen to Jesus. In one breath, Jesus's identity is transformed from a cool guy with some wild skills and ideas to the Son of God. As in, everything he has been saying is directly from God. No wonder the disciples are terrified. No wonder we often find ways to ignore Jesus, too. #sermon #transfiguration #listen #GodsWord #takeupthecross

Jubilee is a biblical command from God rarely mentioned in worship, or just about anywhere. And yet, it is vital to our vision of God's generosity and our responsibility to our fellow humans. In one year, we are called on by God to redistribute the land (which we value more than human life) in order to demonstrate our dependence on God. Gone are the barriers, fences, constraints, and need to categorize a person's worth based on land, wealth, food, or race. Jubilee is liberation provided by God and lived out by us for the sake of Creation. If we are able on our own to let go. #shapesofholyrest #sermon #leviticus25 #jubilee #endracism #liberation #justice 

Our gospel reading tells of Jesus coming to the baptismal waters in order to be washed by John. John, like us, assumes Jesus doesn't need to be there. John, like us, sees baptism as a solution to a problem. A change of heart and life as he says earlier in Matthew chapter 3. We go looking for solutions to problems and Jesus shows up with a different point of view. Jump into the baptismal waters, Jesus will jump in with you. #baptism #youareloved #childofGod #righteousness

Our reading leaps from the middle of a story between God and a king who wants to do his own thing. Its an opportunity for us to consider what we would need from God to believe that God is actually with us in the moment. We ask for signs and evidence of God often in faith; how do we know that God is listening? God gives the king a sign, even after the king refuses it, because God needs the king, and us, to know one simple word that speaks of every divine promise. #Advent #lament #hope #kings #signsofgrace #youareloved

Our reading this week, Isaiah 54.1-8, seems unique in that God is talking to women. Exclusively women. Directly to women. God even declares that the fate of the nation of Israel is connected to the lives of the women within it. For those of us who grow up in a male dominated culture, church, and reading of the Bible, God is centering women for the sake of creation. We might describe God instinctively as a man, yet in this reading from Isaiah, God is a woman. #Advent #hope #lament #humanity #equity #womenoffaith #womenoftheBible

We already know how it feels to be out of control. We don't really need Jesus's help picturing or imagining what it might be like for our lives. Yet, our reading this week is Jesus telling us about the end of the world. Certainly that's what it sounds like, and we don't need more of that in our lives. Yet, Jesus is of this world and typically speaks in a way that we can understand God's Word in our world. If all the doom and gloom isn't about devastation and chaos to come, what in this world is he talking about? #grace #theologyofthecross #lutheran #hereandnow #Godwithus

Jesus is preaching to the disciples this week, we the gathered who are seeking wisdom and hope for our walk in the world. He is also naming some of the ways that we categorize each other, and how easily we assume that life is a binary (black/white, good/bad, rich/poor). Binaries are part of our world, and create a perception that in order for our world to work, there must be both (rich/poor, hungry/full, sad/laughing). And yet, we disciples know God's kingdom and we know what Christ has done and will do through us. The cross destroys our binaries and opens our vision to see our neighbors through compassion, justice, and equity. #lifeisnotbinary #sermon #AllSaints #lutheran #grace #sermonsoutofruralministry

As in, be loud and direct. Be in public, on the square, in the presence of the powerful. Our gospel points us to a woman who does not wait, she does not hold back, and she will not be silenced. She speaks God's Word and mountains are moved for justice. Jesus offers her explicitly as a model of prayer. Through Christ, we will be called on to speak a prayer on behalf of others; may we pray out loud. #lutheran #sermonsoutofruralministry #prayoutloud #dailygenerosity #justice #fannielouhamer

In such a short reading we are confronted by our own dread of incompetence, our want to value others, slavery, systemic racism, and eating at restaurants. Jesus moves us through a lot of history to confront a lot of ourselves here and now. How we see our place in God's kingdom is how we see others with us in the presence of God. #sermon #Lutheran #forgive #systemicracism #dothework

There's a reason we call them blind spots. As much as we are called to see all people as God's own, we are human enough to admit we don't see all people equally. Some we see only from a distance, hoping to keep them far enough that we cannot imagine that we are equals. Our gospel exposes a deep blind spot with one character who lived right next to another. How we see our neighbor, especially those whose names we know, is how we see God. #chasms #sermon #lutheran #cross #nameofGod 

Our gospel reading is a story from Jesus that goes in many directions. Or at least, does not go in a direction that many of us are following. A clever financial manager is praised for doctoring the books to benefit himself. Its not for noble gains or to serve those in the community impacted by poverty or illness. Jesus ends his parable with a series of one liners that also move from side to side, making the entire text tough to manage. Still, there is grace, and patience from God when we cannot see where Jesus is trying to take us. #sermon #grace #lutheran

Our gospel contains two stories of losing and finding objects, and the people possible responsible for the loss. Often we'll hear these and imagine pastoral ideals of Jesus finding us who have either gotten lost or wandered away. There's a hitch in that thinking, though, and its in the text. What are we missing? Or to put it another way, who might we have lost along the way? #sermon #forgiveness #lostfound #rejoice

Where is that for you? We all have a line in the sand across which we cannot go, even for God. This week Jesus calls on the crowds to hate our families and if we can't do that, we can't follow him. That feels like a hard line for most of us and it means he must be cutting at something other than simply disowning those whom we love. Within these harsh words we find a painful truth about ourselves and our relationship with God, one that can only be named and transformed by the cross. #intheway #grace #forgiveness #whodoyoulove #lutheran #sermonsoutofruralministryThis is also our 200th sermon published. Thank you for participating and supporting this endeavor.

Our text this week is a bit unusual for the author, Luke. Luke's gospel is full of concrete, tangible, earthy examples of Jesus, or direct commands from Jesus that make him somewhat easy to imagine. We can picture his presence near ours through those stories. Then, we get to this ending piece, in which Jesus disappears and (we) the disciples are left staring at the clouds. We live most of our faith in mystery and doubt. How do we live our what we cannot actually see or touch? #sermon #careforcreation #Lutheran #ascension