Claim OwnershipThe Lutheran Podcast
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I'm Rev. Eric Wolf, a pastor, writer, and musician.
I've previously posted almost exclusively sermons, but I'm writing a book called Myth of a Dying Church, and am now also posting episodes about the topics in and related to the book.
I believe strongly that the task of preaching is to engage Scripture as a mirror held up to our lives so that we can confront what we see with integrity. This image we engage helps us to understand what it means to be Children of God; gain perspective of what it means that our primary citizenship and allegiance belongs to God’s Kingdom; and discover how the love of God transforms what we see when we look at ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world that God so loves.
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Our congregation is taking some bold steps during Letn this year, we're on the path to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation, meaning that we're becoming a congregation who intentionally and actively seeks out and welcomes LGBTQIA+ folks and persons of color. The ACT of loving folks who have been traditionally eschewed by the Church isn't something new to St. James. We've welcomed LGBTQIA+ persons for a long time now. What's new is that we haven't enshrined it in writing as a core part ...
Ash Wednesday is a singular moment, not only in the Church year, but in our culture as well. Very seldom do we feel comfortable engaging our mortality, and there are entire industries devoted to helping us forget that all of us are mortal and time comes for us all. As challenging as it is to confront this reality, reckoning with our own mortality also brings an air of release. We aren't meant to be eternal in this life, but what we offer is something of the eternal mystery – love. We worship ...
A prophet, a lawgiver, and the Messiah are transfigured on a mountain. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it's more about the identity of the Jewish people in Jesus' construction of the faith. It's about the discples' response and not knowing how to respond. Faith isn't about morality or being a good person, but the lifelong pursuit of seeking the eternal in order to better understand ourselves. Faith is an exercise in identity. The transfiguration is about the identity of people who fo...
It feels like our nation’s heart is broken by the enduring cruelty of our current leadership. The last two wells include the military takedown of Venezuela’s President and Renee Good’s murder at the hands of an ICE agents. Our conscience faith informs our conscience, demanding action. Yet our faithful action is driven by identity, not simply by the event of the moment. What do we do when we have no idea what to do? Support the show
There's a cliché that "bad things happen for a reason," and another, "God makes everything work out for good." Of the two, the first is kind of false unless the reason is, "sometimes things suck and people are evil." The second is more true, but also needs the caveat that the bad things aren't what God designs or wants — as far as I know, and I hold that to be very little on average. Ten years after the martyrdom of the Emanuel 9, I had the opportunity to be a guest preacher at Sanctuar...
Today’s gospel is one in which we find some stunning decisions. Some lead to great increase and new responsibility; others lead to a no good very bad terrible day. The Gospel isn’t concerned with what we produce, but that we use what we’re given somehow. The talents given are grace-filled opportunities to do what we can with what we have. How will you respond? Support the show
Psalm 46 speaks of the desolations God brings to the earth, and it’s our habit to think of floods and disasters. What God desolates is the implements of war — the bow, the spear, the chariots — the M-16, the Tomahawk Missile, the tank. The ongoing work of reforming our hearts is the never ending process of tearing our wars apart. Support the show
Jesus calls us to see God’s kingdom, not as a place of easy living, but of living together in good times and in bad. What does this vision inspire in you? Support the show
Note: I read the Gospel and begin the sermon from one of the pews, rather than from the pulpit. I move to the pulpit after a couple minutes. It may be impossible to know this from the audio context. What does it mean to apologize; to forgive; to reconcile? How do we judge the value of these things, and how do we recognize sincerity? God offers us grace without any price, but grace always comes at the cost of settling for new opportunities for renewed relationship rather than an evening of ...
Immediately preceding this reading, Peter confessed Jesus to be Messiah, and Jesus told him "good job!" Well, essentially. This week we see a different side of Peter and a different message from Jesus, who tells Peter in no uncertain terms that love requires sacrifice. God is providing the lamb. Anyone trying to distract him from this is at odds with God's will. What do we do with this? Support the show
This sermon takes place the week after a challenging congregational meeting. I don't mean "challenging", as in code for "look, the roof is fire and the floor is fire and everything is fire!". I mean it in the sense that we had a couple of important decisions to make, and a member spoke from the depths of their heart and then left the meeting when the vote went another way. It was **challenging**. But challenging is healthy, and we need to do the hard things sometimes. During the week ...
Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, the ninth chapter. Glory to you, O Lord! 35Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38the...
I'm experimenting with some different things, and one of them is moving to manuscript preaching after not using them in about fifteen years, except rarely. This sermon focuses on the idea that our own stories and the stories of those around us make a real difference, well beyond what we'd typically consider. December 2020. Now that’s a month to tell stories about. I was concluding an interim at The Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Foxboro — I have a feeling y’all might be familiar wi...
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” that his opinion had become that the white moderate was the biggest obstacle to the cause of justice for black and brown people. He defines them, not by their ideology, but by their actions that frustrate the advancement of civil rights and prolong the suffering of black and brown people because the white moderate is more devoted to “order” than justice; prefers a negative peace which is lack of tension to a positi...
The Transfiguration is a moment that gives a foretaste of completion — not just of the Law and the Prophets, but of an old covenant as the disciples witness the birth pangs of a new one and wonder what they’ve really become a part of in following Jesus. And the voice says, “Listen to him”. And we, as ever, are bad at this. And now here we are, faced with a new reality that God is not only creating us, but we learn that God always was, is, and will be planning to make this...
Jesus raises the bar for what it means to love each other and to live in community by saying that words can kill, men can’t wantonly discard their wives, and putting a finer point on our accountability for what we promise and how. Life in God’s community means a deeper consideration of our role as saints and sinners, and what it means to be both. Though we flip flop between the two, God remains constant. Support the show
This is a song I wrote for Christmas this year. It’s a rough recording, but love cone down is always a little rough — and even more welcome for its roughness. Merry Christmas! I’ll post the lyrics later. Support the show
So often our belief and understanding of love is limited to our own fragile capacity. God’s love is not fragile. What difference can this make? Support the show
We spend a lot of time looking up, forward, and backward trying to figure out what will happen in a future we aren’t guaranteed from the perspective of events and pasts we can’t change. Jesus reminds us that God is *here* with us, and knows what to do with us even if we don’t know what to do with ourselves. Support the show
My plan for Christ the King’s sermon was much different before waking up to news of the tragedy at Club Q. This didn’t happen in a vacuum, but it the predictable result of increasingly bigoted rhetoric in our cultural, political, and even religious dialogues. Every day is the right time to say plainly that love leaves no room for any ideology that leaves no room for someone else. Support the show
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