As Christians, we don’t believe in luck. We see the hand of God in the arrangement of circumstances. At the same time, the Bible affirms that we are each free to make choices. There is, of course, a difficult tension in these two ideas, but we hold them together because the Bible holds them together. In the Book of Ruth “there’s a string of ‘just-so-happens’ that would never have happened without human effort and could never have happened without God’s unseen, providential hand working in His ordinary ways” (David Roseberry, “The Ordinary Ways of God”).
View SermonThe Rev. Christopher Klukas
When Everything Goes Wrong
You might think of 2020-2021 as “The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad” years: a Global pandemic, racial tension, political discord, and an insurrection in the Capitol Building. Just when we thought things were getting better, the Delta surge! This is not unlike the situation we read about at the beginning of the Book of Ruth. Today we begin a new sermon series as we meet Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth.
View SermonMarriage and Divorce
In the Gospel today, Jesus teaches about divorce in response to a question from the Pharisees. Jesus is not speaking to make the divorced person feel condemned, he is addressing the Pharisee’s faulty thinking. Jesus points beyond their debate to the very beginning, to the very first marriage, to show how God intended for marriage to be permanent…”till death do us part.” Part of the the beauty of marriage is in this permanence. But it doesn’t always end that way because of the hardness of our hearts.
View SermonThe Way to the Top
“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). This might seem backwards to you, it would have seemed backwards to the disciples as well. The way of the world is to promote yourself. To fight your way to the top. To make sure you get ahead so you aren’t left behind. This attitude comes from a lack of trust in God.
View SermonEvident Faith
I’m glad that we began our worship this morning with “A Mighty Fortress,” one of Martin Luther’s most famous hymns, because today we are going to dig into the Letter of James which Luther deemed “an Epistle of straw” when compared with the letters of Paul and Peter.
View SermonShocking Words
Today we hear these words about Jesus’ flesh and blood in sixth chapter of John as words of comfort. Imagine, however, that you didn’t know these words. They would be shocking! Jesus was known as a rabbi or teacher in his day and he spoke these words in the synagogue at Capernaum (v. 59). Imagine if I as your pastor said these same words. How would you react? “Unless you eat my flesh, you have no life in you!”
View SermonBread of Life for Eternal Life
The eternal life that Jesus offers is not just an elongation of our present life. It involves his transformation both of us and of all creation. Elongation would involve continuing in this present world with all of its sin, suffering, and difficulties. On the other hand, Jesus boldly proclaims in Revelation 21:5 – “Behold I am making all things new.” And the verse before this tells us that “[God] will wipe away every tear from every eye…” So Jesus, the bread of life, is both a gift for this life (no more spiritual hunger) and for eternity.
View SermonGrowling Hunger
Have you ever felt concerned about running low on things you need? What do you do? Grumbling is often our natural response. Anxious feelings or scrambling and striving for a solutions are common responses as well. The Lord invites us to open our hands and ask. “Our father who art in heaven…give us this day our daily bread.”
View SermonSent
How long is a long time? When your parents were born? The Civil War? The Declaration of Independence? Martin Luther? The formation of the Grand Canyon? Even before that, Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians, he chose you before the foundation of the world.
View SermonThe Endowment of the Creator
As we celebrate our nation’s independence this weekend, let us also celebrate our dependence on God, the giver of all good things, and let us recommit ourselves to living as righteous people under God, serving those around us and helping others and our nation to flourish.
View Sermon