Category: Sermons

On Revelation 21:1–7a. At Immanuel Lutheran Church, Holden, MA.

The cafeteria at a prestigious research-oriented graduate school like Princeton Seminary is no different from somewhere like, say, “Public District Elementary School Number 7.” The popular kids still sit on one side while the misfits sit on the other. When I first arrived in Princeton, I was faced with the same problem I always have. Where do I sit? Who do I fit in with? This is a very important question, which requires careful thought. And standing there, just past the cash register, looking out at the room, I had to decide quickly, before my lunch got cold.

On Jeremiah 31:7–9. At Advent Lutheran Church, Tuscarora, PA.

The prophet Jeremiah was the most outspoke critic of the way of life in ancient Israel. A prophet’s job is to see the world the way that God sees it. And so while it was clear to Jeremiah what the potential of God’s people truly was—what wonderful, holy joy they could bring to the world—it was also clear how far short reality fell. Instead of living in God’s love, people were exclusionary, selfish, gripped by fear and hatred, behaving in ways that harmed and oppressed others in order to protect themselves. In everything he said and did, Jeremiah warned that any nation lacking in compassion and justice and mercy would soon find itself in desperate need of compassion and justice and mercy, and there would be none to be found. But the people of ancient Judah didn’t listen, so when the Babylonian army arrived at Jerusalem’s door, they found a weak capitol city with an ineffective king, and soon Jerusalem was destroyed.

On Mark 10:32–45. At Trinity Lutheran Church, Coopersburg, PA.

Louisa—Lu for short—was the picture of your average eight-year old. She was enrolled all summer in a camp program in Nebraska for children with emotional or behavioral challenges, but Lu didn’t seem to have any of those. She was friendly, compliant, happy—and didn’t quite need the same attention as some of the others.

On Amos 5:6–15 and Mark 10:17–31. At Trinity Lutheran Church, Coopersburg, PA, and Zion’s Lutheran Church, Shoemakersville, PA.

Ninth-grade Jason was a smart and popular, and a little bit of a class clown. He attended a Catholic school, which meant he had religion class every day, and so he could be a joy to have in confirmation class when he wanted to be, because he knew most of the answers. Sometimes he didn’t want to be. He had a gift for testing how far rules would bend before they broke, and he knew he’d always get away with it. Except when he didn’t.

On Genesis 2:18-24, Mark 10:2-16. At Trinity Lutheran Church, Coopersburg, PA.

“It is not good that the man should be alone,” God said.

Many people mistakenly read this text as saying that we should all be in a romantic relationship, preferably in the bonds of holy matrimony, certified and legalized by a license from the state, creating the basic family unit on which our society is founded. While I have no doubt that Genesis 2 did serve as a way of explaining why we do this crazy little thing called love, the Bible’s true purpose isn’t to tell us how the world works. It’s always to tell us about our relationship with the God who made us and loves us. This story tells us something about who God made us to be: We are not meant to be alone. We are meant to be in relationship with the world around us.

Sermon on Isaiah 35 and Mark 7. Proclaimed at Hope Lutheran Church, Bowers, PA.

I remember the moment that I knew I was going to get fired from my old job. Before I went to seminary, I worked as a systems administrator for a sizable corporation down in Reading. With about a dozen other people, I kept a number of large, mainframe computers in good working order, with lots of projects running at the same time to improve their performance. I was responsible for making sure we could recover from a disaster, and for cataloguing all of our data backups, and for getting the right data to our accounting departments without slowing the computer system down. Lots of weird, unrelated stuff. But the biggest project I was involved in had to do with system security. Continue reading

Sermon on Deuteronomy 4 and Mark 7. Proclaimed at Trinity Lutheran Church, Wernersville, PA.

The Conservative movement of Judaism is characterized by a willingness to live in the real modern world, but also a drive to take seriously the traditions and witnesses of Judaism’s history, like the Talmud and Midrash, and especially the Bible. So their seminary in New York City seemed like a sensible place to go in order to learn a bit about how Jews read the parts of the Bible that we share. I suspected the environment would be a bit different from what I was used to, but I didn’t know how true that would be. Continue reading

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost (18A) – Matthew 13:13-21

Packing is hard. It’s a bigger task than I’d expected. At Christ Lutheran, we have a nice, three-bedroom parsonage just off of Maple Street, which is where I have been living for four and a half years. It’s a much bigger home than I have needed, and I promised myself I would not fill it with unnecessary possessions in the time I was here. You can guess how well that worked out. In less than a month, I will be moving all of my worldly goods into a dormitory room smaller than the size of this chancel. And so I’m finding I need to get rid of a few things.

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (17-A) – Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

July is at a close, and for me, it’s been a weird month. I’ve been wapping things up and passing information on, having council retreats, personnel team conversations, an interview for the local paper, meeting about the bulletins and church website and youth ministry of these past years. Last shut-in visits, worship planning, ice cream with friends. The stress of the sad things I’ve been doing and the joyful things both has brought the disease of depression to the door after months of absence, but I’m coping. Today is my last Sunday preaching at Christ Lutheran, though I will of course be preaching twice in August at First Congregational in West Boylston, so it’s not really a last Sunday…? It’s been a weird month. And that was before I was summoned for jury duty.

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (A) – Isaiah 55:10-13; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Usually, when Jesus tells a story, we are left on our own to figure out what he means. Today’s story, though, is a notable exception. Jesus gives his own sermon on his parable. And I was thinking, “How can I improve on Jesus?” It’s not really possible. He’s already given his sermon, so you don’t really need one from me. But then, I thought: Visual aids! So I made a pie chart.