LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
November 20, 2022
Proper 29: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 46; Colossians 1:11-20; Saint Luke 23:33-43

In nomine Jesu!

Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year, which means absolutely nothing except that we are concluding, until November 30, 2025, our nearly-every-Sunday reading of Saint Luke’s Gospel. Luke has gone to great lengths to remind us that it’s more than “the least, the last and the lost” whom Jesus embraces and enfolds into the Kingdom of God. Over the last twelve months we have seen Jesus gather a somewhat motley crew together, from “shepherds, abiding in the fields” to a bandit dying with him on an adjacent cross. This morning I want to remind you of them because, as Jesus gathers, embraces, and enfolds them and us into God’s beloved community, there still is much for us to learn about the shape that community is supposed to take as we seek, this side of Paradise, to be more inclusive. The message is this: In the beloved community Christ calls the Kingdom of God there is more to diversity than mere inclusion.

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ALL SAINTS SUNDAY
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
November 6, 2022
Daniel 7: 1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1: 11-23; Saint Luke 6: 20-3

In nomine Jesu! All Saints Sunday 2022 needs to be more for us than just the opportunity to light candles and give thanks to our departed loved ones; however, in any other year, that would be enough. This All Saints Sunday needs to be more for us than merely an opportunity to give thanks for the newly baptized; although in any year that would be enough too. This year, we need more from God than that.

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REFORMATION DAY
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 30, 2022
By: Pastor Amandus Derr

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3: 19-28; Saint John 8:31-36

From October 1528, through January 1529, Martin Luther visited the churches of Saxony. Encountering what he called “deplorable conditions” in which the common people had “no knowledge whatever of Christian teaching and, unfortunately, that many pastors are quite incompetent and unfit …” Luther wrote, and in May 1529, published, one of his most influential works, the Small Catechism, “in plain form so the head of the family (by which he meant, the father) shall teach … to his household” (by which he meant, his wife, children, and servants). The Small Catechism continues to be a great teaching document, but in it I believe, Martin Luther made one serious mistake. Innocent, to be sure; culturally conditioned, to be sure; yet a serious with unimaginably horrendous consequences. Given the perilous times we are living in – when, more and more we hear “it can’t happen here;” and given that we still – I still – continue to perpetrate this error, it is well past time – and Reformation Sunday is a good time — to address it, because it led directly to one of the saddest Lutheran confessions ever uttered, the confession of Pastor Martin Niemöller after he was liberated from Dachau concentration camp near the end of World War II:

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20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 23, 2022
By: Deacon Ben Remmert

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.

Great to be back preaching with you all today. Since the last time I preached in August, we have been moving through the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 14 Jesus told his disciples about the cost of being a disciple. In chapters 15-16 Jesus taught about God’s love and desire to find those who are spiritually lost and so we had the stories of: “The Lost Sheep”, “The Lost Coin”, and “The Lost Sons”. In Chapter 16 Jesus confronted the Pharisees regarding our ultimate destiny. He tells the story of “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” In Chapter 17 Jesus talks about the consequence of sin and the challenge to practice forgiveness with one another. In Chapter 18 Jesus teaches his disciples about the necessity of persistence and faith in prayer. He tells the parable of “The Widow and the Unjust Judge.”

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