Solid Food - Ascension Sermon Podcast

Hello Church Family! As our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary this weekend, the word freedom will be on many lips. This weekend's readings invite us to consider a different kind of freedom. In the Gospel, Jesus says, "Come to me… my yoke is easy and my burden is light." At first, that sounds like a contradiction. How can we be both yoked and free? From the Israelites' deliverance from slaver...

At all of our worship services this weekend, we will offer a special blessing for grandparents. I am especially thankful to welcome Pastor Paul to the pulpit as he is a grandfather himself. So many of you have shared with me your deep desire to help your grandchildren know Jesus and develop a vibrant faith. We will have resources available to help grandparents pray for their grandchildren and enco...

Dear Church Family, I hope you are enjoying the beginning of summer. It will be wonderful to gather for worship on this Father's Day weekend and give thanks for our heavenly Father whose love for us is beyond measure. I am delighted to welcome Dr. John Nunes as our guest preacher this weekend. Dr. Nunes became the ninth president of California Lutheran University on June 1, 2025, following a year...

Dear Church Family, How peaceful are you feeling these days? Between the headlines, the hurried schedules, and the worries we carry, peace can feel more like a distant hope than a present reality. Yet in this weekend's Gospel, Matthew 9:35–10:14, Jesus speaks these provocative words to his disciples: "Let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you." What does it mean to carr...

This weekend we welcome Pastor Beth Gallen as our guest preacher. Pastor Beth is the campus pastor at California Lutheran University, fresh off completing her first academic year in this role. She is going to help us enter the next season of the Christian year: "Ordinary Time." Pastor Beth said this: "We move into the long, green season of Ordinary time with learning that what counts with God, fin...

Last weekend we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. Do you know what this weekend is called on the Christian calendar? Holy Trinity Sunday. Holy Trinity Sunday can feel a little mysterious. One God in three persons? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Christians have wrestled with the mystery for centuries, and even in this weekend's Gospel, some disciples worshiped Jesus while others doubted. Faith has always...

There are some Sundays in the church year that feel especially alive — and for me, Pentecost is one of them. Christmas tells us Christ has come. Easter proclaims Christ is risen. But Pentecost reminds us that Christ is still here — through the gift of the Holy Spirit. In a world that often defines power by politics, money, fame, or force, Pentecost points us to a different kind of power: the livin...

  Dear Church Family, This weekend's gospel reading in John 17:1-11. On the night before the cross, Jesus gathered with his disciples and spoke words he knew they would carry long after he was gone. We overhear Jesus praying not only for those first disciples, but for all who would follow him. His prayer is simple and powerful: hold tight. You are loved, prayed for, and held in God's care. How fit...

Greetings, Church Family, This coming Sunday is both the Sixth Sunday of Easter and Mother's Day. What can Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and Mothers teach us about being sharers of the Good News? Let us explore that as we gather for worship.

Greetings, Church Family, Blessed May to you! Do you know one of the best ways to begin a new month? By going to worship the first weekend of the month! This week as we reflect on Psalm 31 and John 14, we will hear the words of scripture, "Into your hands I commend my spirit." In moments of fear and uncertainty, it is common for us humans to try to hold on tighter to our own might. But these scrip...

I am excited that I get to welcome our friend Rev. Audie Diggs to deliver the sermon. When Pastor Tim was preparing for his sabbatical, he thought it would be a great time to bring in guest preachers once a month. These guest preachers allow us to hear a message from different voices and for us to grow in relationship with our wider Christian community.  Let me tell you a little bit about my frien...

Dear Church Family, We don't often think of the dinner table as powerful, but what if it is? What if something as ordinary as sitting down to eat could open our eyes, steady our hearts, and even change the direction of our lives? In Luke's story of the road to Emmaus, the disciples are walking, talking, and trying to make sense of it all until they finally stop, sit, and share a meal. And there, i...

Sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! How does this glorious truth enable us to live as resurrection people in the midst of the doubts and uncertainties of our lives? In the gospel text for this weekend, we see the disciples dealing with this question. How can their experience help us to see the way forward? Join me in worship to explore this further. Pastor Pa...

Easter comes every year, yet the story never grows old. It is the story of all stories, shaping how we live, how we move, and how we refuse to stay stuck because our God could not be contained in a tomb! As we've been studying the Easter story together, we've been struck by something we don't usually think about on Easter morn: fear. The women at the tomb were afraid. Afraid yet filled with joy. C...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ,   Palm weekend begins with celebration—crowds cheering, palms waving, hope rising. It feels like everything is finally coming together. But as we follow Jesus into Jerusalem, we discover that this is not a shortcut to glory. It is the beginning of something deeper. This weekend, we'll explore how Jesus chooses what Paul describes in Philipp...

  Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, This weekend, we will sit with one of Scripture's hardest and most hopeful questions: "Can these bones live?" In the face of grief and uncertainty, Jesus does not rush us to resurrection—he weeps with us. Together, we'll explore how honest lament can become an act of faith, trusting that God is still at work, even in what feels impossible...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, What if the greatest miracle Jesus performs in our lives isn't changing our circumstances but changing how we see them? This weekend we hear the story of the man born blind in John 9 and Paul's invitation in Ephesians to "live as children of the light." Jesus heals blindness—but the story reminds us that not everyone welcomes restored sight...

How is a classroom – or even a teacher – like a… well?   I'm thrilled to preach at all of the services this weekend as we celebrate Lutheran Schools Week, and we look to Jesus as the source of a virtuous, abundant, challenge-filled, and eternal life! I hope you'll join me! God's peace, Rich Ascension Lutheran School Principal Rich Gregory

This weekend we welcome a special guest and friend, Pastor Rick Ertel, who will be preaching on John 3:1–17. You probably know at least one line from it:  "For God so loved the world…"  But before we get there, we meet Nicodemus — a thoughtful, religious leader who comes to Jesus at night with big questions. And Jesus says something that stops him in his tracks: "You must be born again." Born agai...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, This weekend we step into two very different landscapes: a lush garden and a barren wilderness. Yet in both places the same question rises to the surface: Whose voice will we trust? In Eden, a subtle whisper reframes God's generosity into suspicion. In the desert, a cunning voice tries to bend identity, provision, and power away from the Fa...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, This Sunday we stand on the mountaintop with Peter, James, and John as Jesus is transfigured in dazzling glory. Yet the church, in her wisdom, places this radiant moment right before Lent. Why? Because the light of the Transfiguration cannot be separated from the shadow of the cross. On the mountain, Jesus shines. On Calvary, he suffers. An...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, It has been hard to watch the news lately. The world feels heavy, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by all that is broken and aching. Mr. Rogers famously said that in difficult times we should "look for the helpers" – and this week, Jesus might say it this way:  look for the salt and the light. In our gospel reading, Jesus calls his followe...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, So many of our deepest questions about regret, faith, and life—come down to this: What does it take to be okay before God? This weekend we get to understand how the Bible holds together the ancient wisdom of the prophet Micah and the surprising grace of Jesus' Beatitudes. In Micah 6, God reminds the people that before there was any failure,...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ,   This weekend at worship, we are excited to team-preach as this week is recognized as "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity." Coming from different Christian traditions -Lutheran and Methodist – we will reflect together on what it means to follow "one Light through many lamps." We'll explore how God shows up in the gifts and graces of others...

Grace and peace to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, The Gospel of John tells us that the first spark of discipleship began with a simple question: "What do you want?" From that moment, two curious disciples followed Jesus—and everything that would become the global church began with their longing. We all come to Jesus looking for something: forgiveness, healing, wisdom, meaning, peace, direc...