Christ Lutheran Church Harrisburg

The Gospel of John starts and ends with conflict and has episodes of conflict all along the way.  In John 4, Jesus walks away from conflict with the Pharisees because it isn't the right time and their hearts are closed.  Instead, he walks into long standing conflict in Samaria because there is an opportunity for transformation.  With Jesus, conflict isn't ignored.  It is managed.  The people in it...

John 2 tells us about Jesus cleansing the Temple, taking place at the beginning of his public ministry.  Jesus is acknowledging what many others wouldn't - that there was an open wound causing harm to people and in need of cleansing and healing.  Likewise, we have many open wounds that need to be acknowledged and dealt with, rather than turning and looking away.  The sermon is based on John 2:13-2...

John's Gospel is so very unique.  It slows everything down.  Jesus' big first appearance is at an unnamed wedding where he trying to keep attention away from himself, and the impact is small.  John is presenting Jesus as something different than what people expect.  A counter to the culture, a resistance to the powers and their ways.  The main resistance being joy.  The sermon is based on John 2:1...

Jesus doesn't chase.  He doesn't demand certainty.  He isn't interested in control.  Yet so much of Christianity today seems to want what Jesus rejected.  Instead Jesus just says "Come and see."  Because he recognizes that transformation comes through invitation.  The sermon is based on John 1:35-51.

Human's love to claim that God supports their ideas, politics, and economic systems.  But that's just not the case.  God's economy operates on a different set of measures and with different goals.  And it has to do with the wellbeing of all.  God's economy runs on abundance - there is enough to share freely.  The sermon is based on Isaiah 55:1-13.  

We live in a society that is really good at avoiding hard truths.  God puts Ezekiel in a valley of dry bones because you can't resurrect when you won't recognize death.  God gives Ezekiel and the exiled people of Israel hope.  Hope is proclaimed in the midst of devastation.  The words are spoken, breath is given, and action follows.  The sermon is based on Ezekiel 37:1-14.  

Jeremiah proclaims a message of hope to people in exile.  And it's not fluffy rhetoric.  It's the hard truth combined with hope - They aren't going anywhere for a while, so stop waiting to live life.  Live your lives.  Hope happens in actions taken every day.  Hope doesn't exist outside of fear - hope speaks in the midst of it.  And hope causes us to act.  The sermon is based on Jeremiah 29:1, 4-1...

Isaiah is a prophet who names the reality for what it is and offers hope in the midst of horror.  Hope doesn't wait until everything is well.  It speaks into the horror declaring that it doesn't have to be this way, there is another way that God is taking us.  Like Amos, Isaiah would probably feel right at home in America in 2025.  The sermon is based on Isaiah 9:1-7.

The Old Testament Prophet Amos had a message that could not be ignored.  It certainly wasn't liked by those in positions of power and those exploiting the poor. But it couldn't be ignored.  In many ways, Amos' message would find a home in the US in 2025.  The sermon is based on portions of Amos, Chapters 1 and 5.

The world and its empires and kingdoms all operate on the same playbook - oppression, exhaustion, division.  But God has a different playbook.  We see how this plays out in 1 Kings 19 when we encounter an exhausted Elijah who is afraid and running for his life.  God gives him rest and renewal.  

The Narrative Lectionary tells us about Solomon's Temple.  It's glorious - a house for the Lord.  And there is a human tendency to keep God in locked in that house - to make God confined, sanitary, and unable to upset the status quo.  But God cannot be contained.  The sermon is based on 1 Kings 5:1-15 and 8:1-13.

In the first creation account, God creates and notices that creation is good.  We are a part of that creation.  And while the world tries to force messages upon us that tell us otherwise, Genesis reassures us of an eternal truth - you have value, you have worth, and you matter.  The sermon is based on Genesis 1:1-2:4a.

The message of Revelation is ultimately this - that no matter how terrible things get, God is with us, God will restore, and God will heal.  This message is just as important now as it was when Revelation was written. The sermon is based on Revelation 21:1-6 and 22:1-5.  

John takes us into the pit of Revelation 13, the low point of the letter.  There are beasts, a dragon, the mark, 666.  It's all there.  The point is not to scare, but to name the reality for what it is, and to show that all these things are full of lies and will fall.  They cannot stand.  All empires fall.  And we should rejoice when they do.  They don't fall by using their methods.  Instead, the...

Empires exert control.  But the faithful worshippers of God are part of the multitude.  Revelation presents monsters that tear the faithful apart.  What are the beasts of today?  And what are we called to as we face them?  The sermon is based on Revelation 7:9-17.

Revelation 5 gives a glimpse of what worship of God is about.  It includes all of creation without exclusion.  It shows God's power over the powers of this world.  It flips the script on what strength and might and power are.  And sometimes we get glimpses of that in worship here on earth.  The sermon is based on Revelation 5:1-13.

Revelation 4 brings us to the throne room of God, where we see worship.  It's also a courtroom where empire will be put on trial.  John gives a vision of that.  Imagine what it might sound like to put the empires of today's world on trial.  That's what happened in the sermon.  The sermon is based on Revelation 4:1-11.  

The book of Revelation is one of the most misunderstood and misused books of Scripture - more often used to scare people, rather than offer them good news.  It is good news.  It shows empire for what it is, and that God rejects it and offers something better.  The sermon is based on Revelation 1:4-8. 

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord" is an invitation to a better world and way of living.  It's not something we trigger or force God's hand into.  God speaks these words and acts.  What might the days that are surely coming be?  Check out the Pastor Matthew's sermon on parts on Jeremiah 31 and 33.  

What does Hope look like in the midst of a siege?  It often looks crazy.  Jeremiah does an act of prophetic theater in the absurd to emphasize God's promise - buying land while Babylon sieges Jerusalem before it falls.  We are under siege - just in a different way.  How is God calling on us to have crazy faith?  At Christ Lutheran it looks like repairing the bell tower and expanding the dental cli...

The faithful are in exile in America in 2025.  It can be hard to be hopeful.  We may want it to return to what was.  But that's never been God's way.  We are to live life and know that we are not abandoned.  Jeremiah 29 is a letter written to those in exile.  A message from God that still applies today.  

Kings and the powerful have a long history of trying to use God's word for their own purposes or silencing it when it conflicts with their power.  But they never prevail.  God's word endures and liberates and sets people free.  Pastor Matthew's sermon is based on parts of Jeremiah 36.  

Divisions and separations define the world and often the church.  Paul had a different idea about that based on everything that Jesus was about.  The world and our churches still struggle with this.  Our differences don't separate us, but instead help us to see a wider image of God.  The sermon is based on Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29.

Grace is not fair.  Thanks be to God!  Paul addresses grace and works in his letter to the church in Galatia.  The core of what he writes about is still relevant today.  Do we earn our way to God, or does God come to us because of who God is?  The sermon is based on Galatians 1:13-17, 2:11-21.

Membership has its privileges, as the saying goes.  But there are two ways to look at that.  One making faith something exclusive with the incentive to keep people out.  And another where we have the privilege of inviting people to see how God is at work in the world and participate in what the Spirit is up to.  The sermon is based on Acts 15:1-18.