Christ Lutheran Church Harrisburg

Words can be helpful and healing, or they can cause harm.  A Tweet this past week made unfounded claims that will have a negative impact on people.  Speeches by leaders in the past have brought healing and new life.  In our Gospel reading, Jesus brings healing and new life through the word, in literal ways.  How has Jesus spoken into our lives and communities with healing, hope, and new life?  How...

Does humanity exist to serve law and order, or do these things exist to serve humanity?  Humanity has struggled with this forever.  Religious groups have been so concerned with upholding the law, that they are willing to kill in order to maintain a preferred order.  Jesus rejected the ends justify the means.  He extends grace, even when it upsets the established order.  The sermon is based on Luke...

Jesus calls his first disciples, fishermen.  They stunk.  But it wasn't because of their odor.  It was the ways of the society around them that stunk on them.  He calls on them to fish for people.  That goes beyond inviting people to church.  We're called to cast a net of love on people.  The Gospel smells different - like the aroma of mercy.  The sermon is based on Luke 5:1-11.

Jesus preached an unpopular sermon.  The crowd wanted to throw him off a cliff.  Why?  Because he had the audacity to declare that their barriers, boundaries and such were not what God was about.  The message still applies today.  Jesus calls us to break down barriers in our time and place as well.  The sermon is based on Luke 4:14-30.

What should we do?  That's the question that gets asked so very often in light of so many horrible things that go on in our world.  It's the question the crowd asked John.  The answer is Good News.  The sermon is based on Luke 3:1-22.

We celebrated Epiphany.  The story of Epiphany from Matthew 2:1-12 is full of fear and joy.  Fear leads to violent actions, while joy leads to outward expression of giving.  The world is full of fear, and Jesus doesn't pretend there isn't fear.  But Jesus brings joy in the midst of fear.  

In the first week of Advent, the Narrative Lectionary presents a story that contrasts cruelty with hope.  For many in power, the cruelty is the point.  But for God, the hope is the point.  The sermon is based on Daniel 6:6-27.  

This past Sunday was Christ the King Sunday - a day we are reminded that we follow Jesus and not ideologies.  Christ's kingdom is far different than the world's.  Christ's kingdom is founded on peace, invitation, grace, and mercy.  The world's kingdoms use force, violence, oppression, and imposing on others.  We are called to live into Christ's kingdom in the midst of the world's kingdom.  Pastor...

The Narrative Lectionary shares Isaiah's call.  We are all called.  It's just a matter of what we are called to do and to be.  How is God calling you.  The sermon is based on Isaiah 6:1-13.

Jonah is a parable about a resistant prophet who doesn't want what's best for this enemies.  He tries running away.  Nothing works.  But in spite of it all, Jonah is faithful.  He knows that God is merciful.  Sometimes we are Jonah, sometimes we are the people of Nineveh, and sometimes we are the king of Nineveh.  Pastor Matthew's Sermon is based on Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10; 4:1-11.  

1 Kings 17 talks about Elijah and the widow.  There is abundance in the midst of suffering.  And we shouldn't ignore the cause of the suffering - King Ahab's moral bankruptcy.  Terrible leadership causes everyone to suffer.  But God provides.  The sermon is based on 1 Kings 17:1-24.

The Temple couldn't be built without foreign help and resources.  And Solomon pleads with God to hear the prayer of the foreigner.  God has always been tearing down barriers and walls that separate humanity from God.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a prime example of that faithfulness.  Pastor Matthew's Sermon is based on 1 Kings 5:1-5; 8:27-30, 41-43.

God reminds David of who is in charge, and it's not David.  Humility is an essential leadership quality we are told about in 2 Samuel 7:1-17.  But that message is just for David.  It's for all of us.  We encounter humility all the time.  Just look around.  Pastor Matthew's Sermon talks about humility in leadership and in life.  

Do you struggle with prayer?  Hannah's story in 1 Samuel offers us some guidance in the midst of struggle.  Prayers from the margins of society upend the meaning of greatness, strength, and might.  The sermon is based on 1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1:10.  

When we feel lost and uncertain, how comforting is it to have something tangible that can make us feel safe?  Our politics, economics, relationship, and so much of our lives are uncertain.  And there are golden calves that offer a sense of control and safety.  But they aren't God.  Golden calves help us ignore the reality of the chaos and provide us a false sense of security.  God walks with us in...

The world can feel overwhelming.  So much of what goes on is designed to make us give up.  But hope raises us up and sets people free.  The sermon is based on Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8.  

In Genesis 15:1-16 we hear about God making a promise to Abram.  Abram struggles with that promise.  There are decades in which he doesn't hear from God.  That's just like life.  So often we can't see how things will turn out, but God is faithful and walks with us and keeps God's promises.   

The second creation account and the accompanying story of the Fall are well known by many.  And the story sets up the rest of Scripture to tell of blessings and curses in so many ways.  It is an attempt to explain to people how we get to where we are.  Look around - see the blessings and the curses of today in your life, your community, and the world.  The sermon is based on Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17;...

People have been lamenting and crying to God with the question "How long, oh Lord?" It is the cry of people oppressed.  It is the cry of people who have suffered.  It is the cry of humanity exhausted by cruelty.  Daniel 12 doesn't give us an answer so much as reminds us that nothing can stop God, not even death.  The sermon is based on Daniel 12.  

Over the weekend, we witnessed two different kingdoms on display in Harrisburg.  The kingdom based on fear, anger, division, and hatred was at one end of the city.  The kingdom of God based on seeing the image of God in others, service, care, and love was at the other end.  Daniel 7 shares visions of terrible beasts that represent cruel kingdoms that all fall and shares about God's kingdom which l...

Oppressive systems hold everyone in bondage.  They use violence.  They are cruel.  Because at their core, they are weak and collapse from their rotten foundation.  But God's Kingdom has a different foundation that shares life to many.  We see it the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den and in the Civil Rights marches of 1965 in Alabama.  The sermon is based on Daniel 6:6-27.

Fear, threats of violence, actual violence - these are the tools of empires and shallow men.  Our reading from Daniel 3:1-30 shows us that God doesn't abandon the faithful, is with them in the worst of situations, and that ultimately, the ways of violence do not work.  

God takes the long view with creation.  The long view is the loving view.  The long view isn't stopped by set backs or obstacles.  The long view presents a vision of what is to be.  God invites us into the long view.  The sermon is based on Daniel 2:24-49.

What do you see?  What do you witness?  What are you showing?  God shows up in a variety of ways and shows us what love is.  The sermon is based on 1 John 5:9-13.

Love is bigger than we think.  The sermon is based on 1 John 5:1-6.  The author talks about love, but also addresses where that love comes from that allows us to conquer the world.  We don't conquer the way the world does.  Instead we love, which transforms the world.