ELCG Podcast

Jesus offers a declaration of freedom, an invitation into a way of life that is so much better, so much richer, so much more promising than climbing that tired old ladder.

A sermon on Mark 10:17-31 by Rev. Kristín Tómasdóttir, on the challenge of faith in midlife.

It’s important to hear Jesus’s words on divorce in the context in which they were spoken: he’s dismissing a debate that objectified women and minimized their suffering.

Wholly apart from the concrete results that come from prayer—whether we get exactly what we ask for or not—it does accomplish something deeply significant: prayer draws a community together.

James offers us an opportunity to think about what our use of language has to do with our faith: what we claim to believe ought to make a difference in the way that we speak.

When James says you can’t be friends both with the world and with God, he means you can’t share two worldviews at once. You can’t go around holding on both to God’s values and to the world’s—you’ve got to make a choice.

For James, the integrity of our faith is at stake here. We cannot say we believe in Jesus and then proceed in drawing distinctions as the world does.

Christians can be anxious to speak, to share the wisdom we’ve found in our faith. And that’s good; but James reminds us that listening comes first.

The Gospel of John puts the incarnation, and the inherent physicality of Christianity, in front of us in the starkest possible terms. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing right now.

In this exceptional time when we’re not celebrating communion much, we’re invited to pay attention to the many ways God feeds us, to the moments of grace all around.

Sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Patricia Cuyatti on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, 1 August 2021.

Sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Nyambura Njoroge on the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, 25 July 2021.

Sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Dirk Lange on the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, 18 July 2021.

A sermon by Rev. Terry MacArthur on Mark 6:1-13, preached on 4 July 2021.

There are storms along the way as we grow into the people Jesus calls us to be. The good news is that he's with us in the boat.

It’s not anxious work, but it matters that the sower does it; it matters that she scatters the seeds, because she’s part of the ecosystem bringing about new life and growth.

Jesus stands with the crowds--with the sinners and the sick and the hurting and the left behind. And in the end, the story asks us the same question: where will we stand? Where will you stand?

This is what life in God feels like: opening your eyes and seeing you’re not alone but are in fact surrounded by a loving family.

Don’t spend your time looking up there for Jesus, imagining he’s off somewhere else, the angel says to the stunned disciples and to us. The ascension means that he is, in fact, present and active in you, and in the people around you.

We’re learning a new way to live, because that’s what Jesus showed us--because that’s what friendship looks like.

Even in the difficult time ahead, Jesus says to his friends, you are branches on the vine. You are connected to me and to one another; my life is flowing to you; you are never alone.

The shepherd leads the sheep throughout this psalm, not only beside the still waters at the beginning, but also into that darkest valley. Sometimes it’s exactly where the paths of righteousness run.

This is how we keep living out our resurrection faith and how we keep encountering Jesus: in real, flesh and blood relationships, in the embrace of real, wounded human bodies. The un-ghostly Jesus of Luke’s story reminds us of that fact.

A sermon by Rev. Sarah Stephens on John 20:19-31, preached on the Second Sunday of Easter.

That’s what Jesus’s incognito appearances in the gospels mean to do: set us on our toes, wake up our senses, set our eyes and ears on the alert, because Jesus is risen. He’s here—he could be anywhere.