Salem Presbyterian Church

The human heart is constantly revising its own narratives for self-preservation. What feels safe, staying inside our own stories, is actually what hides us from the truth. 1 John 1 argues that we cannot diagnose darkness in darkness. John insists God is light: outside us, moving toward us, hitting us from the outside like sunlight we sense and feel. Confession is how we let the outside in. Out of...

A feedback loop amplifies whatever is fed into it. In Galatians 6, Paul describes a community where the Spirit dwells and grace is produced, ever increasing — but only when the self gets out of the way. Austin Pfeiffer looks at specific ways the self breaks the loop: through self-righteous wish dreams of community, through a la carte theology, and through expecting to be served rather than to serv...

Paul tells the Galatians to "walk around in the Spirit" but his point is that the Spirit is more than a means to something better. The Spirit is the source itself. Walking through Galatians 5 we see a life where believers walk about unshackled, out of chaos we receive one fruit, and we are walking toward Eden. Along the way we see the sin we rarely admit: trying to "program our way out of our fles...

The French Revolutionary Jacques Hébert called for a system of zealous perfection. Eventually that standard consumed everyone, including himself. For us, we follow Christ's teaching on forgiveness until it is personal. We affirm his ethic on generosity until it costs us something real. Whether it's the legalism of the Galatians or our own selective faith, both confess the same thing: that Christ i...

Paul the apostle tells two stories in parallel: the children with no future and the children of the promise. Contrasting tales of children of a servant with no future security and children of a covenant promise whose future is secure unfold in the history of Israel. Paul maps these on to the lives of the Galatians to remind them of their inheritance in Christ, something they have quickly forgotten...

Why did God give the law if his plan was always to save by grace through faith? In this sermon on Galatians 3:15-29, Austin Pfeiffer follows Paul as he steps back and re-explains the covenant from the ground up. From Abraham to Moses to now, God has had one unbroken plan: to redeem his people. The law was never a rival to that promise. It was always a servant of it. And in Christ, the inheritance...

In this sermon on Galatians 3:1–14, Austin Pfeiffer brings application Paul's ongoing, urgent plea to the Galatians and to us. That plea is to stop trying to earn our own way, when in Christ we have already received what we really need. Looking at Abraham's story in Genesis 15 and the image of a lighthouse guiding ships to harbor, the sermon diagnoses two forms of pride: striving to prove we are e...

Austin Pfeiffer continues in Galatians 1, posing the question: have you ever tried to describe a place so beautiful that words feel inadequate? That's Paul's challenge in Galatians 1. He's not interested in debating the Gospel. For Paul, it is a reality he is documenting. And more than that, it is a reality that seized him and turned his entire life upside down. Galatians 1 explores what it looks...

In this opening sermon of an eleven-week series through Galatians, Austin Pfeiffer unpacks how Paul is fired up! Writing without his usual warm greetings, Paul blurts out his astonishment. The Galatians are making a trade they do not realize is terminal: exchanging the grace of Christ for a "different gospel." This list of obligations cannot do what grace does. Even hardworking, well-meaning peopl...

This homily is a Maundy Thursday meditation on John 13:1-20 by Rev. Austin Pfeiffer. From the outdoor pavilion downtown, we explore whether Jesus knew about empires, about betrayal, about us? The answer—he does. And this makes his act of footwashing so startling. Like Paul writing to the Galatians, Jesus refuses to be distracted by the world's tumult, offering instead something smaller, but more r...

Rev. Austin Pfeiffer explores the Transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17, where Peter's anxious chatter and the disciples' frozen silence reveal how easily we sort Jesus into a manageable category. A good teacher, a moral example, someone worth honoring, but not the God worth falling on our face before. When the Father interrupts with "This is my Son, listen to him," Jesus speaks the full claim of...

In this sermon Rev. Austin Pfeiffer explores why Jesus sent the disciples to Israel before going to the Gentiles. This section of Matthew, the "Sermon on Mission" shows how and why the disciples go amongst these "lost sheep of Israel" first. And the sermon looks to connect this with the experiences of those who grew in a Christian culture today. Especially how Jesus is the compassionate shepherd f...

In this sermon, Jackson Cole unpacks Jesus' radical teaching that the law of God isn't a hammer ready to beat you down until you obey, but an invitation into living life as the beloved.

In this sermon Rev. Austin Pfeiffer walks through each of the eight Beatitudes as Jesus introduces his Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather than presenting a list of spiritual ideals to achieve, the Beatitudes reveal the kinds of people Jesus meets with grace and blessing. As we move through them, we see how Jesus himself lives the Beatitudes fully—becoming poor, meek, merciful, and persecut...

Rev. Austin Pfeiffer highlights how the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry confronts our deep instinct toward self-reliance. In calling fishermen to leave their nets, teaching in synagogues, and healing the afflicted, Jesus exposes the ways we cling to work, religion, control, or productivity to sustain ourselves. Each of these three scenes asks whether we will admit our hunger, weakness, and nee...

Rev. Austin Pfeiffer explores our fear that God's love must be earned and how Jesus's baptism answers that fear. Jesus’ baptism reveals both his humility in identifying with sinners and his perfect righteousness given to us through his life, death, and resurrection. Not because of anything we've done, Jesus' answers the reality that we cannot earn God's love. Because we are united to Christ, the F...