Sermons with Reverend Killjoy

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 14, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Romans 7:15-25a, also Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. In honor of the United States Semiquincentennial, I dug into these challenging lessons to try and make some sense of where we are and what we can learn from scripture.  Romans 7:15-25a  

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 13, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. The lectionary's Semicontinuous First Lessons giveth and taketh away. Abraham tries to obey God's command to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the world has wrestled with this story ever since. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 12, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Today's very challenging Gospel lesson throws the US holiday of Fathers' Day into stark relief, and this sermon is a whole lot of wrestling with the hard stuff. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 10, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Today we celebrated our two graduating high school seniors, and our first lesson from Genesis 12, the Semicontinuous lectionary reading, was just right. God calls Abram to leave the land of his parents and receive God's blessing to become a bl...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Holy Trinity Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13. For our third consecutive Cake Sunday (Sundays in which something happens in worship worthy of celebrating with cake), we celebrated a wedding vow renewal for a 40th anniversary. Considering that their first wedding was just over lunch wi...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Day of Pentecost, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Acts 2:1-21. On this Pentecost Sunday we celebrated the baptism of a young adult, and we talked about the various ways the Holy Spirit acts among us. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 17:1-11. "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Eternal life is not about living forever; it's about living fully right now. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 14:15-21. "I will send you another Advocate." Jesus' first discussion of the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel leads me down many interesting paths that all wind up right here at my job in the last week. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 14:1-14. "Do not let your hearts be troubled." As Christus Victor moves forward in its transitional process, we can learn from Jesus' own "leadership transition" from his disciples. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Ezekiel 34:7-15 and 1 Peter 2:19-25. With timely news about Christus Victor's Ministry Site Profile, these lessons give us an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a faithful leader. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Luke 24:13-35. My favorite story in the whole Bible inspired me to tell a few stories of my own, before dropping into talk about the power of the Eucharist. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Exodus 15:1-11, 19-21. The new Provisional First Reading for the Revised Common Lectionary presented me with a challenge for my first day back from vacation. On war and peace and what it is we're truly celebrating this Easter season. 

 Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Easter Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10. It's Easter Sunday. There were 250 people there. We had a good time. Christ is risen. You can't fix him. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Maundy Thursday. Scripture: John 13:1-17, 31b-35. It's Maundy Thursday, and we did foot-washing for the first time in possibly the history of this congregation, so I got to talk about it .

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Palm Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11. Finally back after weeks of guest preachers and awful weather, this sermon about Jesus' palm procession into Jerusalem got into the way we try to limit Jesus with our expectations. Luckily Jesus did what he knew was right, for God and for us. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 4:5-42. On International Women's Day, we get the famous story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. I tell about a couple of the women whose faith has shaped my own, and then I talked about how the Samaritan woman was an example to too-ofte...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a. In this one I talked about some of the origins of my historic distrust of organized religion, reignited by the latest religion-flavored war the US started in the Middle East. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the First Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11. I am so excited that I found this audio recording, which seemed to have disappeared immediately after I recorded and tried to upload it. Nonetheless here it is, so you get to hear my shorter sermon for the day of our annual congregational me...

Part Two of sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12. My friend and former professor Mary Solberg's book, "A Church Undone," helps us to remain wary of allowing ideology to replace our faith in the Jesus of the Bible with faith in power and violence. ...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12. My friend and former professor Mary Solberg's book, "A Church Undone," helps us to remain wary of allowing ideology to replace our faith in the Jesus of the Bible with faith in power and violence.  This is only...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23. In which we talk explicitly about the human rights abuses currently being perpetrated in Minnesota by federal agents. Did you know that in the Gospel of Matthew, Herod's arrest of John the Baptist is the impetus for Jesus to begin hi...

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 1:29-42. Considering the current ongoing federal occupation of the Twin Cities, I think I kept is pretty straight by talking about theology of the cross and about how we project our beliefs and our biases onto Jesus. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Christmas, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 1:1-18. This one gets a little rambly but has some things to say about paradox and ambiguity. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 2:1-20. You've heard this one before. The story, at least. What new thing can God do with this Christmas story? What new thing can God do with us? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25. This sermon includes my 2025 Pop Culture Year in Review around talking about Joseph who is almost the star of Matthew's version of this story.