Sermons with Reverend Killjoy

Ash Wednesday Isaiah 58:1-12 On fasting, sin, and the size of grocery stores nowadays.

Transfiguration of Our Lord, Lectionary Year C 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Paul accuses his opponents in Corinth of wearing a veil to keep themselves from being transformed by an encounter with Jesus. What can our church today learn from his critique?

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year C Jeremiah 1:4-10 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30 Presidential election season is upon us. Lord have mercy! What can Jesus, Jeremiah, and Paul teach us about how to endure our long, complicated process of electing a president?

Third Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year C Luke 4:14-21 Jesus begins his ministry in Luke's Gospel with a public proclamation of exactly what God has sent him to do. Jesus challenges himself to live up to his own words, and challenges his listeners to do what he said he would do. May be we so bold as we follow Jesus.

Second Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year C John 2:1-11 Jesus' first miracle of turning water to wine is a powerful display of God's grace poured out for all people. What about those people who would rather just have the water?

Baptism of Our Lord, Lectionary Year C Acts 8:14-17 In preparation for our annual Congregational Meeting today, we remember how the Holy Spirit surprises the church.

Christmas Eve Luke 2:1-20 Peace is one of the central themes of Christmas, from the title Prince of Peace in Isaiah to the angel's declaration of peace on earth to the shepherds. So why does the story of Jesus' birth also include one of the least-peaceful names in our world today?

This sermon has everything - holiday party advice, tales of life and death, funny voices, guest musicians, and even mention of the Krampus. This is the Advent sermon I've been waiting for.

Second Sunday of Advent, Lectionary Year C Luke 3:1-6 Advent is our season of waiting, both for Jesus to return and in a sense, for Jesus' birth 2000 years ago. How do we make sense of this waiting for both the past and the future?

25th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Mark 13:1-8 We live in a frightening world. From the fall of the temple where God lived to modern terrorist attacks, all too often we have good reason to fear. This is why Jesus' little words, "do not be alarmed," are a surprisingly radical form of good news.

All Saints Sunday, Lectionary Year B Revelation 21:1-6b, Isaiah 25:6-9 This reading from Revelation features my favorite image in the Bible, the holy city coming down from heaven to earth where God will dwell with people forever. Isaiah offers a strikingly similar vision, some of the best good news around. But on this All Saints Sunday we ask: what about the times when good news doesn't feel like...

Reformation Sunday Psalm 46 Lutherans love to sing "A Mighty Fortress," and apparently also love to forget the rest of the phrase, or the point of the psalm from which the words come.

21st Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Mark 10:35-45 Jesus redefined success to look like serving and giving to meet the needs of our neighbor.

20th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Mark 10:17-31 Today's Gospel lesson centers on a single question from the text, but it's not the question I would have thought.

18th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 Following Jesus is something we do together.

19th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Mark 10:2-16 Jesus' teaching on divorce is not easy to talk about, and even harder to ignore. Spouses depend on each other, and Jesus has a lot to say about how people depend on each other. Who do we depend on?

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Acts 13:1-5 Our Acts sermon series for summer of 2015 concludes with the commissioning of Barnabas and Paul. For what have you been set apart, and where will you be sent?

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Mark 7:24-37 This Sunday we were blessed to hear the Word proclaimed by none other than the Rev. Sarah Friesen-Carper, Assistant to the Bishop for Congregational and Leadership Excellence of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the ELCA. She preached a powerful message about the Syrophoenician woman as part of "Confession, Repentance and Commit...

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Acts 11:19-26 The Holy Spirit does not work on our schedule. We can dwell on the past or worry about the future, or we can look and see what God is doing right now. Yes, I recognize the irony of posting this sermon audio a week late.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year B Acts 11:1-18 The story of Peter and Cornelius may be the apex of our series on Acts, when God changes the rules to allow even Gentiles - like me - to receive baptism and the Holy Spirit. What can this transformational moment in the earliest church teach us about how God is acting today?

The crisis that scattered the first church from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria became an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel. Recent news that the Lutheran tradition is the whitest church tradition in the US is a very different kind of crisis. Will we be open to how the Holy Spirit can use our weakness as means to share the gospel?

Prophetic grief is the public lament that challenges the injustices that have led to violence against God's people. The death of Stephen in our Acts sermon series is an excellent lens through which we can explore prophetic grief as the work of following Jesus today.

The Holy Spirit will mess with you. Thus I learned anew when a series of technological circumstances led me to preach this sermon from memory. Of course that was also the intended point of the sermon, on how the apostles' establishment of the diaconate in Acts 6 did not go as planned.

Three challenging readings today - the death of John the Baptist, the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and Amos arguing with Amaziah - all have a surprising thing in common. Each features a character with the same motivation: popularity. When is popularity not Good News?

The grace of God is even greater than I had imagined. Generosity is our expression of the grace we have received from God.