Sermons with Reverend Killjoy

Reformation Sunday, Lectionary Year C Romans 3:19-28 Reformation Sunday is less about what the church did that one time than it is about turning back, again and again, to knowing what God did that one time.

22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 This line from today's lesson, "All scripture is inspired by God," has vexed me for years. How do we read the Bible, and why does the Bible have authority in our lives and in the church? These questions may be easier to address in a Bible study than in a sermon, but we took a shot at it, anyway.

21st Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 17:11-19 Today's Gospel lesson about the Samaritan leper is a wonderful story of praise and thankfulness by the unlikeliest messenger of God's love. It got me thinking about how unlikely it is that I find myself as a Lutheran pastor, and the unlikely friends who guided me in this direction. This sermon contains a description of a set of circumsta...

20th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C World Communion Sunday Luke 24:13-35 We switched to Luke's iconic story of the walk to Emmaus to talk about the pattern of worship we share with churches around the world and the presence of Jesus we share at our table each Sunday.

19th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 16:19-31 Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems pretty simple: poor Lazarus is rewarded in the afterlife, and the selfish rich man is punished. Each gets what he deserves. Is that how God's justice works? Does it tell us what happens to rich and poor after we die? I doubt it.

18th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 16:1-13 Jesus' parable of the dishonest manager may be the most confusing of all Jesus' parables. What can we make of it? Well, I can talk about money, which I'm always happy to do in a sermon. However, I don't think money is where we can learn the most from this story. God calls us to be like the manager in unexpected ways, if we look at this st...

17th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Exodus 32:7-14 God's mercy shines through this surprising and maybe-hilarious account of God losing an argument with Moses. God repents? Wait, that's totally backwards! But if God can repent and accept forgiveness, maybe we can too.

16th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 14:25-33 Cranky Jesus has some harsh words today for those who would follow him, that is, for us. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.... So therefore, none of you ca...

15th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 14:1, 7-14 In the Gospels we hear a lot about Jesus eating meals. In most cases, who he shared those meals with seems to have been more important than what they ate. What does this tell us about the meals we share, as a church and with others?

13th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 12:49-56 The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held our biennial (becoming triennial) Churchwide Assembly last week, in which 1000 voting members from all over the country came together in Pittsburgh, PA to do the work of the church. Today I provided a summary of the work we did at CWA (as it is known to insiders), including electing a new P...

12th Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Genesis 15:1-6 At our annual outdoor worship service, we talked about how God called Abram outside to count the stars, so that Abram would believe and understand God's promise. How much does it matter where we hear God's word for us?

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Genesis 18:20-32 This one is up a bit late, as I went on vacation after worship that day for over a week. I don't remember what this sermon was about. Something about Abraham arguing with God's decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a funnier scene than you might expect when the context is the height of God's judge-y / smite-y phase. Anyway...

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 10:38-42 In the story of Jesus' visit to Martha and Mary, how did Mary chose the "better part?" After Jesus sassed her, did Martha fling a frying pan at his head and/or chase him out of her house with a broom? What's the hardest part of offering hospitality to people?

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 10:25-37 Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most famous and instructive stories in all of scripture or Christian history. The lawyer's question, "And who is my neighbor?" really sticks with me, because it mirrors my own impulse for self-justification. At 11:00pm the night before I preached this sermon, a jury in Florida acquitte...

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Galatians 5:1, 13-25. Fornication! Circumcision! Castration, even! Keeping it lively this week, that's for sure. This sermon is indebted to the sermon I preached three years ago on this same lectionary date, but that sermon was at the Benson High School All-School Reunion in my hometown in Minnesota. It's far from the same sermon, but they share a sp...

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 7:36-8:3 Forgiveness and the kingdom of God. People seemed to like it, even though I may or may not have included them in describing people as "jerks," so I think that's good?

Third Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 7:11-17 Today we hear about a couple of miraculous resurrections, by Jesus and Elijah. I have difficulty connecting to resurrection stories, at times because I tend to skip to the end of the story, and at other times because I have no idea what the end of a resurrection story might look like. Today's sermon offers (to me, at least) a take on the...

Second Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Luke 7:1-10 My blog is called "Unexpected and Mysterious," and today's sermon hits pretty heavily on the "unexpected" side of that. God surprises us all the time.

Holy Trinity Sunday, Lectionary Year C Romans 5:1-5 The Holy Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - is a bedrock Christian doctrine, as vital to our theology as it is irrelevant to our actual lives of faith. What does this confusing, beautiful, paradoxical doctrine tell us about our relationship with God? Bonus: in this sermon, I divulge the most important piece of information regarding our new Bish...

Pentecost, Lectionary Year C Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21 I failed to record last week's sermon (really, I had my phone there, and thought I'd recorded it, but somehow it just doesn't exist), so here's one from this week at least. This week I talked about the ancient, amazing Tower of Babel story as a mythical explanation of human difference, then talked about how difference affects our experien...

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C Acts 16:9-15 The story of Lydia is a bigger deal than I thought it was. God did some amazing work back in Philippi, and as we celebrated Madalyn Claire's baptism at LCS on Sunday, God did some amazing work here as well.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C Revelation 21:1-6 This might be my favorite part of the whole Bible, so as you might expect I got a bit worked up about it. God will be with us. God is already with us.

Third Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C John 21:1-19 Easter is real in Jesus' body; how can we make God's promise of new life in Christ real in our bodies, in our lives today?

Second Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year 2C Acts 5:27-32 Peter boldly tells the High Priest to take a hike, and in doing so proclaims the good news to the world. We can learn from him, though probably don't need to be quite so confrontational about it.

Easter Sunday Luke 24:1-12 You may think the resurrection of Jesus is unbelievable. If so, you are in good company. Relatedly, Luna Lovegood is one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. Bonus: "The Lovegood Oddity," a random quotation from HP7, may become the name of our family band.