Category: Sermons

Sermon: Cat Dad Daniel

Sunday, December 1, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
First Sunday of Advent
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:04; sermon starts around 27:58)

Reading: Daniel 6:6-27

No kids willing to come up for the children’s service at our first service, but at the second service, we talked about waiting. We talked about what sort of things we wait for, what it’s like to wait, how there are different kinds of waiting. We talked about Advent being the start of the new year for the church and about how it is a season of waiting. Advent is a word used to mean “beginning” or “commencement,” and it comes from words meaning something that is “about to come” or “about to happen.” During Advent, we wait for Christmas and all the excitement and good things that come with it. We wait for the birth of the baby Jesus. But more than anything, we wait for the coming kingdom that Jesus has promised; and we wait with expectation and hope, looking for signs that that kingdom is breaking in, even here and now.

Who all in here has pets, or has had pets at one time? Who’s got dogs? And where are my cat people at?

Generally speaking, for those who have had dogs, how hard would you say it is to get a dog to like you? How hard is it to train a dog or get a dog to bond with you? I’m guessing your answer is “really not that hard.” In my experience, it usually takes about 30 seconds or less to become best friends with a dog.

Now, for anyone who’s had cats – same question. How hard is it to get a cat to like you? How hard is it to train a cat or to get a cat to bond with you? Heh – this morning’s answers in worship ranged from “difficult” to “impossible” to “that happens??”

Cats can be tricky creatures. Unlike dogs, cats generally aren’t going to go out of their way to try to please you. They tend to be particular about which humans they choose to form relationships with; and cats will not hesitate to defend their own personal boundaries. Contrary to popular belief, cats actually can be trained – but there’s no forcing a cat to do anything it doesn’t feel like doing. It’s a relationship that requires gentleness, consistency, and patience.

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Sermon: Jesus, Take the Wheel

Thursday, November 26, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Thanksgiving Eve Eve
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 12:03; children’s sermon starts around 13:36; sermon starts around 19:32)

Reading: Matthew 6:25-33

In the children’s sermon, naturally, we talked about things we are thankful for. We talked about how it feels to be thanked when we do something nice for someone else. I asked the kids why we make such a big deal out of thanksgiving, why it’s so important to give thanks. We talked about how giving thanks shows respect to others and makes them feel good and appreciated. And we talked about how showing gratitude benefits us as well. Being thankful means remembering that we have good things in our life to be thankful for – and even more importantly, it reminds us that we have people in our lives who care about us and love us enough to do nice things for us. Giving thanks helps us to be joyful. And it builds up our relationships with others. God is pleased when we give thanks, and gratitude helps us grow even closer in our relationship with God.

Who all here tonight has ever helped someone else learn to drive? I imagine a lot of the parents here have done so. If you had to sum up that experience in one or two words, what would you say? 

I remember how anxious my dad was back when I was learning to drive. In fairness, I was a nearsighted teenager with poor spatial reasoning – and already in my early teens, I was beginning to develop a bit of a lead foot. The first time Dad let me drive his vehicle out on the highway down to Norfolk, I swear you could audibly hear him stomping on the imaginary brake on his side of the car the whole way there.

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Sermon: A New Covenant (AKA Good King, Bad King)

Sunday, November 24, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Reign of Christ Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 21:49; children’s sermon starts around 26:35; sermon starts around 33:35)

Reading: Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28; 31:31-34 (Luke 22:19-20)

In the children’s sermon, we talked about what it means to be a leader, and what kind of qualities or actions it takes for someone to be a good leader. We talked about how today on Reign of Christ Sunday, we celebrate that God in Christ is our leader. Christ is merciful and forgiving and loving toward us and calls us to be the same kind of leaders in the world. Sometimes we can get frustrated or angry or sad when human leaders in this world act in ways that don’t look like Christ’s leadership at all. But today we remember that human institutions and human authority will pass away, but God’s kingdom of love will stand forever.

I’d like to start out the sermon today… with a pop quiz! (haha) Don’t worry, it’s not graded. I feel pretty confident guessing that most of us in here have been to at least a few worship services in our lives – which means you’ve all heard the words of institution we say during communion a time or two. But it’s one thing to hear it over and over again, and another thing to actually say it! So today I’m curious to find out how well you all remember the words of institution from memory. Ready?

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Sermon: Here We Are

Sunday, November 17, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:32; children’s sermon starts around 25:38; sermon starts around 34:47)

Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

For the children’s sermon this morning, we talked about awe in all its forms – from awww to awful to awesome to amazing to overwhelming and terrifying. I asked the kids about times in their lives when they have felt some kind of awe. We talked about how Isaiah must have felt seeing this truly awesome vision. I asked them if they thought they would have responded in the same way Isaiah did, crying out “Here I am, Lord, send me!” And we remembered that God does call us to carry God’s word to the world, even though our call is usually a lot less flashy than Isaiah’s. And while that can still be kind of a scary call, it’s also pretty awesome that we get to share God’s word of love and grace.

Before I went to seminary, I worked for a few years teaching English and basic job skills down at Lincoln Literacy. To this day, other than being a pastor, it is my favorite job I’ve ever had. I loved working there. My coworkers were all really fun people, and I got to work with students from all over the world – refugees, migrant workers, university students, people who had found their way to Lincoln for all kinds of different reasons. And it was really rewarding and satisfying to watch them learning together, gaining confidence in their skills, and building these wonderful new friendships with people from different cultures. Plus, you’d better believe that the class potlucks we had were absolutely epic. 

I was fresh off of four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I started working at Lincoln Literacy. And it actually ended up being a really great place for me to land after that experience. It’s really weird coming back to your own country after you’ve spent years living somewhere else. You expect home to feel the same, but you don’t realize how much you yourself change during that time. In fact, for that reason, the Peace Corps actually requires that every Volunteer go through Close of Service training – specifically to prepare them for the unexpected culture shock of coming home. 

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Sermon: Risky Business

Sunday, November 3, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
All Saints Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 27:29; children’s sermon starts around 30:51; sermon starts around 37:25)

Reading: 1 Kings 17:1-24

For the children’s sermon, I talked with the kids about All Saints Day – what’s a saint? Why do we spend all this time talking about dead people? I pointed out that we actually talk about saints every Sunday, though we might not pay much attention to it. In the last part of the creed, we confess “I believe in… the communion of saints.” We then go on to confess our belief in some truly mind-boggling things: “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Those are some pretty bold beliefs – but we believe in them because of stories handed down to us by people we trust and love; and it’s those same people who help us remember what and why we believe on the days it’s hard for us to do so.

My two best friends in high school were a pair of twins named Amanda and Emily. They lived on a farm a couple miles out of town where their family (the Fraases) raised sheep. I spent a lot of time out at their place growing up, and it was awesome. They always had boxes of wool and yarn to play with, and we’d run all around their place dancing and playing games. 

Celebrating Man & Em’s birthday
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Sometimes there would be sheep chores to do and I would get to help out (I was a town kid, not a country kid, so it was a novelty for me, haha). Mainly I remember helping when their parents were moving the electric fence around – my friends and I would run and make noise to chase the sheep into the new grazing area. (The experience definitely left me with some interesting insight into all the biblical passages about us being God’s sheep – because, let me tell you, sheep are dumb.)

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Sermon: Embrace the Mint (AKA The Tent Is Mightier than the House)

Sunday, October 20, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 24:54; sermon starts around 30:10)

Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-17

My first call as a pastor, as many of you know, was to St. John’s Lutheran Church up in Schuyler, NE. I was there for about five years, and during that time, I lived in their parsonage – it was a nice little three-bedroom ranch-style house with an attached garage (so luxurious!). 

But probably my favorite part about the house was actually the backyard. It was a nice, big backyard, fenced in all around, with a clothesline and a little concrete patio. There were all kinds of plants back there – trees and flowers and little shrubs and grasses – and they had all been planted by someone who clearly… had no idea what they were doing.

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Holy Mother of Mothers

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
John 17:10-11

One of the most striking features in the worship space of the Lakota Lutheran Center in Scottsbluff — where I am currently serving as interim pastor — is a large, beautiful dreamcatcher adorned with feathers and butterflies that takes up the entirety of a large, round window high up in the wall behind the chancel. The image of the dreamcatcher kept coming back to me as I contemplated the readings for this Sunday. And not only did this image wind up in my sermon; I actually decided to weave a dreamcatcher while I preached!

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Sermon: Tiger by the Tail

Sunday, February 11, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Transfiguration Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 22:05; children’s sermon starts around 24:25; sermon starts around 33:26)

Reading: Mark 8:27-9:10

This Sunday, the kids and I talked about superheroes. Specifically, we talked about superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Batman, etc. who have secret identities. Inevitably in their stories, there seems to come a moment where the people in their lives who know them as relatively ordinary people – as Clark Kent or Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne – catch a glimpse of who’s behind the mask (or the cape and the giant ‘S’) and are shocked to find out that there’s a lot more to this person than they would have ever guessed. For the disciples in this Sunday’s reading, this moment of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop seems like one of those kinds of moments. Even though they (in theory) know Jesus’ true identity as the Messiah, it’s clear that until this moment, they had no real idea what that meant, and the truth is startling and a bit terrifying for them.

But we also talked briefly about how the gospels aren’t just some dry academic books that were written just for the sake of future posterity. They were written to and for specific communities of people who needed to hear the story. Mark wrote his gospel during the chaotic time immediately surrounding the destruction of the second temple. The people to whom he wrote needed a reminder that the God they served was still a superhero – one much stronger than any powers of empire, temple or no temple. And that story can still remind us and give us hope, that the God we continue to serve is a God of hope and love and peace much stronger than any power in this world.

There is a map of North America that makes the rounds on social media from time to time. It shows every single state and province on the continent, each one color-coded by how close it is to the ocean. There are coastal states in blue, then landlocked states, then double landlocked states. And right in the middle of the map, there is one lone state in red: Nebraska. We hold the distinction of being the only triply landlocked state in North America  – meaning that no matter which direction you go, you have to go through at least three other states before you reach the ocean.

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Sermon: La La La, I’m Not Listening

Sunday, February 4, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:23; children’s sermon starts around 29:05; sermon starts around 40:14)

Reading: Mark 6:1-29

Hehe, for the children’s sermon, I wore a large pair of headphones that completely covered my ears and then pretended I couldn’t hear anything they were saying. They finally convinced me to take them off, and we talked about the things that make it hard for us to hear sometimes. Sometimes those are physical things, but sometimes they aren’t – sometimes it’s hard for us to hear/listen when people are telling us things we don’t want to hear. Our long reading from the gospel of Mark has three stories that involve people not wanting to listen to what Jesus has to say, what his disciples have to say, or what John the Baptist has to say. We talked about the importance of listening, especially to God and to our parents and to other people that we know love us and have our best interest at heart – it’s important for us to be aware of the things that make it hard for us to listen, especially when someone is saying things it would be good for us to hear. And we gave thanks that God always listens to us.

One of the things I enjoy most about living in a city again is the opportunity to meet new people. But whenever these new people find out that I am a pastor, I have found that they almost always tend to have the exact same reaction. It doesn’t matter if they’re Christian or not, or even if they’re religious or not, they almost always do the same thing – or, rather, they stop doing the same thing. Any guesses what it is?

It’s swearing. People almost always stop swearing or apologize for swearing around me the instant they find out I’m a pastor. It’s honestly kind of hilarious to me, because if you’ve spent much time at all talking with me in casual conversation, you already know that I don’t give a flying ffffff…fruitcake about people swearing. I do try to rein myself in in church though, heh.

This reaction seems to reflect a particular mindset that people often have about clergy – that because of our vocation, we are somehow holier, saintlier people than the average person. But if you actually read some of the stories in the bible about the people God chooses to call – this whole cabal of losers, rednecks, murderers, sex offenders, criminals, and outcasts – you really start to get the sense that maybe being called into God’s service isn’t exactly a compliment. (lol)

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Sermon: Be Not Afraid; Believe.

Sunday, January 28, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 22:28; children’s sermon starts around 25:12; sermon starts around 36:16)

Reading: Mark 5:21-43

In the children’s sermon, we talked about what it feels like when we get really sick, and we tried to imagine what it might be like to be sick – and bleeding! – for twelve long years. We talked about ancient worldviews about sickness and ritual uncleanness and how lonely life must have been for this woman with the hemorrhages. She wasn’t supposed to be there with all the people in the crowd, and she manages to get close enough to touch Jesus without anyone seeing her. But Jesus sees her – really sees her, in all her suffering – and declares in front of everyone that she has been made well and whole. Whenever we are sick or suffering and feel like no one notices or cares, we can trust that Jesus sees us too – really sees us – and holds us in love.

When I was in eighth or ninth grade, I started getting into a lot of honor bands and honor choirs. I was discovering that I really liked to sing, and it turned out that I was actually pretty decent at it! Plus, playing and singing in these honor ensembles gave me a great opportunity to get out of my tiny hometown for a while and meet some new people and see at least a little bit more of the world.

I got my first solo in an honor choir when I was only 14. I was so excited! There were a lot of people who auditioned for it, most of whom were upperclassmen – but I still came out on top. 😎 We had to wait until after lunch to find out who got the solo. When we came back to rehearsal, the director – who clearly didn’t know any of our names – stood up and announced that the solo would be performed by… “The young woman wearing the ‘Colorado’ shirt!” I remember kind of looking around and then finally looking down and realizing, “Holy crap, that’s me!!” 

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Sermon: Power to Free

Sunday, January 21, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Third Sunday after Epiphany
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 22:26; children’s sermon starts around 24:39; sermon starts around 35:38)

Reading: Mark 5:1-20

In the children’s sermon today, we talked about the work of chaplains – pastor-ish people who work in settings like prisons and hospitals and the military – in places where people might be suffering or under great stress or in need of hope. I talked especially about my experience working as a hospital chaplain. Like me, most chaplains don’t tend to have much of a medical background; we don’t have the knowledge or skill to heal sick and injured people who come to the hospital.

So I asked the children why so many hospitals would hire chaplains, knowing that they can’t actually make anybody better. We talked about what a blessing it can be for someone who is lonely or suffering or in pain to know that they aren’t alone, to know that someone cares. I asked them to think about times they have been lonely or sad or hurting and someone was there for them.

In our reading, Jesus steps off a boat and meets this man who is plagued with demons. His community doesn’t seem to know what to do with him, so they chain him up out in the cemetery and leave him there alone. He was already suffering from this whole demon situation, but no doubt this rejection and isolation from his community made things feel so much worse for him.

We imagined together how much different this man’s life might have been if his community had treated him with kindness and sat with him in his suffering. They didn’t have the ability to heal him, like Jesus does in the story, but we agreed that they could have made his life a whole lot better by showing him compassion.

It’s perhaps the most important lesson I learned as a chaplain: sometimes people are going through hard things that we just can’t fix. And we might be tempted to avoid them because there’s nothing we can say or do to make things better. But just showing up and being present, showing someone you care and that they’re not alone, can make more of a difference than we know. We can be a physical, tangible sign of God’s unfailing love in the moments when people need it the most – and that is an extraordinary blessing indeed.

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Sermon: Sooner or Later, Love Comes for Us All

Sunday, January 7, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Baptism of Our Lord
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:24; children’s sermon starts around 27:29; sermon starts around 36:04)

Reading: Mark 1:21-45

For the children’s sermon today, I asked the children about their first and middle names, whether they knew what their names meant or why they had been given those names (there were a few phone-a-friends to the rest of the assembly, haha). I shared that “Day” is actually not my given name, but is actually a nickname that sort of squishes together my first and middle names: Amanda (which means “beloved”) and Kay, which is a family name.

Four generations of Kays at Christmas 2023: Grandma Kay, my Aunt Charlotte Kay, me (Amanda Kay), and my cousin’s daughter (Charlotte’s granddaughter) Madisyn Kay
.

We talked about how names are given to us by people who love us, which is why they often have special meaning and show a sense of belonging. I told the kids that they have another very special name, one they might not think about all that often, but one they got right there in church, or in a similar place. And that name is “Child of God.” We talked about how God names us and claims us through the waters of baptism. God comes to us with the same kind of persistent, healing, compassionate love that we see Jesus spreading around all over in our bible reading for today. I ended by having the kids go around in a circle (including me!), dipping their fingers in a bowl of water and making the sign of the cross on each other’s foreheads, saying: “[name], you are a precious child of God, and Jesus loves you very much.”

You all will probably laugh when I tell you this – but, believe it or not, there was a time in my life when I was really, really shy and nervous about making friends with new people. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true!

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Sermon: Joy Abounds

Sunday, December 10, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Third Sunday of Advent
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:54; children’s sermon starts around 27:20; sermon starts around 36:08)

Reading(s): Ezra 1:1-4, 3:1-4, 3:10-13, (Luke 2:25-32)

For the children’s sermon today, I brought in some stockings and a tree skirt and asked the kids if they have things like this at home, and how they feel when they start to see these kinds of decorations coming out. We talked about the happiness and excitement we feel as Christmas gets closer, how we look forward to gifts and festive food and celebration and lights. Even before we get to all those things, we feel the joy of anticipation and expectation. In our bible reading for today, the Israelites joyfully celebrate the signs of something that they have been waiting for: the foundation of a new temple. We remember that, even though Advent is a season of darkness and of waiting for light, it is also a season of joy, as we wait with joyful expectation for the good things that God has promised us.

If the last couple of weeks have seemed longer than usual, there’s a good reason why. We started our Advent season with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and now it’s been 70 years since then! Most of the people of Israel are still living in exile in Babylon. And you can imagine, after all that time, new generations of Israelites have been born; these generations have only heard stories from their parents and grandparents about their beautiful homeland and their once-glorious kingdom. By this time, there are only a handful of people left who have actually seen it.

But, after 70 long years of exile, the tides suddenly turn for God’s people – and it happens for them in the most unexpected way imaginable. The mighty Babylonian empire that had held them captive for decades is abruptly overthrown! And who might their great liberator be? Is it the promised Messiah? Is it Elijah? Or maybe Moses – you know, the “Let my people go!” guy? Nope! Their liberator is a Persian king named Cyrus the Great. 

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Sermon: Peace Endures

Sunday, December 3, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Second Sunday of Advent
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 24:16; children’s sermon starts around 25:59; sermon starts around 32:05)

Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11

In today’s children’s sermon, the kids and I got a bit philosophical. I asked them to tell me what peace is, and what sort of things they picture when they think about peace. We talked about peace as the absence of conflict and fighting and war, and imagined peace as things like a gentle snowfall or a sunset or a quiet river.

I then gave them a hypothetical scenario: imagine you and one of your siblings are arguing about something (very difficult to imagine, I know 😜). Things get heated, and eventually your sibling shoves you really hard. What do you do? You shove them right back! Unfortunately, right at that moment, one of your parents walks in the room and sees you shove your sibling. You both get sent to your rooms for fighting, but for you, your parent takes the extra step of taking away your tech (tablet, phone, etc.) too. So now it’s quiet in the house; there’s no more fighting. For your parents, it’s peaceful; for your sibling, it’s probably pretty peaceful even though they’re in their room. But how do you think you’d feel? Would it feel like peace to you? Probably not!

When there’s only peace for some, but not for everyone, it’s not really peace at all. And we talked about the important role that justice plays in bringing about peace. God is interested in true peace, and that’s what Isaiah is talking about in our reading for today: Comfort, O comfort my people, he says, and he describes God like a shepherd who carries the lambs tenderly in their arms and leads the mama sheep. God’s peace is tender and loving; it is forever and for everyone.

My parents took me on my very first camping trip when I was only two months old. My family went camping for fun quite a lot when I was growing up. We lived about 40 minutes south of Gavin’s Point up in South Dakota; and in the summers, we’d pack up the van and go up and fish in the Missouri and swim and canoe in Lake Yankton and, as often as not, we’d camp out in the recreational area up there by the river.

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Sermon: Hope Springs

Sunday, November 26, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
First Sunday of Advent
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 24:27; children’s sermon starts around 25:49; sermon starts around 33:53)

Reading: Jeremiah 33:10-18

In the children’s message today, I brought a brightly wrapped gift box and we talked about the anticipation of gifts under the tree. The brightly wrapped boxes are beautiful and mysterious, and we know that there’s something good inside, because they were placed there by people who love us. We think about them and wonder what’s inside – we wait with expectation and excitement to open them. This is the kind of waiting that we do during the season of Advent – except we are waiting for something much greater than a gift under a tree. Likewise in our reading, Jeremiah and his people are waiting for something – they are waiting for God to restore their kingdom. They don’t yet realize that what God has in store for them is a kingdom of peace and salvation for the whole earth! That’s what we are waiting for too.

Jeremiah began his career as a prophet during the reign of King Josiah. You might remember Josiah from last Sunday – he was the one good king after a whole string of terrible ones; after the rediscovery of the book of the law, he leads the whole people of Israel to repent and recommit themselves to the covenant. I imagine it was a pretty good time to be a prophet. I mean, not everyone was crazy about Jeremiah’s message – like most prophets, he preached that people needed to repent and turn back to God. But the king was clearly on board with what Jeremiah had to say, so not too many people are going to argue with that!

But then King Josiah dies, and things quickly take a turn for the worse. Josiah’s successors immediately revert back to the ways of the kings before him. They and the people of Israel go back to worshiping whatever they feel like worshiping and forget God all over again. They also ignore the advice of Jeremiah and other prophets regarding their precarious political situation. See, Israel was situated on this narrow strip of land, sandwiched between two powerful empires: Babylon to the northeast, and Egypt to the southwest. These two empires had been in contention with each other for quite some time. But instead of doing their best to steer clear of this conflict, the kings of Israel manage to step right in it. They make deals with both empires, trying to hedge their bets, and it eventually comes back to bite them in the butt, big time.

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Sermon: Embarrassed and Blessed

Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Thanksgiving Eve Eve
watch this service online (reading starts around 16:13; children’s sermon starts around 17:41; sermon starts around 27:58)

Reading: Luke 17:11-19

For the children’s message, I asked the kids about times that they have been kind to someone else or given someone else a gift, and about how it felt to be thanked (or not). I also asked about times that someone has done something kind for them. We’ve talked a lot about the importance of showing love to others through being kind, and gratitude and appreciation are another important way that we show love. In our reading, Jesus heals ten men with a skin condition, but only one of them turns back to thank him. This doesn’t mean that the other nine are then un-healed or that this guy somehow earned his healing. Jesus healed them because Jesus gonna Jesus. But this guy recognizes with joy that God has blessed him and he shows love back to Jesus, just as Jesus showed love to him. We then ended with a popcorn prayer about ways that people have shown love to us.

We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the last four months or so that I’ve been here. Wouldn’t you say? So tonight I want to start by getting a little personal. And by personal, I mostly mean kinda gross. 

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Sermon: Never Too Little, Never Too Late

Sunday, November 19, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Reign of Christ Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 22:58; children’s sermon starts around 26:19; sermon starts around 37:02)

Readings: 2 Kings 22:1-20, 23:1-3; Luke 24:30-32

In the children’s sermon today, we talked about how even though we read the bible in English, it was originally written in Greek and Hebrew and a bit of Aramaic, usually on papyrus scrolls and big vellum books called codices. I told them about how the seminary I went to in Chicago (LSTC) had this extremely rare codex in their library – a Greek manuscript of the complete New Testament (albeit in a bit of a funky order) that was over a thousand years old. It was one of only about 60 complete Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the entire world – so you can imagine what a precious and special document it was!

Now, Chicago is not necessarily the first place you’d expect to find a thousand year old Greek manuscript, and obviously it’s not where the book originally came from. The manuscript originally belonged to the Kosinitza monastery in Greece. Following a couple of wars about a hundred years ago, the monastery was looted and several documents were stolen, including this manuscript. It was sold a few times and eventually ended up being given to the seminary as a gift.

This whole history came to light in 2016. Representatives of the Greek orthodox church reached out to LSTC and said, “Hey, we’ve been tracking down all these documents that were stolen from us and you’ve got one in your library. We’d like it back, please.” And the seminary – to the children’s surprise – said yes. I actually got to be present at the ceremony in which they handed it over. This story is a good reminder that we are not to blame for the mistakes made by the people who came before us. But we are responsible for the choices that we make – and we can choose to make things right by doing the right thing.

In our bible reading, we read about a king named Josiah. His secretary finds a book of the law as they are making renovations on the temple and he brings it and reads it to the king. Josiah tears his clothes upon hearing the word of the law, because he realizes that he and his people have wandered completely away from these teachings. So he calls all the people together and reads the book to them, and together they all repent and recommit themselves to the covenant.

It probably wasn’t easy for Josiah to admit that he was in the wrong, or to go against what all the other people in the kingdom were doing. But he knew it was the right thing to do – and it made God happy to see him do it. Josiah decided to do the right thing, and it made a difference.

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Sermon: For the Love of God

Sunday, November 12, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:23; children’s sermon starts around 24:50; sermon starts around 32:16)

Reading: Hosea 11:1-9

For the children’s sermon today, we talked about how we sometimes do things that drive our parents crazy. I showed the kids a picture of me when I was young; I used to have really, really long hair and I was always getting in trouble with my parents for not washing it. We talked about how our parents forgive us and keep teaching us to do better because they love us. God in our reading for today is like a parent frustrated with their wayward children, but whose mercy goes far deeper than any human mercy.

If you are a parent – or if you act in some kind of parental role in your life – I wonder if you’ve ever found yourself saying things like: “How many more times do I have to tell you not to do that?” or “If I have to tell you this one more time, so help me, God…” Probably a few times? Or, if you’re someone who doesn’t do a lot of parenting, I wonder how often you’ve heard your own parents say things like this. I’m betting the answer is: more than once. I have definitely caught myself saying similar things to my cats, lol. Or even with my younger siblings growing up, it was just natural to slip into that bossy older sister kind of role and get fed up with my siblings when they didn’t listen. It just seems to be the case that there’s no one who can get under your skin quite like the people you love the most. And parenting in particular tends to be an exhausting and mostly thankless endeaver. It’s not hard to lose your patience and get exasperated.

That is definitely the vibe God is giving off in our reading today from Hosea. God has had it up to here with God’s people. And it’s not just the northern kingdom, like we’ve been talking about. Hosea mentions “Israel” and “Ephraim,” which were both names used to refer to the northern kingdom, but it is clear that it’s the entire people of Israel who are on their way to a much-deserved time-out. 

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Sermon: Here We Stand

Sunday, November 5, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
All Saints Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 28:27; children’s sermon starts around 33:14; sermon starts around 44:12)

Reading: 1 Kings 18:17-39

In the children’s message today, I pitted the children against one another and tried to get them to peer pressure one another to join one of two teams: Team Purple Bat and Team Two Snakes (I had a bunch of random toys leftover from Halloween). We talked about what peer pressure is and what it feels like, and how it can be hard sometimes to know what is right when so many voices are telling you what to do. I likened it to what the people of Israel are experiencing in the reading, as both Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal are trying to convince them which god(s) they should worship. Elijah reminds the people of who God is and what God has done for them and then seals the deal with an over-the-top fiery display of divine power.

Since we last left the people of ancient Israel, things have gone massively downhill for them. You might remember that last Sunday we read about how a guy named Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, managed to split the people of Israel into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Everybody Else. Since then, the divided kingdoms have both had a string of lousy kings, each one worse than the last. They have neglected their neighbor; they have failed to repair their relationship with their own kin – and you can easily imagine that their relationship with God is in an even worse state!

But by the time we get to our reading for today, they have reached a new low with the rise of a new king named Ahab. Prior to Ahab, the kings of the northern kingdom (AKA the kingdom of everbody else) hadn’t set the greatest examples for their people, but they at least kind of let people do whatever they wanted to do as far as which gods they followed. But Ahab and his wife Jezebel decide to actively persecute those who are devoted to God. They tear down all the altars across the kingdom and they kill every last prophet they can get their hands on. As Elijah says, he alone is left, since all the other surviving prophets have either hidden themselves or fled.

But God is not done with Elijah. Shortly before Elijah himself goes into hiding, God tells him to go to Ahab and to prophesy that there will be a massive drought. This royally infuriates Ahab; and he spends the next several years trying to hunt Elijah down – I guess he didn’t get the concept of, “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

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Con/Re/fir/for/mation Sunday!

Sunday, October 29, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Reformation Sunday
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 23:23; children’s sermon starts around 26:55; confirmation/affirmation of baptism rite starts around 40:40)

Reading: 1 Kings 12:1-17, 25-29

Today was Reformation Sunday and we confirmed a couple of young women, and I took the opportunity not to write an entire sermon, haha. But I did do a children’s sermon, just before the rite of confirmation – which, in the Lutheran church, we also call “affirmation of baptism.” You can watch it (and the whole service) at the link above; otherwise, this is the rough outline of what we talked about:

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Sermon: All the Cool Kids Have Kings

Sunday, October 22, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 26:30; children’s sermon starts around 29:05; sermon starts around 34:49)

Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5; Psalm 150

For the children’s sermon today, I brought a box of spaghetti and told them the story about the first time I tried making spaghetti on my own. We talked about how we don’t always listen very well to our parents, or we think we know better than they do, but it rarely turns out well for us. Our readings today are a short snippet out of the longer story of David. David is eager and excited about what God is doing and wants to help – kind of like me with the spaghetti – but he doesn’t take the time to make sure that he’s doing what God wants him to do; and it doesn’t go very well for him either. But even though David messes things up – sometimes in really bad ways that end up hurting other people – God still loves him. God loves David’s big, enthusiastic heart and keeps guiding him toward what’s right. And David comes to realize that God really does know what is best for him.

Hospitality has always been a really important value for me. I love getting to host friends at my home, to invite them over and cook for them. And just in general, it matters a lot to me that people feel welcome – for whatever reason, this is just something that really fills my cup. And I have been this way for as long as I can remember.

The folks in the Gather bible study heard me tell this story a few weeks ago, but when I was quite young, maybe six or seven, I remember being really, really excited by the idea of people coming over to our house. I don’t even remember for sure if we actually had plans at the time to have anyone at the house. I mean, my mom’s side of the family would come over from Iowa fairly often to stay with us, so it would make sense that maybe they were coming. 

But I just remember being so excited to welcome people and make them feel at home. And I was so disappointed that we didn’t have any kind of like big welcome banner out in front of our house to let people know that they were welcome. So I decided to take it upon myself to make one! I went rooting around in our stash of craft supplies, but just couldn’t find any paper quite big enough to reflect my grandiose vision for this banner. 

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Sermon: Ride or Die

Sunday, October 15, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 21:35; sermon starts around 26:45)

Reading: Ruth 1:1-17; 4:13-17

(No kids in the first service, so no children’s sermon in the online recording of worship today)

I think it was in sixth grade that I first realized that kindness is a superpower. That’s the year that my friend Kacy moved to town. The town I grew up in was really, really tiny – only around 500 people. There was only one school in town, and it was K-12 – sort of the 20th/21st century version of the one-room schoolhouse, except it was one building instead of just one room, haha. This meant that I was with the same group of 14-16 other kids from the time we started kindergarten all the way through to our high school graduation. So you can imagine that when anyone new moved to town, it was a pretty big deal. And Kacy was instantly popular – she was tall and cool and super pretty, and all the popular kids immediately wanted to be her friends. 

It might shock you to learn this, but I was decidedly not one of the popular kids – not even close. My social position at school was more along the lines of dangling-at-the-bottom-of-the-food-chain – and for the most part, the popular crowd either bullied me or just plain ignored me; so when Kacy joined our class, she and I didn’t really have a whole lot to do with each other at first.

But partway through the school year, right around the time when Kacy’s shiny newness was starting to wear off, she started having some medical issues. She ended up having to get spinal surgery for scoliosis, and it left her with this very distinctive, stiff kind of way of moving around, as well as some massive scars. Suddenly, Kacy was different, and it was just enough to make her social status plummet practically overnight. 

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Sermon: The Only Letter of the Law is Love

Sunday, October 8, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 23:18; children’s sermon starts around 27:11; sermon starts around 39:53)

Readings: Deuteronomy 5:1-21; 6:4-9, Mark 12:28-31

For the children’s sermon, I brought in a bag of different kinds of “apples” – there were Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, and Granny Smith apples, but then also a banana and a tomato, haha. I tried to convince the kids that all of them were different kinds of apples. When they disagreed, I asked them to explain to me how they know what is and isn’t an apple – What are the rules? Who decides? We talked about how interesting and weird it is the way that rules can define something’s identity. What are some rules that define our identity – in our families? In our church? Rules aren’t just something that grownups impose on us because they can or because they want to be mean; rules are often about how we live together in community – they’re how we know we belong. In our reading for this morning, we hear our pal Moses reminding the people about the ten commandments God gave them – it’s not just a list of rules; it’s a set of guidelines for what it means to be one of God’s people – a list of characteristics for being God’s apples, lol. And as much as it does make God happy when we try to live by these commandments, the truth is that they’re actually more for our benefit – God gives us the commandments as instructions for how to live well.

One of the defining questions humans have been asking for as long as we’ve been human-ing is: What does it mean to belong? It’s a question that has especially concerned religious people and religious groups throughout our history. How do we know who we are? How do we know who is one of us and who isn’t? What does it mean for us to belong?

Back in the days of Moses, for his people, the Israelites, the answer(s) to this question were pretty straightforward and clear. To belong to their people meant being a descendant of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob/Israel. It meant having not only this shared familial connection, but also this shared history. And it also meant living in a certain way, according to a certain set of practices.

All this is what Moses is basically laying out throughout the entire book of Deuteronomy. He has led his people safely through the sea and out of Egypt; they’ve taken the (very) scenic route through the wilderness; and now they are on the verge of finally entering the promised land. And Moses takes this opportunity to remind his people of who they are, by telling them the story of where they have been – by telling them the story of all that God has done for them. 

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Sermon: I AM Still Is

Sunday, October 1, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 22:07; children’s sermon starts around 28:26; sermon starts around 39:02)

Reading: Exodus 1:8-2:10; 3:1-15

I started out the children’s sermon by asking the kids about bullying and was pleasantly surprised when almost none of them had had any significant experiences with bullying (that was emphatically *not* my childhood experience!). But we talked about imagining how it feels to be bullied and why it can be so hard to stand up to someone who is bullying people – and what it feels like to someone being bullied to have someone else stand up for them. We talked about the violent actions of Pharaoh in our bible reading and about the courage of those who opposed him. Moses, the midwives, and everyone who resisted Pharaoh’s violent plans was motivated by love – love for God and love for their people – while Pharaoh was motivated by hate and resentment. And love is the side that wins. This is how we can overcome bullying and the like as well: by choosing love – showing love to those who are being bullied, and even to the bullies themselves, who are often deeply in need of love.

This story of God calling Moses in our bible reading for today is one that’s very familiar to us. But as you probably noticed, this reading is such a long one that it’s hard to remember all the particular details. Everyone remembers little baby Moses in the basket, and then Moses at the burning bush – and maybe you remembered God declaring to Moses, “I AM who I am.” It’s a lot less pleasant to remember that the whole inciting incident behind the story of Moses and all the amazing things he saw and experienced was the mass murder of children.

The trouble begins with a breakdown of relationship. It was Jacob’s son Joseph who had brought the Hebrew people down to live in Egypt. He was the one who had a good relationship with the Pharaoh, and in return, the Pharaoh had given him land for him and his family to settle in and prosper. But time has passed; Joseph and his brothers and that entire generation have died, and now there’s a new Pharaoh in town. And this Pharaoh deeply resents the wealth and security and comfort that the Hebrew people have built up for themselves in Egypt.

So he starts riling up the Egyptian people against the Hebrews by stoking feelings of fear and xenophobia toward them. He says to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we are. We better do something about this, or they will just keep reproducing and then probably turn on us at the first opportunity when some other country declares war on us.” So the Egyptians basically enslave the Hebrews, imposing harsh conditions and hard labor on them. But to Pharaoh’s great consternation, the Israelites continue to flourish and multiply. Now there are even more of them – and he has just given all of them pretty good reasons to be upset with him and the Egyptian people. 

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Sermon: The Struggle Is Real

Sunday, September 24, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 22:07; children’s sermon starts around 24:29; sermon starts around 34:24)

Reading: Genesis 32:9-13, 22-30

In today’s children’s sermon, we talked about siblings and why it’s so hard to get along with them. We talked about the story of Jacob and Esau – how Jacob tricks and cheats his brother and runs away when his brother gets angry, and how now he’s coming home after 20 years to face his brother again and beg for his forgiveness. Jacob is feeling guilty and afraid; I asked the kids if they’ve ever done something they later felt bad about, or that hurt someone, and they had to apologize. It’s a crummy feeling – it feels bad to have to admit that we are someone who is wrong and who made a mistake, or to own up that we hurt someone. But with God’s help, Jacob does it – and to his great surprise, Esau not only forgives him; he runs down the road to meet him, wraps him in a big bear hug, and literally starts crying because he’s so happy to see his long lost brother alive. We talked about how Jacob would never have experienced this beautiful moment of reconciliation if he hadn’t done the right thing like God called him to do, if he hadn’t faced his fears and taken accountability. Some of the best blessings we receive only come through the struggle of doing the hard thing to make things right.

One of the requirements for becoming a pastor in the ELCA is completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). Broadly speaking, CPE is kind of like a cross between a hospital chaplaincy internship and group therapy. Most seminarians do it over the course of a summer as an intense, ten week program. You’re placed with a small cohort of other people who all mutually support and challenge one other. The whole purpose of CPE is to help candidates for ministry hone their pastoral care skills and to make them really dig in and figure out who they are as leaders in ministry. 

I did my CPE through a program in Chicago called Urban CPE. In Urban CPE, instead of being all together at one hospital, each of us in my little cohort was placed at a different site around the city. That meant that after we applied and interviewed and were accepted into the program, we then also had to set up more interviews with multiple different sites in order to be placed. It was a long process.

I had applied to Urban CPE in hopes of working in a mostly Spanish-speaking or bilingual site – but sadly, after I got accepted, I found out that that particular summer, they didn’t have any. So I interviewed at a couple of places that seemed interesting, but then it was easy to kind of let it get pushed to the backburner as the semester got busy. 

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