Tag: bible

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
.

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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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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Christmas Eve

In case you’re looking for a place to worship this Christmas Eve, I’d like to extend to you an invitation to worship with us! Some clergy friends and I got together to record a service at a church in the area and we’d love for you to join us. There will be music and scripture and candlelight and — God willing — a bit of sacred space to encounter anew the wonder of the incarnation.

The video premieres here on our public Facebook page at 6pm Central on December 24, 2020 (no need to have an account to be able to watch it).

And you can follow along with the digital bulletin here on our website.

Merry Christmas to you! And blessings to you and yours this holiday season.

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