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Sermon for March 15, 2009 on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

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Sermon for March 8, 2009 on Mark 8:31-39

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I remember the first time I heard this Gospel reading in church. I was quite young with an over active imagination and I would capture the words and create pictures in my mind. This text stayed with me because the images are so striking—somewhat frightening actually. The disciples are scolded, they don’t understand, Jesus tells them to pick up a cross, there’s talk of losing one’s life… these are frightening images! And I would like to believe that with time, age, experience, and with a better view and understanding of the world that this passage would be less daunting… more manageable to my more mature ears and eyes. But still, still I find myself wrestling over what Jesus says… wrestling over what Jesus calls his disciples to do. Read more…

And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth… –John 14:15

Many people today doubt Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit. They cite declining church attendance as well as the indifference of many, particularly the youth. They fear that Christian belief will diminish and become irrelevant.

The history of the Soviet Union is instructive on this point. Lenin and Stalin believed that religion was “the opiate of the masses,” a device that secular leaders used to keep the common people under control. They disbanded the clergy and took over the church buildings. For 75 years their powerful publishing house, Pravda (Russian for “truth”), poured scorn and ridicule on followers of Christ, using such devices as cartoons showing Jesus being kicked out of his Church. When Communism collapsed Pravda fell on hard times with no more propaganda to publish. However they soon revived their fortunes with a new best seller which soon became their major product, the Holy Bible! The Holy Spirit had flourished underground and Christianity came back stronger than ever.

Two of the most ruthless tyrants in history showed that not only is the Holy Spirit not in danger of dying out from indifference, you can’t kill it.

Sermon for March 1, 2009 on Mark 1:9-15

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Today’s guest preacher is Pastor David Misenheimer. Pastor David comes to us from Kairos, a Christian Resource Development firm.

David Misenheimer has been a Kairos Consultant since 2001, after serving 25 years as a parish pastor. Having been pastor in three large Lutheran churches, his expertise is in visioning for larger and growing churches and developing action plans to achieve their vision for mission. His passion is stirring the Christian imagination of congregational leaders to answer the basic question, “What is God calling you to become now?” Then the joy is seeking discernment of God’s vision and sharing inspiration and resources to move confidently into God’s preferred future.

Sermon for  February 22, 2009 on Mark 9:2-9

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Have you ever had a perfect day or a perfect moment?  Everything around you is going right, and you are more certain of yourself and the world that you live in than you ever had been before?  Sometimes these moments come in grand events like parties and celebrations-sometimes it is a small gathering of people or even in the great release of quiet serenity.  One perfect moment that comes to mind happened almost two years ago- during my wedding.  After months of planning, trying to stay in our shoestring budget, attempting to coordinate the schedules of several family members, and worrying about the very unpredictable New England weather-Erik and I had the wonderful moment of coming together in matrimony with our closest friends and family present to witness.  It seemed perfect to us, and there was a part of me that wanted to hold onto the sure splendor of the moment.  Only bliss was present.  The worry of planning and the uncertainty of the future seemed nowhere near that beautiful day. And I have to tell you-Erik and I looked GOOD.  Our family looked good.  Everything looked great! But–the reality was that we couldn’t stay in the moment-or even in the place.  Time marched on.  We both had responsibilities, bills, tasks, plans, and callings to answer.  But it was very tempting to want to stay in the moment.

Read more…

Sermon for February 15, 2009 on Mark 1:40-45

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Sermon for February 8, 2009 on Mark 1:29-39

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How many of you have ever been in a car that has a GPS unit? For those of you who don’t know what they are or have never used one, the GPS unit or Global Positioning System is a little box that sits in your car and tells you which way to go. All you have to do is plug in your starting point and ending point and the GPS will get you there

(Or so they say.)

The first time I ever encountered a GPS was when I was up in North Carolina for my sister’s wedding. Heather and I were riding with my neice, Karen. She was so excited because she just installed the new GPS in her car. She turned it on as we were traveling from the rehearsal back to the hotel. I was enthralled! The voice from the GPS said, “Turn right onto such and such a street,” and Karen did, and off we were. About half way through the trip the GPS said, “Turn left in 200 feet.” Karen went straight. The GPS now said, “Recalibrating… Turn left in 300 feet.” Karen went straight! Now this was starting to drive me crazy. I know that my neice is a strong willed woman but why wasn’t she at least listening to this little box in her car?

Finally, after the fifth recalibration I said, “Karen, do you know where you’re going?”

“Oh yes,” she siad, “I know a much easier route.” Read more…

As I sit here in this beautiful sanctuary where we worship,  I think about the people that came before me. The members that had the vision to come together and build this church and make it a reality. Maybe there are many of you still here today who took part in that vision. If you are – thank you.

We now have that same opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many people that follow us. Ten or twenty years from now, someone will have shared the same joy we feel now and thank all of us for having the vision to move forward.

As we kick off this campaign, we set the stage for this church to come together with our vision, with our mission and with our dreams, all to do the work as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The morning of Saturday, February 7th was a beautiful morning! Perhaps you were out in Victory Park that morning as well. We were setting up for the February 8th Old-Fashioned Church Picnic the kick-off to the Capital Campaign Fund Drive.

I have seen pictures and heard stories about the church picnic, but I didn’t quite know what to expect when I arrived to help with the picnic preparations. I somewhat felt like I was getting ready for a wedding reception—there was talk of food preparations, canopy set-up, table moving, and chair arranging. Of course the picnic will have a water balloon toss and I have never personally been to a wedding with water balloons, but I can still be surprised!

The wonderful thing about the picnic preparation was the excitement. People were laughing and joking, planning and arranging, and coming with their own unique talent and vision. It was ministry in action!

There was one point in the picnic prep where we had to put up the awe-inspiring, colossal, circus replicating, king canopy. It was a tent! It was a gigantic tent with several poles, numerous connecting pieces, and a very large canvas roof. The slim to nil assembly instructions added to our feeling of discontentment. This tent was a challenge! One of the assemblers noted, “well we’ve been able to assemble the other canopies, so let’s try to do this one.” The tent lay in pieces all over the ground. We looked at each other with tentative expressions and began to wonder if we could succeed. We were called to the task, but were we up to it? Yes! It was now the time to raise that tent!

One by one we stepped up to the challenge and started saying—well I have this piece, what piece do you have… oh I think this piece can be used here, what do you think? When the giant job first grabbed our attention there were four of us trying to do the work. But soon many joined in, coming together, stepping in to help, lending a hand, offering a perspective, and keeping spirits high. Eventually there were 10-12 of us working on the giant task.

But then we discovered a snag in the challenge. There was one too many long connectors and one too few short connectors. What did we do with this challenge? The group came together and with creativity and intentional modifications made the tent work. As one large group we raised the tent top together and put it in place.

This is God’s call to us. We work together with intent. We are called to share Christ that all might live victoriously and we do this by working together in ministry. We all have our talents—some of us have the vision to plan, others to see the connecting pieces, some to instruct, and some to think creatively when there’s a snag in the plan. Now is the time for our energy, enthusiasm, faith, and teamwork to come together so that Christus Victor may spread God’s good news to our community and the world we live in today.