Sermons on Faith
What Exactly Does Emmanuel Mean?
4 Advent
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B Readings and Psalms: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16Luke 1:46b-55Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 (alternate)Romans 16:25-27Luke 1:26-38 Sunday 10:00 am Traditional Service What exactly does Emmanuel mean? Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Advent, Year B. December 18, 2020Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:46b-55; Luke 1:26-38Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Warrenton, VA. The Rev. Terri E.L. Church Picture the scene… A group of young people are telling stories and singing around a campfire. They may look typical enough, but these kids…
Lord Save Me
Come Worship Together Live & In-person! Our Saviour is incredibly pleased to have you join us for live in-person worship back inside the Nave and Sanctuary on both Saturday, August 8 at 5:30 pm and Sunday, August 9 at 10:00 am! Please click the “Read More” button below to get all the details, which will help ensure all who wish to worship together in person stay as safe as possible. For those who prefer to stay safer at home, join us…
The Eleventh Hour: A Sermon for Veterans’ Day
The first time I visited France, some thirty-five years ago, I noticed a curious sign posted on the Paris subway. In each car, next to a couple of seats, it said: “Reserved for disabled ex-servicemembers.” Well, that’s the translation. Really, the seats were reserved for mutilés de guerre, literally those who had been mutilated by war, who had lost limbs or eyes or organs. Those simple signs were a sobering reminder of the fact that there were, all around us in…
Shameless Prayer
Who changed the Lord’s Prayer? That’s a question that many people ask pastors when they get us alone. At first, it used to confuse me. But I think, nowadays, I have some sense of what they mean. Most of us grew up saying the Lord’s Prayer in one particular form, with all the archaic verbs and pronouns – Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, all the way down to the kingdom, the power and the glory,…
The Book of Nature
On a summer night just before the first grade, my mother woke me up and led me downstairs. My younger brothers and my sister must have joined us, but I don’t remember. I do remember that my father had made cream puffs, my favorite dessert, but that on this particular might he insisted that we call them Moon Puffs. And I remember sitting in front of our small black-and-white TV, with tin foil on the antennas, struggling to make out…
The Counterinsurgency Paradox
Ol’ Blue Eyes, Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra, was a good friend of Mr. Jack Daniels. Nor was he unacquainted with the occasional martini. He renewed these friendships on regular occasions in barrooms nationwide — gallivanting with the Rat Pack, drinking until all hours. Sinatra was such a beloved regular, in fact, that he had his own tables and barstools reserved for him, whenever he might show up, in nightclubs all across America. Which is not to say that he did…
Love Comes to Life
I was in talking to an atheist the other day. (Pastors meet more atheists than you might imagine.) This fellow had a question – “What should I expect, as an unbeliever, if I go to a church for the first time?” Without saying it directly, he was a little apprehensive. He was afraid, I think, of being judged, or mocked, or simply told “You aren’t welcome.” I told him not to worry. “Remember,” I said, “that you are going to…
I Am a Lutheran
Testimony for Reformation Sunday, October 27-28, 2018 Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36 I am a Lutheran, but I wasn’t always a Lutheran. I started off as a devout Southern Baptist, raised to love God, trusting that I was a part of God’s family, the church, because I had decided to follow Jesus. I loved the children’s ministries and the fun games we played and those summer mission camps. I loved the youth choirs and handbells and all…
When Memory Fades, the Story Goes On
This weekend we’re focusing on stories and memories and the impact of losing those stories and memories.
A Scary Place – Easter Sunday, 2018
My life, I sometimes think, really began when I was twenty-three years old. I was working a desk job in the city, living a life of quiet desperation. One day I quit, stuffed some clothes into a backpack and flew to the Caribbean. Not one of the nice islands, either. I went to Haiti, the poorest and most violent nation in the hemisphere, the land of voodoo and secret police. I had no friends; I didn’t speak the language; I…
Upside Down – Palm Sunday, 2018
There was a game that people used to play, back in the Middle Ages. On certain days, they would reverse their roles. Kings might dress up like peasants, and vice-versa. One version of this game was called “The Boy Bishop.” On the Feast of the Holy Innocents, in some places, a choirboy would be chosen as bishop for the day; he would be given a peaked hat and a shepherd’s staff, he would enter the cathedral and even lead some…
Quilts, a Cup of Cold Water, and a Community of Love
Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost/Lectionary 26/Proper 21, Year B; September 26-27, 2015 “Blessing of the Quilts” Weekend Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Psalm 19:7-14; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50 Wow! It is an amazing treat to come to worship on this particular weekend each year! I mean, when else do we see the place adorned so beautifully, feel the comfort of padding behind our backs, and sense—truly feel—the presence of God working through so many different hands during the…
Free Indeed – Reformation Day 2016
Some people say that the posting of the 95 Theses, which we remember today, was the birthday of the Lutheran Church. But that was just one scholar inviting other scholars to an academic debate.
The Elevation Squint – Christmas Eve 2015
Old European churches were built with something called a chancel screen — a sort of wall that separated the place where people sit from the area around the altar. This meant that during communion, you could not see what was happening.