God’s grace and peace be with all of you. Happy Epiphany! The 12 days of the Christmas season are over, and today is the festival known as Epiphany. On this day we remember the arrival of the last, and most mysterious, witnesses to the birth of Jesus: the magi. We see them in our nativity … Continue reading Follow the Star, Make the Choice (a sermon for Epiphany)
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. When I was 13 years old, I lived through a terrible forest fire. It was the spring of my 8th grade year when the forest service started a controlled burn outside of my hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico. That controlled burn rapidly spiraled out of … Continue reading When it Feels like the End of the World (a sermon on Mark 13:1-8)
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. “A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins… Jesus said, ‘She out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’” I was supposed to preach a stewardship sermon today. It’s the time of year when we … Continue reading She Gave Up Her Life (a sermon on Mark 12:38-44)
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. Today is Reformation Sunday, and I have a confession to make: I don’t want to be called “Lutheran” anymore. Now, when I say that, you have to know, I was baptized in the Lutheran church. I was raised in the Lutheran church, I was confirmed in … Continue reading A Sermon for Reformation Sunday
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. There are a lot of differences among Christians on all sorts of things. How we worship, what we teach, how we make decisions, who is allowed to lead—these matters look very different in a Lutheran church compared to a Baptist church, a Catholic parish or a … Continue reading Come, Follow Me (a sermon on Mark 10:17-31)
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. Our gospel reading today comes from John chapter 6, which is one long continuous narrative known as the “Bread of Life Discourse.” John 6 begins with a familiar miracle: the feeding of the 5000. Jesus asks his disciples how they are going to feed these crowds, … Continue reading Eat the Body of Christ (a sermon on John 6)
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. As we’ve been telling you the past several weeks, this Sunday kicks off a special, three-week sermon series on Shepherd of the Valley’s mission statement. For those who may not know, our mission statement is “Seek the Lord, Study God’s Word, Serve the World.” This morning, … Continue reading Seek the Lord
God’s grace and peace be with all of you. This week, as you can see, we had Vacation Bible School here at Shepherd of the Valley. It was a wonderful, exciting, and tiring week for the 25 kids who participated and the many volunteers who helped to make VBS a success. This week at VBS, … Continue reading VBS Sunday Sermon
Last Sunday's (June 3rd) sermon. God’s grace and peace be with all of you. In seminary, sometimes your seminary professors will say something that completely blows your mind. Pastor Nikki, you probably had that experience in seminary, right? And I’m sure it’s not just seminary, I think anyone who has had a really wonderful … Continue reading Sabbath (a sermon on Mark 2:23-3:6)
God’s grace and peace be with you all. I was ordained July 1st, 2012—almost six years ago now. At the ordination service, I asked one of the pastors who had mentored me, a man by the name of Jay Spoonheim, to be the preacher. He had a particular way of describing the role of a … Continue reading Good Shepherds (a sermon on John 10:11-18)
