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- Written by: Pastor Tobias
- Category: Sermons
Lent is a forty-day long journey of remembering that we bask in grace, not condemnation. Grace, not condemnation. Grace, made possible by God in Jesus in a way that seeks to change our lives, even now, and that claims us in love, even now, as well as into eternity.
Ok, we’re done here. Message for today has been shared…Well, maybe there’s just a wee bit more to say. You see, as I was reading up and pondering ahead of today’s homily, I came across an article by Robin Lovett-Owen in the Living Lutheran magazine (Jan/Feb. 2023). Lovett-Owen was pondering her struggles with dieting, and reflected that (and I quote), “for many people, Lent becomes a Jesus-sanctioned diet. Since Jesus fasted for forty days, we give up sugar, soda, or bread, or whatever else we think will help us shed a pound or two by Easter.”
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- Written by: Pastor Tobias
- Category: Sermons
There is something I enjoy about shredding paper. I know, that might sound funny or little odd. I don’t know whether it’s the repetitive action leading to a sense of accomplishment when a pile of paper is gone, or what exactly it is about this activity that I enjoy.
But I think there may also be something deeper than just shredding old documents going on here. You see, sometimes when I’m shredding papers I come across items from the past – old bills from the school my kids used to attend, or more recently, I was shredding old checks from before I got married this past May, checks that only had my name on them. In these moments I found myself not only letting go of those papers, but letting the memories (good ones mostly from my kid’s old school) or the acknowledgment of change (another good memory, in this case getting married), become more deeply integrated into me and my personal history. There were times in the past where documents were connected to a painful divorce, or to years that were challenging in other ways, too.
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- Written by: Pastor Tobias
- Category: Sermons
The Transfiguration of Jesus marks God’s revealing of the potential for all of our lives and this whole world to be changed, and it marks the beginning of the new community that Christ is seeking to build around him. But what sort of world and lives does God in Christ seek to change?
I’ve been thinking about St. Valentine, who, despite Hallmark’s co-opting of his name for a holiday currently known most for cards, flowers, and candy, was, from what we know, jailed and killed - martyred for sharing his Christian faith in the 3rd century and for taking care of other Christians. I’ve been thinking about all the ways people still persecute and even kill each other because of their faith – be it Jewish or Muslim or still in some places Christian.
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- Written by: Pastor Tobias
- Category: Sermons
There, on that mountainside so long ago; there where the people gathered around Jesus for what would become known as the Sermon on the Mount – we started talking about this last week; there on that mountainside where the people gathered around Jesus – who had already been seen to heal and heard to teach about the kingdom of God come near; there on that mountainside the people were gathering in worship – for what we today would call “church.”
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- Written by: Pastor Tobias
- Category: Sermons
If there is one thing that we humans do faithfully, it is to disappoint ourselves and those around us with our faithlessness.
This is Holocaust remembrance week, and as one commentator I heard reflecting on the atrocities committed by the Nazis - including the murder of over six million Jewish people, along with others such as gypsies, gay men, Jehovah’s witnesses; as one commentator reflected, lest we think ourselves – as one of the countries that formed the “Allies” that ultimately freed those trapped in concentration camps – lest we think ourselves blameless, we should remember that it took us of the Allied countries twelve years to open those gates to freedom. Twelve years to muster the will to stand against the ideology of the Nazis that taught that only certain people are worthy, only certain skin colors and sexualities. And we should not forget that Hitler and those fed by his nationalistic fervor were given as a part of their diet of false superiority and lies the belief that they were the chosen ones of God, even soiling the word Christianity and all its inherent mercy-implying, love-multiplying roots made possible in our Savior’s all-embracing – all-embracing sacrifice - by applying this term Christianity as a name for themselves.