Introduction 2024 Sermons 2026 Sermons
2025
January 5, Epiphany
Texts: Matthew 12:1-12; Eph 3:1-12; Isa 60:1-6
Sermon: “Living in Times of Tyrant Kings as the Opportunity to Refuse Being Enemies”
Sermon Notes (one-page overview)
Synopsis: The sermon’s main inspiration is chapter 5, “In the Time of Tyrant Kings,” from Brian Zahnd’s Postcards from Babylon: The Church in American Exile, but is also backed by Paul’s theme of creating one new humanity in Ephesians 1-3. The concluding illustration is the Lutheran Palestinian farm near Bethlehem, the “Tent of Nations,” whose motto is, “We refuse to be enemies.”
January 12, Epiphany 1C
Texts: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22; Isa 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17
Sermon: “Baptism: Not Just a Ticket to Heaven, but an Invitation to Join God’s Age-old Project of Healing the Human Sin of ‘Nationalism’”
Sermon Notes
January 19, Epiphany 2C
Texts: John 2:1-11; Isa 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:1-11
Sermon: “The Sacraments as Living into the Long Arc of God’s Salvation”
Sermon Notes
January 26, Epiphany 3C
Texts: Luke 4:14-21; Neh 8; 1 Cor 12:12-31a
Sermon: “Jesus Inaugurates the Jubilee of Human Equality”
Sermon Notes
February 2, Epiphany 4C
Texts: Luke 4:21-30; 1 Cor 13:1-13; Jer 1:4-10
Sermon: “Challenging ‘Israel (America) First’: Jubilee Equality Is for Everyone”
Sermon Notes
February 9 — Sunday off
February 16, Epiphany 6C
Texts: Luke 6:17-26; 1 Cor 15:12-20; Jer 17:5-10
Sermon: “Jesus’s Beatitudes in Luke: Turning the Wealth Pyramid Upside Down”
(Preached extemporaneously from the Sermon Notes; link to YouTube version: https://youtu.be/lHP-V4IzU54)
Sermon Notes
February 23 — Sunday off
March 2, Transfiguration C
Texts: Luke 9:28-43a; Ex 34:29-35; 2 Cor 3:12-4:2
Sermon: “Transfiguration as Vision Quest: Seeing the Face of the Other in the Face of Jesus”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
March 9, Lent 1C
Texts: Luke 4:1-13; Deut 26:1-11; Rom 10:8b-13
Sermon: “Temptation as Vision Quest: Repentance as Being ‘Woke’ in a Climate of Nationalism”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
March 16, Lent 2C
Texts: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Luke 13:31-35; Phil 3:17-4:1
Sermon: “Biblical Covenant: God’s Self-Revelation against the Sacrificial Violence of Nationalistic Human Culture”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
March 23, Lent 3C
Texts: Luke 13:1-9; Isaiah 55:1-9; 1 Cor 10:1-13
Sermon: “Repenting Our Way of Being Human — from Violence to Nonviolence”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
March 30, Lent 4C
Texts: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; Josh 5:9-12; 2 Cor 5:16-21
Sermon: “The Parable of the Persistently Gracious and Loving Parent in Search of Her Persistently Lost and Estranged Children”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
April 6, Lent 5C
Texts: Isa 43:16-21; John 12:1-8; Phil 3:4b-14
Sermon: “The Urgency of Doing ‘God’s New Thing’ — No Longer the Old Thing of Nationalistic Civilizations”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
April 13, Palm/Passion C
Texts: Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 23
Sermon: “Two Parades”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
April 18, Good Friday
Texts: John 18–19; Isaiah 52:13–53:12
Sermon: “The Wood between the Worlds”
PowerPoint Slides
April 20, Easter C
Texts: John 20:1-18; Isa 65:17-25; Acts 10:34-43
Sermon: “Way to Go, Mary! — Learning to Be Gardeners”
April 27, Easter 2C
Texts: John 20:19-31; Acts 5:27-32; Rev 1:4-8
Sermon: “Welcoming LGBTQ People as the Key to Living Christ’s Commission to Enact the Ministry of Reconciliation”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
May 4, Easter 3C
Texts: Revelation 5:1-7, 11-14; John 21:1-19; Acts 9:1-6
Sermon: “Sing a New Song”
May 11, Easter 4C (Mother’s Day)
Texts: John 10:22-30; Acts 9:36-43; Rev 7:9-17
Sermon: “The Mixed Metaphors of Loving Leadership”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
May 18, Easter 5C
Texts: Acts 11:1-18; John 13:31-35; Rev 21:1-6
Sermon: “Working to Heal Racism Is Foundational to Christian Mission”
May 25, Easter 6C
Texts: John 14:23-29; Rev 21:10, 21:22–22:5
Sermon: “Racism as the Heart of the Gospel Means Luther Was Wrong — and That We Now Have a New Project of Reading Scripture More Faithfully”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
June 1, Ascension Day
Texts: Luke 24:44-53; Eph 1:15-23; Acts 1:1-11
Sermon: “Transforming Our Pain into Compassion, the Fuel to Work for Justice and Peace”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
June 8 — Sunday off
June 15, Trinity C
Texts: John 16:12-15; Prov:1-4, 22-31; Rom 5:1-5
Sermon: “The Trinity: God’s Dance of Love That Is Saving Us from the Human Dance with Violence (Evil), Part 1”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
June 22, Proper 7C
Texts: Luke 8:26-39; Gal. 3:23-29; Isaiah 65:1-9
Sermon: “The Trinity: God’s Dance of Love That Is Saving Us from the Human Dance with Violence (Evil), Part 2” (Instead of a sermon on a hot day, I prayed from the Sermon Notes for peace, the day after the United States bombed Iran; see notes below for ‘sermon’)
Sermon Take-Home Notes
June 29, Proper 8C
Texts: Galatians 6:1-16; Luke 9:51-62; 1 Kings 19
Sermon: “Flesh or Spirit: Cultures of Death or the Culture of Life”
July 6, National Holiday
Texts: Galatians 5:1, 13-26; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20; Isa 66:10-14
Sermon: “Working to Save the American Experiment”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
July 13, Proper 10C
Texts: Luke 10:25-37; Col 1:1-14; Deut 30:9-14
Sermon: “Saved by the Faithful Doing of Jesus Christ”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
July 20 — Sunday off
July 27, Proper 12C
Texts: Luke 11:1-13; Col 2:6-15; Gen 18:2-32
Sermon: “A Small Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
Special Section on Economics Begins
This begins the section of the lectionary, covering passages in Luke 12-19, in which Ched Myers maps out six encounters with rich men, three in parables and three in the drama of Jesus’ journey to the cross. I will note the “Rich Man Sequences” themselves when they appear. Many of the other passages will be read in the context of these six counters. I highly recommend Ched Myers’ book Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics (Fortress Press, 2025).
August 3, Proper 13C — First Rich Man Sequence
Texts: Luke 12:13-34; Colossians 3:1-11
Sermon: “Resist Thinking Like the Rich Fool — Learn the Economic Wisdom of Indigenous People”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
August 10, Proper 14C
Texts: Luke 12:32-40; Heb 11:1-3, 8-16; Gen 15:1-6
Sermon: “Matching Our Economics to Our Treasure: Centering Relationships, Not Capital”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
August 17, Proper 15C
Texts: Luke 12:49-56; Jer 23:23-29; Heb 11:29-12:2
Sermon: “Learning Not to Be Divided as Jesus Exposes the Lie of Us-vs-Them, Divisive Thinking”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
August 24, Proper 16C — Second Rich Man Sequence, Part 1
Texts: Texts: Luke 13:10-17; Isa 58:9b-14; Heb 12:18-29
Sermon: “Doubling Down on the Good News of God’s Healing”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
August 31, Proper 17C — Second Rich Man Sequence, Part 2
Texts: Luke 14:1, 7-24; Heb 13:1-8, 15-16; Prov 25:6-7a
Sermon: “Sent out from the Sunday Jubilee Party to Work for the Equality of God’s Reign — and Our Nation’s Ideal”
September 7, Proper 18C
Texts: Luke 14:25-33; Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Sermon: “Bedford Falls or Pottersville? Count the Cost”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
September 14, Proper 19C
Texts: Texts: Luke 15:1-10; Exodus 32:7-14
Sermon: “Learning ‘Gentle Action’ in Another Week of Political Violence”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
September 21, Proper 20C — Third Rich Man Sequence
Texts: Texts: Luke 16:1-13; Amos 8:4-7
Sermon: “Serving God and Neighbor, Not God and Wealth”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
September 28, Proper 21C — Fourth Rich Man Sequence
Texts: Luke 16:19-31; Amos 6:1, 4-7
Sermon: “Learning the Catechism of the Great Chasm”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
Note on sequencing: I skipped Proper 22C this year in order to fit-in all of Ched Myers’ Six “Rich Man Sequences” from his amazing book Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics. The other resource I have featured in this middle part of Luke’s Gospel is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. Myers rightly presents this middle section of Luke’s Gospel as centered on the economics of God’s reign coming into the world. Kimmerer’s book is an extended essay on economics in light of indigenous wisdom. Keeping in mind that the earthly Jesus was an indigenous man in the Roman Empire, we do well to look to the economic wisdom of someone like Robin Wall Kimmerer to better understand the economics of God’s reign in the ministry of Jesus. This is true again in the Proper 23C sermon which follows.
October 5, Proper 23C — (Sabbath Economics are grounded in Gift and Gratitude)
Texts: Luke 17:11-19; 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
Sermon: “The Deep Need for Gratitude in Resisting the Dangers of Nationalism”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
Further notes regarding lectionary adjustments in order to include all of Ched Myers’ Six “Rich Man Sequences.” This week I join together the Gospels for Proper 24C and 25C. On October 19, I add in a Gospel text (Luke 18:18-30) that doesn’t appear in Year C (calling it Proper 25.5C), though its parallel in Mark 10:17-31 does appear in Proper 23B (the only one of Myers’ rich man texts which Luke shares with the other Gospel writers)
October 12, Proper 24C-25C — Fifth Rich Man Sequence, Part 1
Texts: Luke 18:1-14, Genesis 32:22-31
Sermon: “Parables of Wokeness for the New Way of Being Human”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
October 19, Fifth Rich Man Sequence, Part 2 (“Proper 25.5”)
Texts: Luke 18:18-30, Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Sermon: “Receiving God’s Reign as a Child vs. Inheriting It Like Generational Wealth”
October 26, Reformation Sunday
Texts: Romans 3:19-30, John 8:31-36, Jeremiah 31:31-34
Sermon: “Re-Interpreting Salvation: God Is Saving Us from the Hellish Violence of All Our Nationalisms”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
November 2, All Saints C
Texts: Luke 6:20-31; Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Ephesians 1:11-23
Sermon: “‘All Saints’ Means Striving to Equally Share One Another’s Suffering”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
November 9, Proper 26C — Sixth Rich Man Sequence, Part 1
Texts: Luke 19:1-10, Isaiah 1:10-18
Sermon: “Finally, a Rich Man Who Repents . . . by Giving Up His Wealth”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
November 16, Sixth Rich Man Sequence, Part 2
Texts: Luke 19:11-28; Isaiah 52:1-16 (Common Lectionary)
Sermon: “Indigenous Wisdom for Surviving Apocalyptic Times”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
Special Section on Economics Ends
November 23, Reign of Christ C
Texts: Luke 23:33-43; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossians 1:11-20
Sermon: “Christ (the) No Kings Sunday”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
November 30 — Sunday Off
December 7, Advent 2A
Texts: Matthew 3:1-12 (and 11:12); Isa 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-13
Sermon: “Preparing the Way of the Lord and the Grammar of Violence”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
December 14 — Sunday Off
December 21, Advent 4A
Texts: Matthew 1:18-25; Isa 7:10-16; Rom 1:1-7
Sermon: “How Genealogies Can Frame Stories of Peace”
Sermon Take-Home Notes
December 24, Christmas Eve
Texts: Luke 2:1-20; Isaiah 9:2-9
Sermon: “Bedford Falls or Pottersville?”
December 28 — Lessons and Carols
Introduction 2024 Sermons 2026 Sermons
