All posts by caitlin121608

Preaching, Sermons

What’s Good about the Good Samaritan? [OR It’s Hard to Get Along with the People Most Like Us] Luke 10

 

sermon art: Good Samaritan by Thomas Bertrum Poole

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 13, 2025

[sermon begins after the Bible reading]

Luke 10:25-37 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

[sermon begins]

Baptizing a baby can be simultaneously sweet and powerful. The little one is held over the font, they blink their eyes at me and look at their parents and back at me as they’re baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Sometimes, though, the baby is in a mood and things are less than easy. I tell the parents ahead of time that we’re just going to keep going no matter what because God accepts us no matter what. It’s also true that the more antsy a baby gets, the more antsy the parents get and there’s nothing that’s going to shut that cycle down in front of a bunch of people. Keeping it moving gets the baby back into the parents’ arms to be soothed. When adults or older kids are baptized, it’s powerful in a different way but it also goes pretty smoothly as water is poured over the top of their heads while they look down into the water that claims them. Toddlers and preschoolers are a whole other story. There’s just no explaining to a three-year-old how this is going to come down. It takes time ahead of the baptism to gain their trust, show them how to stand on the stool, look down into the bowl, and let water move over their head in this new way. It takes being calm with these wide-eyed kiddos and letting their sense of self lead them through the water part.

While baptizing people of all ages looks slightly different, God’s promises in baptism remain the same—to always be present, to always take us back, to invite us into lives that are ever more Christ-shaped, and to keep these promises forever. I go over those promises when I meet with parents or youth and adults being baptized. It’s good for folks to know that God’s promises are the focus of our baptism, not our less than perfect intentions that we call promises or our hesitant faith that we’re not sure would hold up to scrutiny. The promise of God’s invitation into lives that are ever more Christ-shaped is where Jesus’ parable of the Samaritan takes us.

About 1,000 years before Jesus was born, Samaritans were part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel that split from Judea. A few hundred years later, Samaria was conquered by the Assyrian Empire and the Samaritans identity was shifted by intermarriage. They remained similar to the Jews of Judea in the Southern Kingdom but Samaritans and Jews had different temples, Bibles, and claims and attachment to Abraham.[1] The Jews and Samaritans are analogous to the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims or, closer to home, like ELCA Lutheran Christians and American Evangelicals. Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan, reimagining an existing ethnic division. We’re often most hostile to those with whom we’re closest. Maybe because we think they should know better or perhaps because we think we know better from our perceived self-righteous high ground. Jesus does one of the things that Jesus does best and reframes the high ground in a ditch on the side of the road.

In the story, it’s the Samaritan who saw the naked, beaten, half-dead man on the side of the road and was “moved with pity.” This word “pity” is from a Greek word that is also translated as compassion elsewhere in Luke. Luke uses this word only three times in the Gospel.[2] In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke it’s used 12 times and used specifically to either describe Jesus’ compassion or used by Jesus in parables to describe a major characters’ response.[3] This translation gem gets a shout out because this kind of compassion is quite specific when it shows up in the gospels. More than a moral claim, it’s a divine claim.

In our tradition, we understand humans to be created in the image of God.[4]  Imago Dei. Our humanity is imprinted by God. One of the reasons we worship weekly is to remind ourselves of what we are and to whom we belong. We are forgetful people . When we are reminded of what we are in the story of the Samaritan, we hear the parable in its rightful place. Not as a moral action, rather as a divine reaction inspiring us across the road like the Samaritan. Jesus never calls him “good.” It’s divine compassion that shines through and is good.

Our bodies are created by divine compassion for divine compassion.  When we act compassionately, endorphins are released in our brains which feel amazing. When we act compassionately, the hormone oxytocin is also released. Oxytocin reduces inflammation in our hearts and circulatory systems.[5]  Also amazing.

Additionally, compassion is contagious. Social scientists have found that there’s a ripple effect. If you are kind and compassionate, your friends, your friends’ friends, and your friends’ friends’ friends have a greater inclination towards compassion. Our bodies’ systems are wired to react positively to compassion and our community systems are wired to react positively to compassion. This is one of those moments when faith and science come together like the thumb and index finger – between them we can grasp so much. Experiencing compassion ourselves inspires us to cross the road in compassion. Even witnessing acts of compassion prepares us to cross the road in compassion – especially across difference as the Samaritan did. Inspiring us to the compassion that is also in us as the image of God empowered by our baptism into the death and life of Jesus, making our lives ever more Christ-shaped.

In the parable, Jesus reveals the compassion of the neighbor, the compassion that Jesus first and foremost reveals in himself as his own compassion is stirred by the people around him and ultimately his own compassion poured out at the cross. Jesus’ compassion that is highlighted by Luke in Jesus himself and in the parables about Jesus is compassion stirred by death.  Compassion stirred by the death of the widow of Nain’s son in chapter 7, by the man left half-dead at the side of the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan, and by the prodigal son showing up after he was assumed dead.  In each of these instances, the compassion of Jesus transforms the ones who are dead, half-dead, or assumed dead. We could say that the compassion of Jesus, the deathless one, draws him toward death because there is nothing left to fear.

The lawyer questioning Jesus gives the right answer about the law, the Torah – love God and love neighbor as self. These are the main things, and Jesus agrees with him. The parable of the Good Samaritan highlights the main things in a way that speaks to us because we’ve hesitated like the priest and the Levite when confronted by difference and need. Perhaps the hesitation to cross the road makes sense to us. Maybe we know deep down who we would not want to help or who we wouldn’t want help from.[6] If we received help from someone we oppose, what would that mean about ourselves and our shared humanity. This isn’t theoretical or only in the distant past. American prisons and ICE detention centers incubate more violence not less. The United States is 5th in the world for incarceration rates behind El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, and Turkmenistan.[7] Yet we know that isolation, poverty, addiction, and violence breed more violence, and we can’t seem to stop ourselves. Perhaps divine compassion can inspire us beyond our moral failures to cross that road and help our Hispanic neighbors out of the ditch of our own making.

Remember that the compassion extended by Jesus includes you too. It can be difficult to see love of God, neighbor, and self as simultaneous. We’re tempted to say that we have to love ourselves before we can love our neighbor. Or we have to love God before we can rightly understand love of self. The actual experience is messier – more like football than baseball. A lot is happening at one time in Christ-shaped lives.

Crossing the road in compassion breaks the cycle of shame, judgment, and violence that we inflict on ourselves and other people just as human as we are. However divine compassion comes to you and through you, for today, know that the savior who claims us in the waters of baptism crosses the road into whatever ditch you currently find yourself in, pulls you out, tends your wounds, and reminds you who you are and to whom you belong, along with your neighbor. Alleluia and amen.

____________________________________________

[1] Matt Skinner, Profession of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave podcast for scripture readings for July 13, 2025. Working Preacher’s Sermon Brainwave: #1032: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – July 13, 2025

[2] Luke 7:13 – Jesus was moved with compassion for the widow of Nain and her dead son; Luke 15:20 – the prodigal son’s father is moved with compassion when he see that his son has returned.

[3] Girardian Lectionary (Proper 10, Year C, Ordinary 15) on Luke 10:25-37, Exegetical Note #5 re Luke 10:33 (2013).

[4] Genesis 1:26-27

[5] The Book of Joy, 258.

[6] Skinner, ibid.

[7] Most prisoners per capita by country 2025| Statista

Preaching, Sermons

What’s Pride Got to Do with It? [OR To Love Jesus Means to Love People]

**sermon art: Rainbow Jesus by Tony Rubino, 2020, acrylic on canvas

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 29, 2025, on the feast day honoring the Apostles Peter and Paul

[sermon begins after two Bible readings – the third reading is at the end of the sermon]

John 21:15-19 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

[sermon begins]

It was a stunning, bluebird day in Colorado. Hope was in the air. My long hair was pony-tailed under a white hard hat with my name taped to the front of it. T-shirt and overalls were donned as I prepared to paint at a “clergy Habitat build” back in the day. Both of my internship pastors from Bethany were there, as were clergy from many faiths including Christian denominations across the Metro Denver area. (Although, unleashing clergy en masse on a project is questionable.) We muddled through our morning of good deeds and broke for lunch. Sitting down on a curb with my sandwich and bag of chips felt well-earned. A pastor about 20 years my senior sat down next to me, and he started a get-to-know-you conversation that included our denominational affiliation. This bit of information changed the tone. He asked what I thought about the ELCA’s vote to call gay clergy and bless same-sex partners.[1] (The ELCA is our flavor of Lutherans.) It would be another six years until the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country on June 26, 2015.[2]

In August 2009, a few months before my lunch chat with that pastor, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly had just lifted its ban to call LGBTQ+ pastors and deacons, and I was thrilled for my LGBTQ seminary peers and friends even as the weirdness of voting about a group of people rankled me. I had exactly three years of seminary under my belt (after being a nurse for many years) and was a few months into my pastoral internship before graduating. Turns out that the pastor eating his sandwich next to me at that Habitat build was not interested in having a conversational exchange of ideas. He wanted to tell me that I was wrong and that the ELCA was wrong, and he used scripture to do it.

These days, I’m better equipped to talk about the 7 verses in the whole Bible that allegedly address LGBTQ concerns, the 50 Bible verses in which Jesus talks about love, the 250 Bible verses in which Jesus talks about money, and the ZERO Bible verses in which Jesus has anything to say on the topic of LGBTQ folks. ZERO. More about scriptural authority and LGBTQ folks are in my June 1st sermon at the beginning of Pride Month. At that clergy build in 2009, I was ill-prepared. After many long minutes of going back-and-forth, here’s what I finally said to that pastor. “I hang my hat on Jesus’ teaching when he said that greater love hath no one than to lay one’s life down for one’s friends—so I’m going to err on the side of love and go get another sandwich.”[3] I stood up and did just that while internally I was shaking like a leaf.

Looking back, it was but a small moment of courage. Nothing even close to the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul whose ministries we’re honoring today. The Bible readings include Peter’s prisonbreak aided by the angel, Paul’s summary in his letter to Timothy as he nods to the end of his ministry AND his life, and Jesus’ questioning Peter about his love.

Paul was reflecting on his proclamation of the message to all the Gentiles. Paul was a Jew who proclaimed an expansion of God’s love given through the Jewish people by way of Jesus to everyone else. It was a radical message of who belonged to God. When Paul talked about being poured out, he likely meant that he was being poured out like a drink offering. [4] The Greek verb spendo, which means to pour out, is used in only one other place and that’s in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.[5] Paul’s meaning is that his life and his death had been an offering to God. The authorities might indeed kill him, but Paul uses this language to say that he offers his life back to God who carries his life through this death.[6] By Paul’s example, we learn that living as a gospel people means that our lives are an offering to God.

By Peter’s example, we learn that the love of Jesus means that we love Jesus’ people as Jesus renews Peter’s call to follow him. Three times, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Three times, Peter says, “Yes.” Three times, Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. Not Peter’s sheep. Jesus’ sheep. No one belongs to us. We all belong to God through Jesus’ death and resurrection, through Jesus pouring out of himself.

Years ago, during my first interview with Augustana, the Call Committee asked what I would fight for. I answered that I would fight for the gospel. The gospel means the good news of Jesus is for everyone. The good news that there’s nothing you can do or not do to make God love you any more or any less is expressed with words like grace, forgiveness, freedom, and hope. There are times when the gospel for everyone means that we turn to particular groups of people to say that the gospel is for them, too. Today’s celebration of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, is a nod towards exactly that. They risked everything, including their lives, to preach the good news of Jesus to Gentiles. Gentile means non-Jew. The earliest Jesus followers were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus began the Gentile movement that expanded their inclusion in his Way of hope and freedom. He was ultimately killed for it by the Roman Empire and Jewish religious leaders. Peter and Paul continued the Gentile movement, and they were also martyred as threats to the empire. God’s grace and freedom are just that powerful when you’re no longer dividing people as insiders and outsiders and pitting them against each other.

Pitting people against each other is the worst of identity politics. No one wins when we’re riled up by the differences that are used to divide us. The best of identity politics happens when people work together to solve a cultural challenge with groups of people who have been treated as “less than,” and whose lives are made more difficult because who they are doesn’t fit into accepted cultural norms.[7] Examples of productive identity politics are the Women’s Suffrage movement of the 19th century that lasted 80 years and led to women being able to vote in this country and the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century that lasted 15 years and gained equal rights under the law for Black Americans. In the early church, Peter and Paul made sure that the Gentiles knew they were included in God’s love through the cross of Christ—arguably one of the earliest identity politics movements. Augustana in Denver is a Christian church today because Jesus and his earliest Jewish followers like Peter and Paul fully proclaimed the gospel to all the Gentiles. Us. Let’s take good care not to throw the baby out with the baptismal water when we declare that all identity politics are bad for humanity. The argument for identity politics is more nuanced than that.

Last Sunday, we had a teacher here from The Center on Colfax who instructed us in LGBTQ+ basics.[8] She was utterly grace-filled while responding to our questions and teaching us to use the acronym LGBTQ+. We learned what those letters mean to people who use them to identify themselves. We learned again that we can’t know all the things as she encouraged us to keep learning so that we can better affirm LGBTQ+ members, friends, family, and communities. The wider church has work to do in this regard and our small corner of the church does too.

Which brings me to the difference between acceptance versus affirmation. Acceptance is an ambiguous live-and-let-live posture. Whereas affirmation celebrates LGBTQ+ folks as created by God to be themselves in the world. Just as same sex behavior exists throughout the animal kingdom across species, it exists in humans, too.[9] You can check out the footnote in my sermon or do a web search. Seek to understand. There’s so much to know and affirm. Pride weekend is a good time to be curious as we celebrate and affirm LGBTQ+ folks.

Jesus’ call to love involves risk. Peter and Paul embodied the risk of love taken to the extreme. Most of us are called by Jesus’ love to smaller acts of courage. When we err, we err boldly on the side of love, fueled by God’s grace that dares us to live into the promise of God’s unconditional love for the sake of the world God so loves. Amen.

______________________________________________

[1] John Dart. “Study process aided ELCA breakthrough: Third denomination to accept gay clergy. September 22, 2009.  Study process aided ELCA gay breakthrough: Third denomination to accept gay clergy | The Christian Century

[2] Same-sex marriage is made legal nationwide with Obergefell v. Hodges decision | June 26, 2015 | HISTORY

[3] John 15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

[4] Stephen Fowl, President and Dean, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA. Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18. October 23, 2022. Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[5] Ibid. (Philippians 2:17)

[6] Ibid.

[7] Karen Dienst. “Gutmann examines ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly” of identity politics. Princeton – Weekly Bulletin 3/24/03 – Gutmann examines ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ of identity politics

[8] The Center on Colfax – LGBTQ Colorado

[9] Karen A. Anderson et al, PLOS One, 19(6), June 20, 2024.  Same-sex sexual behaviour among mammals is widely observed, yet seldomly reported: Evidence from an online expert survey – PMC

______________________________________________

Acts 12:1-11 About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3 After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

6 The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Preaching, Sermons

Daring to Look Back to Move Forward as Peacemakers [OR Pigs and Demons…What Could Go Right?!] Luke 8 and Galatians 3

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 22, 2025

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Luke 8:26-39 Then [Jesus and his disciples] arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Galatians 3:23-29 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

[sermon begins]

A couple of weeks ago I had a whirlwind, 72-hour, trip to see family related to my first Dad who was lost to schizophrenia. No ordinary get together, the goal was to tell Palm family stories, look at Palm family pictures of my Grandma Ruth and Granddad Palm, their parents, and their children who were my first dad and my uncle Robb who died a year apart, both near 50 years old. Three of my siblings were there, my mom, one niece, my Aunt Jean, one cousin, two teens, and two kids. One rental house. Mmm-hmmm. What could go right?! A lot, actually.

My Aunt Jean, a retired social worker, and I planned the structured time to show pictures and tell stories. We had a big flipchart that I used one afternoon to draw the family tree as a genogram along with more stories, health histories, and personality traits. The flipchart came in handy again the next day to draw the gifts and strengths that we each feel we gained from being part of the Palm family. It’s good to talk about the gifts when there are such obviously hard things in my family’s story. My Grandma Ruth was taken to live at an orphanage when she was 13 years old. We didn’t know a lot about her family. She wasn’t interested in talking about them. My niece has dug up a ton about Grandma Ruth’s mother who was committed to Kankakee State Hospital for the Insane and died there 20 years later.[1] It’s likely that Grandma Ruth never knew any of this about her mother. The asylum’s cemetery is surrounded by an 8-foot fence and not open to the public. The resting place of my great grandmother, Clara, is walled off.

Talking through this new information with my family and getting perspective on our family’s history, it makes sense to me that the impact of such a story is as invisible to us as the air we breathe. Whatever the gifts and challenges of my family’s story happen to be, they are normal to us. Daring to look over the walls of the cemetery, daring to look back to move forward, is worth a try.

The Gerasene demoniac in our Bible story had become a normal part of his community, too. Oh, sure, Legion was naked, unpredictable, dripping with demons, and living in the cemetery alongside the dead when he wasn’t shackled and chained in town, but his community knew what to expect from him. He was their normal. They knew what to expect from the man until Jesus showed up from across the sea. It was the first thing he did in Gentile country. Gentile means non-Jewish, territory. It was the only thing he did on that trip before returning home to Galilee. Must have been an important trip!

Jesus showed up, gave permission for the demons to enter a herd of pigs who then raced to the lake and drowned. It’s curious that the city folks were afraid when they saw the man sitting calmly at the feet of Jesus. Their fear was so great that they asked Jesus to leave town. If this Jesus could heal their demon-possessed neighbor, what other power might he have that could turn against them. Their normal had been disrupted with healing. It makes me wonder about our own comfort with the demons that we know versus the healing that we don’t know.

A lot is known about individual healing and transformation especially related to addiction and recovery. We know that those of us who face addiction and find healing in rooms of recovery like Alcoholics Anonymous process those experiences with an honest accounting of the past. Less is known about how we might transform systems, whether that system is our family, our town, our country, or our world. The more people you add, the more complicated it gets. I’m interested in those systems and what it takes to fight through fear of the unknown future to peer into the cemetery so that we can leave behind the chains and shackles that bind us. I’m interested in how a God who loves the whole world gives us hope and courage by the power of the Spirit to do so.

Notice that Jesus sent the healed man back into his community, back with his people. Restoring the man into relationships long thought irredeemable. I see that demoniac reconciled with his community, and I see our families, and cities, and country and I wonder, do I believe in a God of transformation or don’t I? Do I believe that God has a role for Jesus followers in that transformation or don’t I?

Last Thursday was Juneteenth.[2] Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day when many enslaved people in Texas learned of their freedom through the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth is also known as America’s second Independence Day and considered the longest-running African American holiday. Juneteenth is as good a time as any for us as Coloradans and as Lutherans to wonder about how we work for truth and reconciliation across differences of race that are unexamined and embedded—things that seem normal in our policies and practices because it hadn’t occurred to us to look at them in that way. On my mother’s side, I’m the great-great-great granddaughter of a lowcountry enslaver of Black African people in South Carolina. Slavery and its modern iterations including mass incarceration continue to ensnare Black Americans in cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, and isolation from their friends and families. We can do better as we advocate for a transformed justice system that dares to break these cycles and imagine a different future. We can look back to the cemetery to move forward to a different future.

Juneteenth is also a new holiday in Augustana’s Personnel Manual. This means that the office was closed on Thursday along with the Augustana Early Learning Center. Commemorating Juneteenth aligns with Augustana’s mission statement, especially that, “we welcome everyone to worship Jesus…and go serve in the world.” For many of our Black members, staff, friends, family, and neighbors, this is a major holiday celebrating liberation from enslavement and forced work at the hands of White enslavers. Commemorating this holiday in the life of our congregation, doing this one small thing, dares us to look back to move forward.

As a confessional church, we confess our faith in Jesus as Lord of heaven and earth, giver of radical grace and unconditional love. We also confess each Sunday that there is much we do and leave undone that hurts ourselves and our neighbors. Frankly, there’s not much difference between family systems like yours and mine, and larger cultural systems that bring both gifts and challenges. There are differences of scale and impact for sure. But there is no difference in the ways that most of us leave patterns of behavior unexamined and, if they are examined, we can end up justifying those patterns as just the way the world works. It’s just our normal.

The apostle Paul wrote to a congregation of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians unified by baptism but struggling with the details like who should or shouldn’t be circumcised.[3] Paul reminds us in his letter to the Galatian church that we are free because of our baptism into Christ. Freed in Christ by faith so that all are one in Christ – no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female. Bible stories name differences all over the place and names us neighbors across difference – think the Syrophoenician woman[4], the Good Samaritan[5], and the Ethiopian eunuch[6] – although in fairness, race as we understand it is a much later 16th century social construct.[7] Paul isn’t erasing our differences with Christ unifying theology. Unity is not uniformity. Unity in Christ dares to level the hierarchies of race, gender, class, and creed, to level the hierarchies that divide us and help us see Christ in each other. To dare to look into the cemetery of past actions that hurt ourselves and other people in order to move forward in hope.

While it’s reassuring that Christ is the great leveler, hierarchies that divide us seem true in our unexamined assumptions, our biases, our normal. It takes practice to celebrate and not fear difference in other people – practice in prayer, practice in worship, practice in thought and conversation, practice in advocacy, and practice in relationship with all kinds of people. As people freed by Jesus, without any reason to have to justify ourselves, we are free to practice as the body of Christ so that all may freely live without fear.

We live in a time when the world is moving fast, and action is needed. Slowing down to look over the walls of the cemetery can seem indulgent, however, slowing our thinking down is vital when fear shackles our humanity so that our actions align with Christ’s call to us to be peacemakers. Thankfully, Jesus breaches cemetery walls and sets us free. Jesus leads us through fear into community. In Christ, we are children of God who live in hope. Amen, and thanks be to God.

__________________________________________________

[1] Kankakee State Hospital, Illinois, Historic Asylums. Kankakee State Hospital (Historic Asylums)

[2] What is Juneteenth? https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth

[3] Brigitte Kahl, Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Commentary of Galatians 3:23-29 for June 22, 2025. Commentary on Galatians 3:23-29 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[4] Mark 7:24-30 Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman

[5] Luke 10:25-37 The parable of the Good Samaritan

[6] Acts 8:26-39 Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

[7] The History of the Idea of Race https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human/The-history-of-the-idea-of-race

Sermons

What’s the thing that’s not in the world that should be? [OR A Sermon for Pentecost, A Celebration of the Birth of the Church]

**sermon art: Pentecost Dance by Glenda Dietrich

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 8, 2025

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; the other two are at the end of the sermon]

Genesis 11:1-6 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Acts 2:1-21 When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”

 

[sermon begins]

“What’s the thing that’s not in the world that should be in the world?” [1] Ooof, that sounds like a big question. But new things happen all the time. Babies are brand new in the world. YOU were once new in the world. Every word we speak is new in that moment in the world. When we sing together, from our newest visitor to our longest time member, that is a new sound combination never heard in the world before today. And that’s DEFINITELY something that wasn’t in the world an hour ago and, oh, I’m so glad that it is!

Here’s another one. One year ago today, June 8th, I was installed as your Senior Pastor…something new in the world of Augustana. We scheduled the installation worship service on the Bishop’s calendar waaaay before anyone remembered that our Greek neighbors put on a huge festival every year on this weekend that affects parking. Another ooof. Nonetheless, there we were, immersed in green, the color of the day. Some of you were able to be there along with my family and friends. It was a day of joy and hope and newness even after the 11 years I’d been with you. While my learning curve continues, so does the fun I have with you.

We do this weird thing called church and it’s fun! Fun getting to know each other. Fun laughing about the silly stuff. Fun celebrating the big stuff. Fun in the nitty gritty details of ministry work when we’re all so different. And maybe not fun, but deeply meaningful, is being in life’s heartbreaking moments together, too. When we mess things up and forgiveness is asked for and given. Or when someone we love dies and we make room for their grief. Through life’s vicissitudes, the inevitable highs and lows, we figure out how our gifts fit together for the sake of the good news of Jesus, and we put something new in the world that should be in the world because that’s what God calls us to do.

When we ask what that new thing should be, sometimes our reaction is fear which leads to poor planning. The Genesis reading this morning about the Tower of Babel is a case in point. The people were afraid to be “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”[2] Their plan involves available materials – “brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.”[3] To build themselves “a city and a tower with a top in the heavens.” Their plan doesn’t work out as their language is confused and they’re “scattered abroad from there over all the earth, and they left off building the city.” Their fearful schemes didn’t prevent a thing. In fact, their Babel-ing plan made things worse.

Paul speaks directly about fear in his letter to the Roman church:

‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…’

Not a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but a spirit of adoption as children of God. As creatures made in the image of God, we ponder the past and imagine the future.[4] As church folks, we imagine God’s future and encourage each other towards it. Sometimes we’ll imagine God’s future correctly. Sometimes we won’t. This is why the question is so enlivening. “What’s the thing that’s not in the world that should be in the world?” Notice that the question is NOT, “What’s the thing in the world that I most need to protect myself from?” It’s also NOT, “What’s the thing in the world that I most need to be anxious about?” These can be roadblocks to creativity. When fearful or anxious about an outcome, it’s tough for the imagination to kick in.

Thinking about creativity often brings to mind the arts of painting, poetry, dance, photography, and more. Pentecost inspires this artistry—vibrant reds symbolize the Holy Spirit and the “divided tongues, as of fire” that appeared among the people. Pentecost art abounds with flames and swirling images of people.

Pentecost itself is a slippery church festival day. It’s hard to imagine much less explain. The sight of flames and people from all over the known 1st century world. The sound of rushing wind and all those languages spoken at once. The Bible verses in Acts practically scream to be rendered artistically because the intellect is insufficient to capture it. That’s the beauty of art and the wonder of a creating God. How does God answer the question, “What’s the thing that’s not in the world that should be in the world?” God’s answer? The church. Really? Us? Yup.

Oh sure, there are many examples of the church regressing into “a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.”[5] The church has done more than its share of injury to the world by crusading around sowing blame and reaping death. There is much to confess, repair, and reconcile in the past and up through today.

Did you also know that the church raced into towns during pandemics throughout the centuries?[6] Christians nursed the sick into health and consoled the dying. While some died themselves, others developed immunity to the deadly diseases and continued their work. Could this be a little of what Jesus means in the Gospel of John when he tells his disciples that they “will do greater works” than even Jesus?![7]

Most of what happens in the world is quieter, especially the good and the kind. The church will occasionally take actions that have huge impact. This congregation has a few of those under its belt. However, it’s too easy to minimize the impact of our individual, faithful actions. Most of what happens in the world – especially the good and the kind – doesn’t make the front page or go viral on YouTube or get nominated for awards. More often the church moves through the world less visibly through people of faith like you and me as we go about our daily lives.

The creativity of that church looks a million different ways, adding things that are not yet in the world but should be in the world. Creativity looks like speaking a kind word at the risk of appearing weak, de-escalating a tense scene, or sitting with someone in pain. Creativity looks like company owners paying a living wage to their employees. Creativity looks like hiring someone with a criminal record and not knowing if redemption is possible. Creativity looks like advocating for and with people who are trying to feed their families down the street and across the world in war-torn countries. I know you can add to this list with experiences you’ve had on the receiving end of someone else’s creative interaction with you. The good news is that we have a companion in creating what should be in the world for the sake of the world.

Jesus says in the Gospel of John:

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Here’s the good news. We are baptized and sent by the Holy Spirit as people of faith in the world to bring new things into the world in obedience to God our Father. Our companion is the Spirit of dreams and visions.[8] The prayer we pray over the newly baptized is a good prayer for us today as we have received a Spirit of adoption and are given peace by the same Spirit.[9] It’s an even better prayer as God opens our eyes to see what is not in the world that should be.

Let us pray.

We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give your children new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life.

Sustain us with the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forever.  Amen.

________________________________________

[1] Time. The 100 Most Influential People: Lin-Manuel Miranda. Combined issue for May 2 and May 9, 2016. http://time.com/4299633/lin-manuel-miranda-2016-time-100/

[2] Genesis 11:4

[3] Genesis 11:3

[4] Pastor Deb Coté, Pastors’ Text Study conversation on May 10, 2016. Genesis 1:27

[5] Romans 8:14-17

[6] Charles E. Moore. Pandemic Love: http://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/pandemic-love.  Rev. Moore is an educator and lives in the Bruderhof, an intentional community based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

[7] John 4:12

[8] Acts 2:17

[9] Romans 8:15  and John 14:27

_________________________________________

John 14:8-17, 25-27 Philip said to [Jesus,] “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. [
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”]

Romans 8:14-17 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Preaching, Sermons

Party On. It’s Pride Month. [OR Under Whose Authority? A sermon for Ascension of Our Lord]

**sermon art: Ascension by Caswell, Sculpture Wichita, Kansas

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 1, 2025

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; the Ephesians reading is at the end of the sermon]

Luke 24:44-53 [Jesus said to the eleven and those with them,] “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Acts 1:1-11 [Luke writes:] 1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

[sermon begins]

I went to college when I was a wee lass, turning 17 years old days before I moved into the dorms. This means that my freshman peers were one to two years older than me. In my case, it also meant that my academic chops far exceeded my common sense. This was particularly problematic because I’d been raised in a fairly strict, sheltered, and religious household and was suddenly living without parental authority. I also left Jesus behind because I couldn’t make Jesus happy. My thinking at the time was that no matter what I did, no matter what I said, there was going to be a sin in there somewhere and Jesus would make an eternal issue out of it.

There I was in college, no parents, no Jesus, and under my own authority. There were boys and parties interrupted by pesky classes, tests, and essays. It doesn’t take a genius to see where this is going. By the end of freshman year, my parents had had enough. Mom and Pops came to the college, took me to lunch, and told me that my GPA was a poor return on their investment. The party was over. I could move home, get a job, and pay for nursing school at Pasadena City College. Or I could figure it out differently. Still a minor at 17 made that tricky. In the end, I moved home, got a job, and put myself through school. My parents got me back on track by leveraging their legal and relational authority.

Authority is THE big question as we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension. Two of our readings this morning come from the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Both books are attributed to Luke. The verses we hear today are from the same author and come from the very end of Luke and the very beginning of Acts. Luke and Acts are so closely tied together that they take on a hyphen, becoming Luke-Acts. Kind of like hyphenating two last names into a married name…Luke-Acts. Both books are written to Theophilus. Theophilus means ‘friend of God’ in the Greek. There’s a difference of opinion about whether Theophilus is an actual someone that Luke knew or if it was used as a generic greeting to anyone who is a friend of God. I invite us to hear the gospel writer talking to each of one of us as friend of God.

So, all you Theophili, friends of God, Jesus has just had an intense, three-year ministry of forgiveness, healing, and preaching; he was killed for it; he rose from the dead and put his disciples through a post-resurrection, 40-day intensive. In the story today, Jesus promises them that the Holy Spirit is going to baptize them in a few days’ time. Then he led them to Bethany, blessed them, and was carried up into heaven. Whether or not there’s an embodied Jesus sitting in an actual heaven with his healed wounds is of less concern than the authority bestowed upon Jesus in the details of the story. His authority is clear as God’s right-hand man. And by the power of this authority, Jesus told his disciples that they are now witnesses and proclaimers of his death, resurrection, and the forgiveness of sins.  How do the disciples respond? They fail the final.[1] They ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” After all this time with Jesus, and this is their best guess?!

The disciples interpret Jesus’ words on the spot to mean Jesus is going to come back, take names, and wage war to establish his kingdom. Except Jesus does NOT say this to them. Christians throughout the ages flip Jesus’ message of repentance and forgiveness into the message that Jesus is going to come back with a big chip on his shoulder, and you should be very afraid. That’s the Jesus I was raised with, and the Jesus I wanted nothing to do with at 17 years old. It’s possible that the human disappointment about Jesus’ actual ministry of love, grace, and forgiveness gets projected into a second coming worthy of the next blockbuster revenge film?

Extending this misguided violence, Jesus’ words have been flipped by his disciples throughout the centuries. Over those centuries, Jesus’ people decided who needs to be forgiven and for what do they need to be forgiven—wielding forgiveness and scripture like a weapon. Wielding Christ’s authority as if it were their own. And wielding the authority of scripture as if every word in the Bible is equal to every other word in Bible and as if the Bible’s answers are easy to glean.

Which brings me to Pride Month during which we affirm our queer family members, friends, and neighbors. Pride celebrations and parades began more as a protest march in 1970, a year after the Stonewall Riots.[2] The Stonewall Riots were a clash between New York police officers who raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn and arrested multiple people in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. At that time, there were anti-homosexuality laws in most of the United States. Rather than retreat, the bar’s customers held their ground, protesting the police actions. The riots went on for several days. Every year since, there has been a Pride Parade although it was years later that it became known as Pride. While quite different from each other, there are parallels between Pride Month, the women’s suffrage movement for the right to vote in the early 1900s, and the non-violent Civil Rights movement in the mid-1900s. These sub-groups of American people united to bring about social or political freedom for themselves.

Why is this history lesson relevant in church? Because over the centuries, claiming scriptural authority and the authority of Jesus, Christians have taken positions against groups of people based on their identities and used the Bible to do it. I recommend The Good Book by Peter Gomes on this topic.[3] In easy-to-understand examples and language, Rev. Dr. Gomes walks through the Biblical interpretation that justified the submission of women, the enslavement of Black Africans, the violence against Jews, and the abuse of queer folks. In light of Pride Month, it’s important to note that there are only seven instances in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible combined that comment on anything remotely related to homosexuality, and certainly not reflecting our 21st century experience of it.[4] Compare this to the 2,000 Bible verses about money and greed; or the over 500 verses about love. Neither the Ten Commandments, nor any of the prophets mention homosexuality. Jesus doesn’t say a word about it in the gospels.

500 years ago, Martin Luther challenged the authority of the church, tradition, and the Pope on the grounds of scriptural authority. Sola scriptura![5] Was the reformers’ cry. Scripture alone. Meaning that the Bible is the highest authority for Christians. Everything else gets passed through its lens, to align, argue, and authenticate what we think we know and how we live our lives. Scripture points us to Christ through the law that is summed up by Jesus as the first and second greatest commandments: loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.[6] The 16th century reformers also argued that Sola Gratis, the grace of Jesus Christ alone, and not our works, clothes us in the righteousness of Christ through the cross. The audacity of this grace embraces us in the love of God across our arguments ABOUT people and compels us to actually LOVE people, doing unto neighbor and enemy as we would have them do unto us, which as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “…IS the law and the prophets.”[7]

Today we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension that inaugurates his heavenly authority at the right hand of God. Today, being the first day of Pride Month, gives us an opportunity to remember that Jesus calls us to love his people, and not to love issues more than we love his people. Now there’s a reason to party on.

Friends of God, beautiful and flawed Theophili, this is the Jesus we worship, who draws us through our worship to joy.[8]  This is the Jesus who keeps us with him through the party of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana[9]; through his death on the cross that reveals the worst of what we do to each other into in our efforts to be like God; through his resurrection into the transformed heart of his abundant life; and through his ascension into faith and surrender to his authority. Jesus who is “the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”[10]

Friends of God, beautiful and flawed Theophili, this IS good news indeed!  Alleluia and amen.

______________________________________________

[1] Rolf Jacobson, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary.  Sermon Brainwave podcast for Ascension of Our Lord 2014 on WorkingPreacher.org – http://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=514

[2] Pride Month 2025 by History.com Editors. https://www.history.com/articles/pride-month

[3] Peter J. Gomes. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and eart (New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc., 1996).

[4] Ibid.

[5] St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (ELCA), Savannah, Georgia. “The Five Solas.” THE FIVE SOLAS – St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

[6] Mark 12:28-34

[7] Matthew 7:12

[8] Luke 24:52

[9] John 2:1-11

[10] Ephesians 1:22-23

____________________________________________________

Ephesians 1:15-23  I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Sermons

Seems Like Yesterday [OR God Wastes Nothing: Life is the Compost of Faith] Luke 24:13-35 – The Road to Emmaus

**sermon art: Road to Emmaus by Paul Oman

A sermon for Bless the Years worship hosted by Augustana’s 60+ Ministry

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 8, 2025[1]

[sermon begins after this long-ish Bible story that’s totally worth the read]

Luke 24:13-35 – The Road to Emmaus

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

[sermon begin]

Seems like yesterday that summers lasted for me for what felt like forever. Hazy late afternoon light. Reading a book while lounging in the branches of my favorite backyard tree. Turning pages. Picking the fruit. Savoring its juice warmed by sun. Feeling safe as the tree’s roots held me steady high above the ground. Time stood still on that summer breeze among fluttering leaves. Seems like yesterday. Moments in time that stretch across decades and still feel fresh. Time is sneaky like that, isn’t it? But it’s those stories winding through time that make us feel like ourselves no matter what’s happening to us or around us or inside of us.

Our faith stories have a similar effect. Those of us who’ve lived long enough can look back and see how God wastes nothing from our lives. Each wild misadventure. Each painful doubt. Each transcendent hymn. Each miserable failure. Each shining celebration. Each shattering grief. Each quiet joy. Each sin forgiven. Each normal everyday moment. All those seems-like-yesterdays spun by God through baptismal water into the cross-and-resurrection Easter faith we live today.

For Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus, yesterday couldn’t come soon enough to start making sense of all they’d seen and heard and felt in Jerusalem. They had a seven-mile walk ahead of them. Just that morning the women disciples had come racing from the tomb to tell them that Jesus was alive. While they walked and talked, the freshly resurrected Jesus joined them. They didn’t know it was him and regaled him with their story. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” He preached about way, way back about himself through Moses and the prophets before his earthly yesterdays, stories winding through time that make Jesus himself.

It’s not lost on THIS preacher (pointing at myself) that his lengthy sermon didn’t open the two friends’ eyes to Jesus. The big reveal happened through the meal. “When [Jesus] was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.” Ahhh, then the scriptures and preaching made sense. Hindsight. Looking back through a current experience to see something new. If only we knew then what we know now, right? I don’t want to go back and relive time but it would have been nice to know then some of what I know now

Making sense of things in the moment, seeing God in the moment in real time, can be tough. Communing and talking with another Jesus followers, sharing the experience through faith, can make all the difference in our faith. Only a few people are good at figuring things out all by themselves in real time. Most of us need others of us to clarify an experience allowing the roots of faith to deepen as our stories wind across time.

If you had told me back in the days when I was building my nursing career and then having babies that I’d become a pastor, I would have laughed like our ancestor in the faith, Sarah, when she was told in her elder years by an angel that she was going to have a baby in her. Looking back though, I see the threads of being baptized as an infant and having First Communion in the Catholic Church; being baptized again by immersion at the age of 12 in my stepfather’s fundamentalist reformed tradition; leaving church altogether as a religiously exhausted college student; and then marrying a Lutheran and baptizing our babies by the grace of God. Very little of those many years made sense at the time.

But God wastes nothing. Those stories now weave together by the power of the Holy Spirit. Telling those stories reveal imperfect and unlikely roots of faith in Jesus. Each one of you has your own story through which faith has played its part, perhaps along with some doubt shaking things up and keeping faith real. Faith and doubt are partners in the mystery of faith.

The congregation is rooted deeply in faith while each of our own individual faiths take turns wavering, deepening, doubting. Faith is not an individual sport. It’s a cooperative and Christ-centered pilgrimage for we who “walk as yet by faith.”[2] Walking alongside each other as church. Praying for each other when we won’t or simply can’t pray for ourselves. Holding faith steady when we dredge it up in ourselves one more time.

As church together, we remind each other that the Holy Spirit daily and vigorously seals us by our baptism to the faith OF Jesus. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”[3]

Through no effort of our own, the Spirit grows our roots beneath the cross of Christ – the base of the cross hidden deep in the dirt and compost of our messy lives and fragile faith from which not one thing is wasted by God. As church together we remind each other that there is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you any more or any less. By Jesus, the one who is the Tree of Life, we are “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as [we] were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”[4] Blessed assurance, indeed! Alleluia!

 

Song after the sermon: Blessed Assurance, ELW Hymn #638

___________________________________________________________

[1] All of my sermons are posted at cailintrussell.org.

[2] “Burial of the Dead” in Occasional Services: A Companion to Lutheran Book of Worship – LBW Hymnal. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House and Philadelphia: Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1982), 121.

[3] Ephesians 2:8-9 is THE passage on which Lutherans hang our theological hat.

[4] Colossians 2:7 is the Bible Verse for today’s Bless the Years worship on May 8, 2025.

Preaching, Sermons

More Than a Backup Plan [OR Jesus Cooks?!!!]

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 4, 2025

[sermon begins after two longish Bible stories, hang in there, they’re great stories; the Revelation and Psalm readings are at the end of the sermon.]

Acts 9:1-20  Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” [7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”]

John 21:1-19  After [he appeared to his followers in Jerusalem,] Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.
9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

[sermon begins]

When I left pediatric oncology nursing for seminary to be a pastor, my mother made me promise to keep up my nursing license in case the pastor gig didn’t work out. To this day, almost exactly 20 years after leaving the oncology unit at Children’s Hospital, I have an active Registered Nurse license in my wallet. You know, in case things don’t work out. It’s good to have a backup plan. I wonder if the disciples’ moms had similar advice after the crucifixion debacle: Well, child, the way of Jesus flamed out but fishing, now that’s dependable.

In his third recorded appearance after the resurrection, Jesus showed up lakeside to find the disciples backsliding into their backup plan. Fishing but catching nothing. So far, no good. But this is the Jesus of abundant life. Jesus who changed water into more fine wine than anyone could drink at that wedding in Cana.[1] Jesus who fed the 5,000.[2] In our resurrection story today, Jesus found his disciples after they’d caught nothing. They listened to him and caught sooo many fish. Then Jesus broiled them a fish and bread brunch over a charcoal fire.

What happens next is astonishing, Jesus doesn’t shame, blame, or forgive Peter for Peter’s denials at Jesus’ trial.[3] Jesus renews Peter’s call to follow him. Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Three times Peter says, “Yes.” Three times, Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. Not Peter’s sheep. Jesus’ sheep. No one belongs to us. We all belong to God. It’s a beautiful call and response between Jesus and Peter that re-calls Peter to his discipleship.[4]

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I do. Feed my lambs.

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Tend my sheep.

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know everything. Feed my sheep.

After this exchange, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.” In modern parlance, Jesus’ “Follow me” is a little like football quarterbacks encouraging their team with a “Let’s gooooo!”

This Easter season, there’s a similar re-calling to us, a re-calling to discipleship. Jesus’ first call to the disciples to follow him when his ministry began, is different than being called anew by the resurrected Jesus.[5] In Jesus’ farewell before he died, he told his disciples that there were things he couldn’t tell them because they’d be unable to bear them without the Holy Spirit.[6] Since his resurrection, they’ve received the gift of the Holy Spirit.[7] Because of the Holy Spirit, discipleship looks, feels, and sounds different on this side of the empty tomb.[8] What did renewed discipleship look like for them?

Let’s turn to the Acts reading for a hint in the story of Saul transformed into Paul, baptized by Ananias. A couple chapters ago, Saul was holding coats for the people stoning Stehen, a Jesus follower. In today’s story, Saul was en route to bind up other followers of the Way, Jesus’ Way, and bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he went along, he was transformed from righteous independence to stunned dependence, led by the hand into Damascus where our question about what renewed discipleship looks like plagued Ananias. He’s heard about Saul’s evil against the saints. Saul is a dangerous man. The Lord’s vision to Ananias called him to go to Saul to lay hands on him and baptize him. After his argument with the Lord, Anaias went. Remarkably, the first words out of his mouth were one of faithful connection. He greeted his feared enemy with, “Brother Saul…”[9]

Ananias’ faithful courage is an inspiration. He didn’t have a backup plan if things didn’t work out with Saul’s transformation. How many of us would be able to listen, react, and then respond to such an ask? Many of us might argue that someone else go see Saul. Others of us would question the vision itself. Was that really the Lord?? That’s an age-old question. How do we know WHAT God’s vision for anything is? Being human is a confusing mess.

Being an American human figuring out faith alongside patriotism that IS NOT Christian Nationalism is a hot mess these days. We throw phrases around like “separation of church and state” that are not in the Constitution; and misinterpret things that ARE in the Constitution like the First Amendment’s prohibition of laws establishing a religion in this country and the assurance of the law that everyone may practice their religion in freedom. We think we know what those things mean but it seems clear that we do not. Christ and country are conflated in astounding ways as if the Bible includes the words, “United States of America.”  Spoiler alert. It doesn’t. BUT there are many examples of Jesus’ calling disciples for large and small actions to fulfill God’s vision for the world and for the people God loves.

God’s vision is what the reading from Revelation is about. Revelation is a feisty and cryptic book. It was written in symbols and language to give hope to an early Christian community oppressed by the Roman Empire. They would understand the coded language. We don’t. The Left Behind series and Hollywood haven’t done us any favors when it comes to understanding Revelation’s cryptic, hope-filled message. But there is a glimpse of clarity about God’s hopeful vision for humanity in the image of the Lamb.

In Revelation, the slaughtered Lamb is Jesus.[10] The Lamb is a person destroyed by the Empire to send a clear message about the Empire’s power. But somehow, the Lamb symbolizes a profound reversal of that power and God’s preferred future flows through the Lamb.[11] See what I mean? Revelation is rough going. But here’s a cool fun fact, the Canticle of Praise that we sing in worship this Easter season is from these verses in Revelation—”Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God…blessing and honor and glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever amen…” In this strange hymn from Revelation, we sing the hope of power’s reversal in Jesus. Jesus’ disciples have found courage in this reversal for centuries. Courage to speak truth to power while ministering to our burdened earth and the animals who live here with us. Courage to walk alongside: children who need our advocacy, people who do not have enough to live on, and illegally deported strangers. The list is growing. Be of good courage, pick people to advocate with, and work with others to do so.

Sometimes, the hardest courage to muster is witnessing to our own faith in Jesus. Here’s a pro-tip. Maybe don’t lead with the slaughtered Lamb. Grace is a good place to start. Grace for yourself and others as we muddle through this messy human life together, called by Jesus to leave hateful self-righteousness behind and to embody his risen life, giving hope to a wounded and weary world.

Jesus is more than a backup plan. Jesus is the humble Lamb.

Jesus, the one who re-calls us to discipleship in Easter is the wounded, risen Lamb;

the one who reverses earthly power through self-sacrifice and love by the power of the Holy Spirit;

the one who took the death-dealing ways of the Empire and showed that anyone can muscle their way into power over other people and stay for a time, but that true power dawns in the Lamb who is worthy of our alleluias.

_________________________________________

[1] John 2:1-11

[2] John 6:1-15

[3] Karoline Lewis, Professor of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave for the Bible readings for May 4, 2025. #1021: Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Lewis, ibid.

[6] John 16:12-13

[7] John 20:19-23

[8] Lewis, ibid.

[9] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave for the Bible readings for May 4, 2025. #1021: Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[10] Skinner, ibid.

[11] Skinner, ibid.

________________________________________________

Rev 5:11-14  11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 singing with full voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”
14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

 

Psalm 30

1 I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lift- | ed me up
and have not let my enemies triumph | over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried | out to you,
and you restored | me to health.
3 You brought me up, O Lord, | from the dead;
you restored my life as I was going down | to the grave.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, | all you faithful;
give thanks in ho- | ly remembrance. R
5 God’s wrath is short; God’s favor | lasts a lifetime.
Weeping spends the night, but joy comes | in the morning.
6 While I felt se- | cure, I said,
“I shall never | be disturbed.
7 You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong | as the mountains.”
Then you hid your face, and I was | filled with fear.
8 I cried to | you, O Lord;
I pleaded with | my Lord, saying,
9 “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down | to the pit?
Will the dust praise you or de- | clare your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and have mer- | cy upon me;
O Lord, | be my helper.” R
11 You have turned my wailing | into dancing;
you have put off my sackcloth and clothed | me with joy.
12 Therefore my heart sings to you | without ceasing;
O Lord my God, I will give you | thanks forever. R 1 I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lift- | ed me up
and have not let my enemies triumph | over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried | out to you,
and you restored | me to health.
3 You brought me up, O Lord, | from the dead;
you restored my life as I was going down | to the grave.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, | all you faithful;
give thanks in ho- | ly remembrance. R
5 God’s wrath is short; God’s favor | lasts a lifetime.
Weeping spends the night, but joy comes | in the morning.
6 While I felt se- | cure, I said,
“I shall never | be disturbed.
7 You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong | as the mountains.”
Then you hid your face, and I was | filled with fear.
8 I cried to | you, O Lord;
I pleaded with | my Lord, saying,
9 “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down | to the pit?
Will the dust praise you or de- | clare your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and have mer- | cy upon me;
O Lord, | be my helper.” R
11 You have turned my wailing | into dancing;
you have put off my sackcloth and clothed | me with joy.
12 Therefore my heart sings to you | without ceasing;
O Lord my God, I will give you | thanks forever. R

Preaching, Sermons

Easter Mystery: Where’s the BODY?!! – Luke 24:1-12

**sermon art: Women at the Tomb by Graham Braddock

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church (Denver) on April 20, 2025

[sermon begins after the Bible reading]

Luke 24:1-12  On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

[sermon begins]

Where’s the BODY?! Jesus’ BODY? Did someone take Jesus? Where did they put him?  Is any BODY there?! The perplexed women—Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary mother of James and the others—saw so much as part of Jesus’ ministry, especially in those last few days. They watched Jesus be put to death on a cross by politically and religiously powerful people. They watched Joseph of Arimathea take Jesus off the cross and put him in the tomb. They packed spices and ointments with which they’d return after resting on the Sabbath “according to the commandment.”[1]

The women were faithful, courageous, and diligent through the previous days of tragedy, confusion, and grief. When so many disciples fled, or otherwise fell apart, these women stayed and saw it all. But the BODY is gone! There was no BODY to see. No BODY to tend. They had seen Jesus’ body laid in the tomb, so they were ready to anoint his body with oil and spices, to say thank you for his life, and to say a loving goodbye after his death. Instead, they encounter a couple of razzle dazzle dudes of the divine kind. The women react to their dazzling divinity by bowing their faces to the ground.

Although, what the two dazzling men do next is fairly ordinary. They remind the women what Jesus taught them when he was alive. And what he taught them fits with what they saw him go through on the cross. The women saw ungodly violence and sifted their experiences through what Jesus said before he died, and through what the two dazzling dudes in the tomb are saying now. Their reminder makes sense of things. That’s way this works. We hear something that gives our experience a new or different meaning—not explaining the grief away or making heinous suffering magically better—but gleaning from suffering and grief in a way that feels like a gift.

This gift of gleaning is no small thing. The Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism and Desmond Tutu of Anglican Christianity reflected together on joy and suffering from their respective traditions.[2] These two wizened elders talked about living in deep joy even though we experience suffering. Neither they, nor any of us here, must go very far personally or culturally to find tragedy, confusion, and grief. From personal illness to the death of a loved one, to international genocide, to innocent immigrants deported to horrific prisons, to queer youth vilified or worse, to whatever you’d like to add to the list, we totally get tragedy and grief. We get it deep in our gut, in our heartache, in our BODY.

Our bodies just aren’t designed to hold it all. Our bodies are designed to hold a village-worth of news, not a world’s worth of news. It’s tempting to numb our suffering in the sizzle-and-fizzle dopamine cycle of food, alcohol, or doom-scrolling as we try to make our bodies feel better. The problem with the sizzle-and-fizzle strategy is that we humans tend to put those behaviors on repeat. We entomb ourselves in the things that bring temporary relief. Tombs of our own making that wound our bodies, isolate us from each other, and steal our joy.

Living in deep joy while we experience suffering SOUNDS nice. Actually, a little better than nice. And lots better than how we often handle suffering. Take Jesus’ apostles who weren’t at the tomb with the women. They were hiding out. Not unusual in dark times to lay low and go silent. They too had been through terror and grief in the last three days. From their vantage point, of course Jesus’ BODY was still in the tomb. They knew he’d died. They’re terrified that they’re next in line for the death penalty. When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and the others shared what they had heard at the tomb, the apostles called it an “idle tale”—which is a G-rated translation of that Greek word, by the way. BODIES don’t just disappear, and they certainly don’t just rise. Except…there’s the apostle Peter.

The very same Peter who denied that he knew Jesus three times during Jesus’ crucifixion trial. Peter ran to the tomb despite the women’s “idle tale.” Perhaps he was more concerned that the women were telling the truth, worrying what his friend Jesus would say about Peter’s denials during the trial. It could be hope or fear or both that sent Peter running to the tomb to see if any BODY is there.

Regardless, Peter’s dash to the tomb depended on the women’s story. That can be a frustrating thing about resurrection faith. We have no access to it outside of the witness of other people, the witness of the wider church that is also called the BODY of Christ.[3]  Like Peter, we’re dependent on each other for resurrection faith. Like Peter looking into the tomb himself, ultimately the witness of the church is not enough, and people need their own encounters with Jesus and the empty tomb.

Where our individual experiences connect with the resurrection faith of the church is part of what the empty tomb is about. Like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Peter, we do not solve the mystery, we enter the mystery of resurrection faith – God bringing us through cross and tomb into new life because we are God’s children, broken and beloved, resurrected into the BODY of Christ through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Resurrection faith trusts that there is enough for every BODY—enough resources, enough love, enough life—as we extend Christ’s arms of love and grace, so that Jesus’ joyous welcome through us nourishes the world into community.

New life literally abounds as Easter and Spring happen simultaneously this year. The new snow soaks into tree roots. Perennials pop up green and budding while birds fly back to our latitude for nesting and nectar. Perhaps your suffering, confusion, and grief make it difficult to see life at all, to feel any joy. Life doesn’t conveniently align with the season of the earth or the season of the church. One gift of the BODY of Christ is that the prayers, practices, and people of the church’s resurrection faith cocoon us while we grieve or heal, holding space for joy until we can feel it once more. When we’re too broken to pray, our church community prays for us as the risen BODY of Christ for each other and for the world. Our BODIES are not designed to hold it all, BUT the BODY of Christ, the church, is designed to hold it together.

On a wider scale, being the church, the BODY of Christ, calls us to be the love that we receive however imperfectly we reveal that love. We donate land for affordable homes just down the hill. We welcome the stranger with our refugee support teams. We pray for our enemies while holding them accountable for the dignity of each child of God. And we love our neighbors as ourselves by accompanying them in advocacy and amplifying their voices with our own.

The good news of Easter reminds us that God loves the world and does not leave us alone – the dazzling men in the tomb reminded the women that Jesus had already told them this good news; the apostles heard the good news of the resurrection from Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and the others; and today, Easter Sunday, and for the next 50 days of the Easter season, we remind each other that there is good news of defiant joy and hope in the face of suffering.

Our suffering is joined by the risen Christ who knows suffering personally, who rolls open the tombs we make for ourselves, and draws us into new life, into the BODY of Christ. Where’s the BODY? Is any BODY there?! Yes. Right here. We are the BODY made new yet again today in community from the newest visitors to the longest time members. God brings us through cross and tomb into the joy of new life solely because we are beloved children of God. Each one of us, EVERY BODY, is unconditionally beloved. By that very love, you are welcome here. The church gets to be the love we receive for the sake of the world and remind everyone that they are loved, too.  This means that there is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you anymore or any less. That’s the way unconditional love works. Happy Easter!

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[1] Luke 23:50-56

[2] Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. (New York: Avery, 2016).

[3] Matthew Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary. Podcast on Bible readings for Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019. https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=1129

Sermons

Mortality – Is Any BODY There? Yes! John 12:1-8

 

**sermon art: Unction of Christ by Maria Stankova

Pastor Kent Mueller along with Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on April 6, 2025

Kent Mueller talks about his wife Elizabeth’s life and death five years ago. He asked me to preach it with him as someone who was present for both.

You may watch the sermon preached here at minute 30:27:

Sunday Service – 04/06/2025 – Augustana Lutheran Church Denver

[sermon begins after Bible reading]

John 12:1-8  Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

[sermon begins]

PASTOR KENT: 

In our Church Year we have one particular day set aside for honesty about mortality. And you might be thinking: “Why Good Friday of course, when Jesus died on the cross.” No. It’s Ash Wednesday. It is the day that we speak the truth of our frailty. Our vulnerability. Our mortality.  

Ashes are what is left when the life itself is gone. And on Ash Wednesday we smear an ashen cross on our forehead, making visible the cross that was anointed with oil at baptism—when the waters of baptism wash over us and we are named as a child of God. Ash Wednesday is our ritual of honesty, symbolizing that beginning and endings, that life and death. Are entwined together. 

PASTOR CAITLIN: 

I had been in contact with an Augustana family through the years as the mother’s health issues mounted. Her heart failure was more and more serious, such that she was approved for a heart transplant. It was August 26, 2019, when they got the call late at night that the gift of a heart was now available. There is no hiding from mortality when getting such a phone call. 

The heart transplant took place the next day, and it was a resounding success, with healing and recovery on the way. They had hope again! It was a miracle brought about through astonishing medical technology… but made possible only by the death of another. There are no words for such gratitude. 

PASTOR KENT: 

Endings and beginnings. Death and Life. Together. 

But as a people, a culture, we aren’t very comfortable with mortality. You would think that we’d be better at it, as people of faith. But American culture prizes youth, and health, and productivity. And we have medicalized mortality. The point of our medical institutions is to keep someone alive. Aging and death are seen as failures rather than natural transitions, making it difficult to openly discuss or accept mortality. And then when death comes, we are unprepared, anxious, even afraid.  

Contrast this with the death of Jesus, when he was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea. And Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes for preparing the body. Since Jesus had died shortly before the Sabbath, they had to prepare his body hastily, and the women who followed Jesus planned to return after the Sabbath to finish anointing him properly. 

Today’s Gospel text from John, then, is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ body being prepared for burial. Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume and wiping them with her hair is an act of devotion, a gesture of love, and—whether Mary fully understood it or not—a preparation for Jesus’ death and burial. 

PASTOR CAITLIN: 

For several months, the heart transplant recovery continued slowly and deliberately with a program of cardiac rehabilitation, designed to strengthen the heart and the body. But then, something wasn’t right. Recovery progress plateaued, followed by problems with memory and balance. Five months after the heart transplant, she was hospitalized to try and figure out what was happening.  Hope was slipping away, and the pastors and parish nurse took turns to go to the hospital, to visit, to pray.  To be an embodied presence of the prayers lifted by the Augustana community. 

PASTOR KENT: 

Beginnings and endings. Life and death. Together. 

Mary’s anointing in today’s scripture echoes an ancient, sacred practice—preparing the body for burial. In the Jewish tradition, the body was washed, perfumed, and wrapped in linen before being laid to rest.  Anointing was an act of reverence, a final blessing, a way to prepare the body for its return to the earth and its journey with God. Most other faith practices include such rituals—Islamic families wash their dead, Jewish burial societies purify, Hindus use sacred oils and water. 

These practices allow for a tangible, intimate, embodied confrontation with death, offering healing. Love.  Closure. By turning away from such rituals in our time, we have lost the profound and sacred act of caring for loved ones, and the communal embrace of shared grief—a farewell where hands and hearts meet in healing. 

PASTOR CAITLIN: 

After several weeks in the hospital, she was transported to Denver Hospice. A family member asked that I be prepared to come there after the time of death to lead prayers and a ritual of washing and anointing. I gathered together a bag of items to be ready at a moment’s notice day or night: A bowl for warm water, a few cloths and towels for ritual washing, oil for anointing, some candles. And we waited for death to come. 

PASTOR KENT: 

Endings and beginnings. Death and Life. Together. 

I asked Pastor Caitilin to tell this story, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell it myself. Because her story is my story. 

For five years now, I’ve wondered if there might be a time, when I could share this story, which now concludes with a Rite for Preparing the Body for Burial. I would not have known to consider this ritual, had my brother not told me about it.  He’s a pastor in Chicago, and he knew of this liturgy, which is not found within our official Lutheran worship books. (What does that say about our comfort with mortality and death?) 

I’m sharing this story today because it’s not the American way of death.  So that you might become familiar with these words and actions–– rituals––that honor the mortal body that we are in life and in death. And that proclaim that God’s love is eternal, beyond our beginning and endings, in life and in death.

PASTOR CAITLIN: 

Kent called me midafternoon on March 11, 2020. Elizabeth had died.  I was here in the office and made my way the short distance to Denver Hospice over on the Lowry campus. In Elizabeth’s room, we filled the bowl with water, opened the oil, and lit the candles. We began with a prayer of preparation… 

  • We come to this moment in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We come surrounded by the saints who have done this work before us.
  • When Jesus was preparing for his own death, he knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples and then taught them to wash one another.
  • And on the way to Jerusalem, Mary the sister of Martha anointed Jesus with costly perfume.
  • Prepare us, cleansing spirit. 

Then, as they played music, they ritually washed and anointed Elizabeth’s body as named in these holy blessings: 

  • Over her eyes: All that Elizabeth’s eyes have seen in this life, O God, we commend to you.
  • Over her ears: All that Elizabeth’s ears have heard in this life, O God, we commend to you.
  • Over her mouth: All that Elizabeth’s tongue has tasted and all the words that her mouth has spoken in this life, O God, we commend to you.
  • Over her hands: All the work that Elizabeth’s hands have done in this life, O God, we commend to you. 
  • Over her feet: All the journeys of Elizabeth’s pilgrimage on this earth, O God, we commend to you.
  • Over her forehead: This life, baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, O God, we commend to you. You belong to Christ, in whom you have been baptized.  Amen 

Hymn during the anointing:

There Is a Longing

Hymn after the sermon:

Holy Woman, Graceful Giver ACS 1002

______________________________________________________________

Sources and resources 

  • Rites for Preparing the Body for Burial by Pastor Rebekkah Lohrmann 
  • https://sylviaschroeder.com/why-did-mary-anoint jesus-for-his-burial-before-he-died/ 
  • h”ps://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised common-lec8onary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary on-john-121-8-2 
  • h”p://words.dancingwiththeword.com/2016/03/the annoin8ng.html 
  • Any Body There? by Craig Mueller

 

Sermons

Is Any BODY There? Yes! The Prodigal Son Returns—Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 [OR The Nuance of Smarty-Pants Phones and Resting in the Holy]

 

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on March 30, 2025

[sermon begins after the Bible story of the Prodigal Son told by Jesus – worth reading as a sermon unto itself]

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 11b “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

[sermon begins]

“Look it up.” My mother’s words, back in day, would send my siblings and I to the massive family dictionary open on the book stand or the set of encyclopedias on the living room shelf. We’re not sure whether sending us to look it up:

  1. bought her time to herself. A full-time job AND five children were A LOT to manage;
  2. meant that she didn’t have to say, “I don’t know;” or
  3. was a parent instilling curiosity in their kids.

Likely it was a mix of each. Looking up words and ideas, maps and historical people was just what our family did. It was our family’s thing. Like some families camp and other families play sports. We looked things up. You can imagine the delight and wonder when computers more powerful than we could imagine came on the scene disguised as smarty-pants phones. Hanging out with my sibs these days includes deep discussions, questions, and looking it up on our smartphones. Curiosity runs amok in this crew.  The perils of doom-scrolling to emotional health and misuse of the interwebs to community health are widely known so I’ll refrain from enumerating them here. These clever devices are designed to foster dependency on the tech, misinformation, and monetized content, yet they are also tools that expand real human connection, care, and support.[1] We share each other lives and events there. These nuances are important as we ask and answer our Lenten theme: “Is Any BODY there? Yes!” And today we hear the call to Sabbath.

Sabbath means rest. [2] Sabbath is observed on Saturdays by Jews and on Sundays by Christians. The sabbath imitates God resting on the seventh day after forming creation.[3] The Third Commandment says, “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.”[4] Rest was a radical notion way back in the day when God’s people were trying to survive as desert nomads. Sabbath rest is way deeper than spa days, sports and fitness, or scrolling through our socials. Sabbath rest orients us to the holy, to God. Even better, we’re oriented BY God who mandated sabbath rest. Not to look it up to learn something, but to look up and be known by God.

There’s almost no better Bible story than the prodigal son for a day about remembering the sabbath and keeping it holy. A story about a determined and then desperate son being loved, embraced, and celebrated by a desperate and determined father. The younger son squandered all the money he had demanded from his father on what Jesus called, “dissolute living.” Great word. But here’s the focus today. The younger son looked up and saw himself with a clear mind when he was starving as the pigs dined. He looked up from the mud and saw himself. He remembered the community available to him. He remembered his father and knew he had to make an apology. He came up with one. No telling how honest it was. Armed with his apology, he headed home to his father.

Dad looked up and saw someone walking up the road. It was one of those moments, maybe you know the kind, where his heart knew but his head couldn’t catch up fast enough, so he just stood there, frozen, wondering if it was true.  But he knew, he knew his son’s shape, his walk, he knew HIM!  Before he could think any more about it, he moved like lightning! Later, he could only remember running as fast as he could; maybe even yelling as he ran. He was a sight—eyes wild, robes and dust flying all around, chickens scattering and squawking, he just simply couldn’t move fast enough. The father practically knocked them both over when he caught his son in his arms, rocking side to side with the excess energy, eyes weeping away the worry.

The son said something, but the father’s pounding heart must have blocked hearing it. All the father knew was to celebrate. That very moment was a celebration, and that celebration became a party – fatted calf, robe, ring and all! The older son couldn’t bring himself to go inside, isolating himself in righteous rage. How dare his brother show his face around here again! His father went out to him, affirming his worth and their deep connection while still rejoicing that the younger son was lost and now is found. You only have to look as far as our PEAK Support Group, “Parents of Estranged Adult Kids,” to know the heavy heart and helpless hope of a parent longing for their child’s return.

The holiness of reconciliation is like nothing else. Neither is its offense. We hear God’s word in Jesus’ story without missing a beat. It preaches itself as we take our sabbath rest here in worship. How many of us can relate to the older brother’s anger? It’s easy to understand. He’d been faithful and diligent, doing all the hard work while his younger brother left. Just left! Now he’s back and dad is throwing a party?! Inconceivable!

But there are some of us here this morning who can relate to the younger brother. Mistakes made that wounded us and key relationships. Deep regret about inflicting pain on someone else, on our families and friends. Wondering if God’s reckless grace can truly include even us.

At best, our Sabbath rest orients us and reorients us to this prodigal God of extravagant compassion as we look up and out towards being human together, in our bodies together. Technology augments our reality, for which there are many reasons to be grateful.[5] Many of us owe our health and wellness to that very technology. Still more of us are connected across space and time in real relationship because of it. I’m in regular contact with friends from long ago and all over the world because of it!

But Lent is a perfect time to consider the effect of tech and its excesses on our bodies and relationships, too. Lent reminds that we hand ourselves over to all kinds of things that are not God, squandering our longings and our hopes and wondering why we’re watching pigs dine.

The holiness of the sabbath is not self-generated. Holiness is not born from our music or singing. We don’t instigate holiness by our good deeds or compassion. The holiness is God’s and we but look up and reflect our experience of it as the church, the embodiment of Christ as God’s people in the world. A God who loves us when we’re close and when we’re far away. In our faithfulness and in our humiliation. In our daily work and in our return from wandering. We are ambassadors of God’s household—looking up to find whoever is lost from this house and embracing them into God’s life. For all of this and for more than there are words, we can say thanks be to God for unquenchable, reckless, prodigal, amazing grace!

_____________________________________________

[1] Craig Mueller. “Augmented Reality” in Any Body There? Worship and Being Human in a Digital Age (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2017), 120-129.

[2] Frederick Buechner. “Sabbath” in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC (New York: HarperCollins, 1973, 1993), 100.

[3] Genesis 2:3

[4] Exodus 20:8 and the Small Catechism of Martin Luther, Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006), 1160.

[5] Mueller, Ibid, 128.

___________________________________________________

This is the second reading for worship. I didn’t explicitly incorporate it but it’s throughout the sermon.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21  From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.