Category Archives: Preaching

Preaching, Sermons

Exuberant Delight [OR “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday]

**sermon art: Black Boy Joy by Ija Monet

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on September 7, 2025

[sermon begins after two Bible readings–hang in there through the Philemon reading, it’s worth it); the Psalm and Deuteronomy readings are at the end of the sermon.]

Luke 14:25-33  Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Philemon, the whole one chapter book: Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To our beloved coworker Philemon, 2 to our sister Apphia, to our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always when I mention you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ. 7 I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.
8 For this reason, though I am more than bold enough in Christ to command you to do the right thing, 9 yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 10 I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. 12 I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. 13 I wanted to keep him with me so that he might minister to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. 15 Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for the long term, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to me. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.
22 One thing more: prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you.
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my coworkers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

[sermon begins]

I was driving out of my neighborhood and stopped at a red light. Six feet from my car stood an older gentleman waiting at the crosswalk with a massive red rolling suitcase on his way to catch the light rail. The intersection was packed with cars. I was wearing my pastor collar heading to church to do a funeral. Suddenly, the man looked at me, started smiling widely and moving exuberantly, making huge signs of the cross in my direction. Left hand clutching the roller handle, right palm out towards me, he flung his arm as tall as his hand could go, then down, then side to side. He did this several times and then crossed himself. I couldn’t help but smile and laugh with him.

His exuberance was infectious. He was right there on the corner. Six feet from my car. It finally occurred to me to return his blessing for the few brief moments that the light was still red. There we were, blessing each other, blessing ourselves, and laughing together. The light changed and we parted ways delighted by joy. The other people in cars had no idea that I was in a pastor’s collar or what inspired the man to make the sign of the cross at my bright green car or that I was returning his blessing. I’d love to hear THEM tell the story. What was clear was that there was nothing that was going to stop this man from blessing me. He may have been on the way to the light rail station, but he was definitely on the Way of Jesus.

Meanwhile, in his letter to Philemon about Onesimus’ enslavement, Paul was figuring out the Way of Jesus without much to go on by way of precedent or road map.[1] No one knew how to welcome a slave into the Way of Jesus. Paul didn’t know what the consequences would be for Onesimus or anyone else. Could it be dangerous for Onesimus? But with love and courage, he implored Philemon to reconfigure the enslaver/enslaved relationship into a family relationship. From slave to brother. A radical request.

This tiny, one chapter book in the Bible was used in our own country and across countries during the Transatlantic slave trade to justify the enslavement of Black African people by White Christians as a gentle, merciful, and kind act to make people’s lives better.[2] Not only COULD those 19th century enslavers justify their actions but they SHOULD enslave people to save them from an uncivilized, unChristian life. The 19th century abolitionists also used Philemon to work AGAINST slavery, claiming that Paul’s letter upended the relationship between the enslaver and the enslaved person. Find your home Bible or hop online and read Philemon with fresh eyes. As a Roman citizen, Paul was caught in the slavery norm of the empire. As a Jew, Paul remembered the Egyptian enslavement of his people and the Exodus led by Moses that freed them. He was in new territory as a follower of the Way of Jesus and a preacher of Christ and him crucified.[3] So goes the Biblical bind of the ethical interpretation of scripture.

The Biblical bind of ethical interpretation is a helpful caution on “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday. Our desire to follow Christ towards the very people left out of human dignity, justice, and flourishing can result in unintended consequences for those very people. It’s not a reason not to help. But it is a caution when we choose life as commanded in the Deuteronomy text or delight in the law of the Lord as instructed in Psalm 1. We do the work of God for the life and delight of all people, for God’s sake, and for the sake of the world. The minute we turn in on ourselves and make it about the church is the minute we miss the point. Understanding God’s mission for us is a good example of law and gospel. The gospel, which means the good news of Jesus, frees us to be people of courage and people of hope, knowing that God’s mission of life, love, and human flourishing is necessarily for each one of us, too.

At the same time that the gospel frees us, the law convicts us. The law is the command that Jesus gives us. Jesus said:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”[4]

And we are to delight in that law, says the Psalmist, even though there is a cost to being on the Way of Jesus. Jesus’ stinging words about family in the Luke reading jolt his listeners into awareness. In the first century, family was essential to survival. He had their attention. Jesus hits on three things that we love a lot—life itself, our immediate family, and our money.[5] Loving these things are prioritized elsewhere in the Bible as good things so we know that Jesus is emphasizing something big with his intense delivery.

What are we to make of Jesus’ teaching as we follow his way while also loving these things? ARE we too quick to make idols of them? Meaning, are life, family, and money really just self-absorption in disguise? Or is it more complicated, is Jesus challenging us to consider the cost of discipleship over time? Following the Way of Jesus changes who you are, how you love and who you love.[6] Following Jesus’ Way changes how we spend our money and what we think about our stuff. Persistence over time gives us perspective as we learn the Way. We’re not expected to know all the things there are to know about the destination or what perfection looks like. Remember, there is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you any more or any less.

When Jesus commands us to love our neighbor, it’s not optional. It’s essential to who we are and to whom we belong. The good news is that the gospel frees us to love our neighbor with wild abandon and exuberant delight, unafraid of looking ridiculous at intersections. Unafraid of speaking out and showing up with all of our neighbors—immigrants, LGBTQ, Palestinian and Jew, unhoused, and hungry. All. Our. Neighbors. Unafraid of making mistakes while being thoughtful in our exuberance to minimize mistakes so that God’s mission of human flourishing in God’s image and for God’s kingdom purpose takes hold. “God’s work. Our hands.” Indeed, and amen. [Exuberantly making the sign of the cross towards the people.]

_____________________________________________________-

[1] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave podcast on worship readings for 9/7/2025. #1040: Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 23C) – September 07, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[2] Skinner, ibid.

[3] 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (verse 2 “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”)

[4] Matthew 22:37-40

[5] Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave podcast on worship readings for 9/7/2025. #1040: Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 23C) – September 07, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[6] Skinner, ibid.

____________________________________________

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “Choose life.”

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Psalm 1 “Their delight is in the law of the Lord.”

1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and they meditate on God’s teaching  day and night. 
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper.
4 It is not so with the wicked;
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked shall be destroyed.

Good News, Preaching, Sermons

Holy Rest in Our Bone-Weary World [OR Rest Well] Luke 13:10-17

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on August 24, 2025

Luke 13:10-17  Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

Does anyone else think that it’s a little odd that we need to sleep? Hang with me on this for a second. There are 24 hours in a day, and the generally agreed upon amount of time for good sleep is eight hours. Eight hours that can play hard to get, so we bless each other before bedtime with a sincere, “Sleep well.” Eight hours of sleep so that our bodies can heal at the cellular level, make the helpful hormones, and integrate our brain functions including focus, memory, and mood. A good night’s sleep makes us feel more like ourselves. Dare we say that sleep draws us closer to God’s image in us, to the good that God created in the beginning, when even God rested?

“Remember the sabbath and keep it holy.”[1] Let’s geek out on that for a minute. It’s the third commandment of the big ten. In the Bible books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, this commandment is given with extra emphasis on who gets to rest. God commands rest for all the people – free people, enslaved people, and alien residents in the land. God commands rest for animals too – ox, donkey, and all livestock. In Exodus, the command is given to honor God’s rest on the seventh day after creating creation. In Deuteronomy, the command is given because the Hebrew people were once slaves without rest in Egypt, so rest is not to be taken for granted. In both books, the sabbath command is “to the Lord your God.” Resting to the Lord. Resting in the Lord. A holy day of rest. Breathe that in for a minute. Holy rest for everyone and everything. Holiness for everyone and everything.

Holy rest. Holiness. Sabbath. A thing of beauty but a different kind of beauty rest. When we put it this way, it’s easier to have compassion for the synagogue leader when Jesus heals the woman from a crippling spirit on the Sabbath. Holy rest is hard to come by. We all know it. We know it bone deep—deep in the weariness that cripples our own spirits. But unless we have a daily battle that’s physical or cultural, it’s tough to appreciate the woman’s moment in the story. And Jesus had a way of expanding commandments at inopportune times, disrupting the moment while freeing the person in pain. Perhaps we could say he blew apart holiness only to reform it into something even holier. Jesus is always one step ahead, isn’t he? At least one step ahead, disrupting what we think should be happening with what God thinks should be happening. Jesus taking action is sometimes called gospel, a churchy word that means “good news.” But in Lutheran Christian land, we often talk about law and gospel because law is often on the flipside of the gospel. We’re both freed by Jesus’ actions while at the same time convicted by Jesus’ actions.

Much like the synagogue leader whose reaction to Jesus’ action was angst and indignation, our reactions to law can be similar. Sabbath rest is a great example of law and gospel. Here we are this morning, Sabbath resting to God, listening to God’s word, reassured by God’s presence and promise in our lives. Sabbath rest for God to remind us who we are and align us with God’s will in the world. That’s gospel.

At the same time, there are people who can’t be here, people who can’t take a Sabbath rest because they’re working. So, is Sabbath rest optional? Is Sabbath rest just for some of us? That can’t be right. Deuteronomy includes the alien in your lands, not just people who follow God’s command. Do we assume that everyone is able to rest at other times? Have we constructed a society in which rest isn’t for everyone? Is it possible that there is no such thing as true Sabbath rest until even the most vulnerable among us may rest?

The discomfort grows as the questions smolder. Much like when Jesus asks questions in our reading and his opponents were put to shame. Shame is an unhelpful emotion. Regret is a more useful cousin of shame because we learn from regret what it is we don’t want to do again. Regret edges us towards being convicted by the law which provokes our discomfort. It helps us by shaking us free to see our neighbor’s situation differently and therefore our own situation differently. Last Sunday, Pastor Kent preached the ways that Jesus stirs the pot about who we’re paying attention to and the divides created by stirring the pot on behalf of our neighbors. This Sunday, Christ’s compassion stirs our conscience and pokes at our contentment.

In our Bible story this morning, Jesus healed the woman from a crippling spirit. For her, freedom from 18 years of being enslaved to that spirit freed her for a Sabbath rest like none in her recent past. There was nothing more holy than her freedom in merciful healing. As she stood straight, she was living and breathing pure gospel. For that moment in time, she embodied the good news of Jesus. But her vertical body made another body uncomfortable. Jesus’ approach didn’t make the synagogue leader feel comfortable. It did the other thing. It disturbed his conscience, and it disturbed the sense of contentment that he had. I would say that it disturbed his own ideas about the holy with a greater holiness.

When Jesus healed the woman, he changed at least two people’s perspectives. The unnamed woman saw the world around her at everyone else’s eye level for a change. Her perspective literally shifted from looking at the floor to looking people in the eye. The synagogue leader saw the woman’s healing as a disruption to Sabbath holiness rather than her healing as holiness. His perspective shifted when Jesus started asking him questions and he realized he wasn’t right. All of this to say that I wonder how greater holiness raises questions, stirs our conscience, and shifts our perspective. I wonder where the law convicts us, and the gospel heals us simultaneously through Jesus’ actions.

In this summer’s Eucharistic Prayer during communion, we praise God’s grace shown to God’s people in every age, including now the gift of Jesus Christ, who proclaimed the good news in word and deed, in his ministry on earth, and through the mystery of his death and resurrection. In our weekly communion celebration, our praise of God’s grace links to Jesus’ death on the cross. On the cross is where God in Jesus chooses vulnerability and refuses to raise a hand in violence against the world God loves. Jesus absorbed human violence into death, burying it in a tomb, and revealing a love so powerful that even death could not end it. A love that now lives in us as the body of Christ, the church.

Sometimes the church is called the Body of Christ because Christ’s death and resurrection promise lives in us through our baptisms which empowers us by the Holy Spirit to love God, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. But I wonder how we as the church more quickly react like the synagogue leader when our perspective of holiness is challenged rather than like the body of Christ from whom Christ’s love pours out to renew an exhausted world, deeply in need of rest and the reminder that God loves people, not power.

Jesus made himself vulnerable to power when he healed the woman in pain despite it being the Sabbath rest day. Embodying God’s love and grace was high risk for him. God’s grace is so radical that the world as it was, and as it is now, could not fathom a holier way. A holier way through which there is no time like the present to receive God’s love and grace. And there’s no time like the present to give away God’s love and grace. God’s grace-filled glory is revealed through Jesus, our healer, who pours out his love for us here in this place of Sabbath rest. Rest well.

_______________________________

[1] Deuteronomy 5:12-15 and Exodus 20:8-10 – Remember the sabbath and keep it holy…

Good News, Preaching, Sermons

Hearts on the Move [OR World Building for the Good of All] Luke 12:32-40 and Genesis 15:1-6

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on August 10, 2025

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Genesis 15:1-6  After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” 4 But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Luke 12:32-40 [Jesus said to the thousands:] 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

[sermon begins]

What do the stars see when they look towards our pale blue dot swirling through the Milky Way? Maybe cloud spirals and lightning flashes stand out. Or city lights that coalesce into radiant diamonds across the land. Or creatures of all kinds across earth and sea who are foraging, frolicking, and fighting. What could the stars tell us about ourselves that we can’t see for ourselves because we’re too close to the action, building incomprehensible worlds that we can’t seem to shift from the habits built over millennia. I’m into world building stories like Lord of the Rings where events shape the characters as much as the characters shape events. I just recently finished The Liveship Traders trilogy complete with dragons, sea serpents, pirates, and liveships who spoke because they were carved from the wizardwood of dragon cocoons.[1] Division and hierarchy were entrenched from the kings to the enslaved people. Hope was shaped by sinner-saint characters, including the liveships themselves, who say things like, “…life is to be lived, rather than hoarded against an unseen tomorrow.”[2] Small wonder to be compelled by stories that build worlds. Isn’t that what the Bible is, after all? A story of a people in a relationship with the God of the cosmos whose word created life in which God took delight and forms us as people of faith to usher in God’s vision for the world.

In the Genesis story, [the Lord] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them—So shall your descendants be.” When Abram looked back at the stars’ gaze, he saw the promises of God. Not the worlds millions of miles away but a world of possibilities in his time through God’s reckless abundance given to him. Abram was a wayfarer on a journey from his homeland at God’s invitation to renew the earth by building a world in which God’s kingdom reigns for the good of everyone – the stranger, the poor, the widow, and the orphan. Unlimited goodness from a God of steadfast love and lovingkindness.[3]

You may have heard that the ELCA Churchwide Assembly just elected Presiding Bishop-elect Yehiel Curry to serve a six-year term beginning in October. Presiding Bishop-elect Curry was born on the South Side of Chicago, raised in the Catholic church, went to Catholic schools, and became a social worker, then a seventh-grade teacher.[4] One of his college friends invited him to a worship service at Shekinah (She-kine-uh) Chapel on the South Side that had a focus on mentoring young Black boys in a program called SIMBA – Safe in My Brother’s Arms. He went because he’d heard they’d also organized a SIMBA camp, and he wanted to take his students camping.[5] Bishop Curry went to this church not even knowing it was Lutheran. Started attending. Fell in love with the ministry. Two years later he learned it was Lutheran. Now he’s our ELCA Presiding Bishop-elect. Bishop Curry said, “I went into a church looking for ministry and found a Lutheran church – a church [centered] on grace, God’s word for all people, and loving each and every person.” Now that’s a good word about our church and the world God is building through it from our new Presiding Bishop to his ELCA flock.

Right after Jesus’ lovely speech to the flock about fearing not, Peter says, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?”[6] It’s a classic question. Is Jesus’ speech a general kind of “all y’all” or is Jesus talking to me? As if I’ll fly under the radar if I don’t make eye contact with Jesus on this one. We don’t get to hear Peter’s reply to Jesus in the Bible reading today although it comes as the very next verse in Luke. He is still talking to the crowd of thousands. In the verses just before ours today, preached last Sunday by Pastor Karen, Jesus warns the crowds. “Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” He wraps up those verses telling them not to worry about their lives but to strive for the kingdom. A kingdom, we hear today, in which we need not worry about our treasure being taken by thieves or destroyed by moths because they are secured by God.[7]

Right away, though, Jesus says:

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

This is one of the challenges in the way we read the Bible Sunday-to-Sunday.  If left with the striving of last week’s verses against greed, we could assume wrongly that striving is the whole plan. It’s too easy to leap from striving to earning. Earning God’s pleasure. Earning God’s salvation. On the heels of earning comes deserving. I deserve God’s pleasure. I deserve God’s salvation. Until, suddenly, I’m left wondering if I’ve strived enough, earned enough, and am deserving enough. I’ve left myself no room for grace.

Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God’s good pleasure to give the kingdom to Jesus’ followers is an antidote to their fear.[8] In scripture, “do not be afraid” is the clue that we’re going to hear about God’s power and promise; God’s mighty deeds.[9] We hear it multiple times in Luke’s gospel from angels and from Jesus. Abram hears it in the Genesis reading. These promises come from God to Abram, to Luke, and to us – unconditional promise and reckless grace.

This week, Jesus offers another way to be on guard against the greed he warns about in the earlier verses.

Jesus says:

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[10]

It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom! Through this kingdom promise, disciples can guard against all kinds of greed and resist the urge to worry 24/7. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor and then directs us to be generous with money.[11] Telling us that where our treasure, our money, goes then our hearts will follow. People assume that you give to where your heart is already. But Jesus says the opposite here, you can direct where your heart goes by what you do with your money.[12]

Jesus is interested in our hearts because of God’s heart for the cosmos, for the nations, for the people. God’s heart is revealed through God’s kingdom come through Jesus whose humility and self-sacrifice lead us to live as he did. Jesus who calls us to build a world on the subversive economy of the kingdom where generosity of treasure moves our hearts towards people and places loved by God, too.[13] People foraging, frolicking, and fighting under the vast expanse of stars gazing our way. Have no fear little flock, for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Today. Here. Now.

__________________________________________

[1] Robin Hobb. The Liveship Traders (Harper Voyager: 2010).

[2] Ibid., p. 2809.

[3] Psalm 33:18 and 22

[4] Bridgette Adu-Wadier interviews Presiding Bishop-elect Yehiel Curry. August 7, 2025. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Elects First Black Presiding Bishop, a Chicago Native | Chicago News | WTTW.

[5] Lutheran World Federation. May 19, 2023. USA: from summer camp leader to Chicago bishop | The Lutheran World Federation.

[6] Luke 12:41

[7] E. Trey Clark, Professor of Preaching and Spiritual Formation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. Commentary on Luke 12:32-40. Commentary on Luke 12:32-40 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[8] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave Podcast #1037: Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 19C) – August 10, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[9] David Lose, President of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Commentary on Luke 12:32-40 for WorkingPreacher.org, August 8, 2010.  http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=729

[10] Luke 12:33-34

[11] Luke 10:25-37 Parable of the Good Samaritan: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

[12] Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave Podcast. #1037: Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 19C) – August 10, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[13] Clark, ibid.

Preaching, Sermons

Why Isn’t God Texting Me Back?! [Ask, Seek, and Knock Because the Door is Already Open]

 

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 27, 2025

[sermon begins after three longish Bible readings. The Psalm is at the end of sermon]

Luke 11:1-13  [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? 13 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Colossians 2:6-19 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. [
16 Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.]

Genesis 18:20-32  Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

[sermon begins]

Have you ever texted someone and waited days for a reply? Okay, not just me then. I can conjure up many reasons why they might not be texting back. Sometimes I tell myself that my text really isn’t that urgent in the scheme of things. I don’t have to text the double question mark to make sure they saw the first text. OR maybe you’ve been the person who’s taken days to text back. There could be any number of good reasons for the delay. You justify your delay with those reasons. The silence is just hanging out there and we fill silence by imagining things that may or may not be true because the silence is deafening. This is kind of like when we pray. We pray for all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons at all kinds of times. We often pray as if we’re texting God. When we interpret prayer as unanswered, it’s like screaming into a void asking, “Why isn’t God texting me back?!!”

How we pray says a lot about our unexamined, embedded theology. Theology is the fancy word for who we think God is and what we think God does. There’s a lot that reveals our theology without revealing a thing about God. Prayer is one of them. The Bible is an often-confusing guide in this regard. Take the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 18 this morning. It was likely paired with the Luke reading to show persistence in prayer as Abraham negotiates with God for the lives of the righteous. But it’s a horrific story that’s fueled religious retribution and wrongly used to justify much harm against humanity throughout the centuries. It’s way better to go after this story in a Bible study than a sermon because the layers of historical interpretation are painful, problematic and complicated. One problem is that these kinds of Bible stories get conflated with our own impulse for punishment and revenge. Another problem is the content of Abraham’s negotiations. Let’s scoop up this story and set it over in the more-study-needed box. Moving on…

Hanging out with Jesus as he teaches his disciples to pray may be more fruitful. The promise here is that God is listening. God listened to Jesus pray. And Jesus taught his disciples to pray because God is listening to them, too. The first posture and promise of prayer are God’s. God loves us first. God speaks to us first through the word made flesh in Jesus.[1] As Jesus teaches prayer, what we now call the Lord’s Prayer is aligning us with God’s kingdom and will, a kingdom and will that have to do with daily bread and forgiveness, a kingdom and will assured by God’s trustworthy promises.[2]

Jesus taught his disciples and said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Asking, seeking, and knocking is a posture of trust that there’s something to be found.[3] Asking, seeking, and knocking goes way beyond what I think I need or want or wish for—although we certainly pray for needs, wants, and wishes all the time. And, of course, we should. I pray for all kinds of things and for all kinds of reasons. Censoring my prayers doesn’t make any sense to me if God already knows the joys and concerns on my heart.

Theologians and church-types love to talk about what happens when we pray.  Dissecting it into parts and giving us theories on how prayer works and how it doesn’t work and how God works in the midst of prayer. Out of all of those theories, some which come from tangling with our text in Luke today, I haven’t found one that is intellectually satisfying. I have prayed desperate prayers and silly prayers and everything in between to all kinds of outcomes. So the outcome of prayer is simply a mystery to me. The mystery of prayer is especially true when my or someone else’s world is torn apart by loss. And yet…and yet…I pray.  I continue to pray desperate prayers and silly prayers and everything in between. If there’s any agreement about prayer, it’s that prayer is part of the Christian life. And if it’s part of my life as a Christian, then God’s grace is certainly extravagant enough to cover a few errant prayers of dubious content.

Prayer is a mind-bender in the best sense of the word. As I ask, seek, and knock, prayer bends my mind towards God’s future, towards the will of God regardless of the ways prayers seem to be answered. One argument against prayer by non-praying types is that the outcomes of prayer could just as easily be explained by random chance as by the power of God. But surrendering to the Holy seems to be about leaning into God no matter what is happening around us. God isn’t much more than a vending machine if we reduce the power of prayer to an equation between our quantity of faith and getting what we ask for. But bending our minds towards God’s will through prayer and being given the Holy Spirit holds a promise that no one can take us captive or disqualify us as cautioned in the Colossians reading. We’re so tempted to disqualify others based on what captivates us as right or wrong or who’s in or out. People were apparently puffed up without cause and disqualifying each other in the Colossian church based on who was and who wasn’t captivated by visions of angels, self-abasement, and initiatory visions.

Disqualifying people is a lot like the modern-day tendency to announce who is and who isn’t a Christian based on whatever we think a Christian looks like or sounds like. The closest I get to it is when I’m asked whether I think “those people” or “those churches” are really Christian. I’ll say that their actions or theology don’t fit into my understanding of Jesus’ teachings or the way of Jesus. The risk in disqualifying people is that we confirm ourselves and judge others according to our own notions of worthiness, captivated and puffed up by a human way of thinking. But our head is Christ. The Christ, as Paul writes to the Colossians, who nailed to the cross the record of our trespasses, disarming rulers and authorities.

Christ is the head of the church. Seems almost silly to say it out loud on a Sunday morning but there you go. The prayer that Jesus teaches the disciples is the church’s prayer we pray together as “The Lord’s Prayer” during worship.  It is a corporate prayer; meaning that all of us, the whole body of Christ, pray this prayer together and on each other’s behalf. Some of us widen the net a bit with this prayer and pray it in the morning before we get out of bed or on airplanes when the weather is bad. This is a go-to prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer has served the faithful for over 2,000 years and will continue to serve the faithful long after we’re gone. We pray this prayer with our ancestors in the faith and with those yet to come, leaning together into God’s will and future. This is THE most persistent prayer of the body of Christ. It is a prayer that positions us for action into God’s will on behalf of each other—for daily bread for us and for those being starved by famine, war, or genocide; for forgiveness for ourselves and for others who need our forgiveness. We pray for God’s kingdom to come as we consent to playing our part in its inbreaking. God gives us the Holy Spirit and no telling what the Spirit will work in us as we’re reoriented to God’s kingdom and will.

Have you ever entered a room or an office where someone is already there and you quietly say, “knock, knock,” to get their attention? Or you pick up your phone to text someone and there’s already a text there from them? God’s promise to us in prayer is that God is already listening. Thanks be to God. And amen.

________________________________________________

[1] Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Commentary of Bible readings for July 27, 2025. #1034: Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 17C) – July 27, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[2] Matthew Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Commentary of Bible readings for July 27, 2025. #1034: Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 17C) – July 27, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[3] Skinner, ibid.

___________________________________________________

Psalm 138

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted your name and your word
above everything.
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
you increased my strength of soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he perceives from far away.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
and your right hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.

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

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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

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.

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!

_________________________________________________________

[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