Category: Sermons

When I was a kid, I had a stuffed lamb that meant the world to me. It was given to me soon after I was born and, after a couple years of love, it was a little worn, but it brought me a lot of comfort. Until one day, I made the mistake of bringing…

A Sermon on Revelation 12:7-12 for the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. On August 12, 1880, General William Tecumseh Sherman addressed a crowd of 10,000 in Columbus, Ohio: “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”…

A Sermon on Matthew 9:9-13 for the feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. Today we celebrate St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist, the author of the Gospel that bears his name. Mark and Luke refer to this man using his Hebrew name, Levi, that would have been given to him at his circumcision, and…

A Sermon on Numbers 21:4-9 for Holy Cross Day. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. One of the things that the internet is great for is seeing perspectives that you never would have seen otherwise. Of course, usually, that’s not a good thing, and people abuse that to make people who disagree with them mad. One…

A Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. “At sea in a dense fog.” That’s how Helen Keller described her condition of being blind and deaf. At 19 months old, she suffered a severe illness which left her without sight or hearing. But when she was seven,…

A Sermon on 2 Samuel 22:21-29 for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. In 2017, a research group from Harvard Business school asked college students how they would answer this common job interview question: “What is your greatest weakness?” Now, to the interviewee, that feels like a trick question, because you…

A Sermon on John 1:43-51 for the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. St. Bartholomew is one of those many men in Scripture who seem to go by multiple names. Comparing the Gospel accounts, it seems like the man Matthew, Mark, and Luke refer to as Bartholomew, John calls Nathanael. This…

A Sermon on Luke 16:1-9 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. A parable is a teaching tool that Jesus used a lot during His earthly ministry. The Sunday school definition of a parable is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” Sometimes parables are used to extol the great virtue…

A Sermon on Matthew 7:15-23 for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. When I was in college, one of the gen ed courses I had to take was biology. Biology came in two parts. There was the classroom lecture in the morning and then bio lab in the afternoon. The lecture…

A Sermon on Mark 8:1-9 for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. Did you get a sense of déjà vu after the Gospel reading? A feeling of, “Hey, I’ve seen that before?” I hope you did, because a few months ago, you did hear something incredibly similar. The Gospel reading for…