Category: Sermons

A sermon on Mark 16:1-8 for Easter Sunday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. Consider where we left off on Good Friday. Jesus hung on the cross from noon to 3 o’clock. The Sabbath starts at sunset, just a few hours away. What is to be done with Jesus’ body? His closest followers up until this…

A sermon on John 19:25-30 for Good Friday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. One feature commonly found in Good Friday services is a meditation on Jesus’ seven words from the cross. We read all seven of these in the Passion History at last week’s midweek service. You could have a whole sermon on any one…

A sermon on Exodus 24:1-11 for Maundy Thursday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. In the liturgy, and in church in general, there’s lots of words that we can see all the time but not really know what they mean. One such example is in the Sanctus, which we will sing shortly as part of our…

A sermon on Philippians 2:5-11 for Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. There’s a number of incredibly common turns of phrase which actually originate from churchly contexts. For example, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” wasn’t originally a “when in Vegas” type expression, but came from St.…

A midweek Lenten sermon for the Annunciation of our Lord on Luke 1:26-38. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. “Rejoice, highly favored one… blessed are you among women!” We might be a little uncomfortable saying these things about Mary. Protestant Christianity in general seems to have this aversion to saying anything positive about Mary whatsoever because…

A sermon on John 8:46-59 for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Charles Keeler. No transcript is available for this recording.

A sermon on Exodus 16:2-21 for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.  One of the things I’ve learned while raising my children is that I prefer the toddler stage to the baby stage. I think the most helpful difference is that a toddler can tell you what they want. A baby…

A sermon on Luke 11:14-28 for the Third Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. Another word for one of the readings in the lectionary is a “pericope.” This word comes from a Greek word which means “cutting around” or “cutting out,” this one section is taken from its context and presented on its…

A midweek Lenten sermon on Zechariah 13:7-9. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. The movie Full Metal Jacket, which I can’t fully endorse or recommend, is about a platoon of Marines who go through boot camp and fight in the Vietnam War. In the first half of the movie, one of the privates doesn’t make it.…

A sermon on Matthew 15:21-28 for the Second Sunday in Lent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. One of the riskiest moves in modern communications is the double text. When you send someone a text, thanks to read receipts, you can see when they’ve opened it. And that’s miserable. But when you’ve been left on read,…