Sermons

God Never Calls Off the Search

It’s not what is lost that’s the focus of today’s Gospel lesson, it’s the one who is doing the searching that is the focus … that’s God, presented by Jesus as a shepherd looking for a...

On Who Do We Pull the Shade?

Jesus is at it again; he just keeps saying radical things! What, you might ask, is so radical about today’s reading, especially the first part? It seems rather boring; just some polite...

Looking to Jesus

I don’t run, but I do walk. Sometimes I walk long distances, as was the case on July 4 when I walked – with a friend – a little more than 12 miles. Most of it was on country roads, up...

Landing on Our Feet

Today we are going to step back into the Old Testament and be reacquainted with Abram and Sarai, later renamed Abraham and Sarah, who are the first patriarch and matriarch of the...

More Reason to Hope than Meets the Eye

It happened again, my initial response to today’s first reading from Ecclesiastes is predictable. Every time it’s one of the assigned readings, the same word is on my lips as I finish...

Jesus’ Prayer Tutorial

What if, out of the blue, I invited one of you to come forward and lead a prayer for the ministry of Faith Lutheran Church, and there was no time to write one or look one up in the...

Now Do It

The story I’m about to tell you probably is being repeated frequently today in Northeast Ohio ELCA congregations. That’s because today’s Gospel lesson – the familiar story of the Good...

A Harvest of Hope

Whenever I hear Jesus’ words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest,” I think of the same...