May 12, 2024 Ascension Sunday Luke 24:44-53 Because Jesus gave the disciples everything they needed to turn their doubts and fears into praise and worship – peace, revelation, assurance, and blessing – we can rest assured that when we are in need, Christ will give us what we need. Recently, I noticed that when someone approached Jesus with doubt, he did not rebuke them. “Doubting Thomas” was not rebuked. Even those who doubted Jesus and sought to challenge him were given what was needed...

May 5, 2024 Galatians 3:23- 29 It is sinful to say that someone is "incompatible" because of who God made them to be. To those who have been told they and their families are “incompatible,” you have never been incompatible. It is sinful to put barriers in place to prevent or discourage those called by God from responding to their call. It is sinful to cherry-pick scripture to fit an agenda that is outside of God's grand plan for making all things new to push a political agenda within...

April 28, 2024 John 21:2-18 Easter 5 The light of the resurrection pulls us out of shame and guilt and invites us into a new life in Christ. Jesus did not repeat his line of question to Peter to shame the Rock upon which the Church would be built but rather to be crystal clear that not only has Peter been absolved of his sin but also that shame and guilt are no longer necessary. In the face of Peter’s public denial, Jesus gives Peter a great responsibility – “Feed my sheep.” A moment for...

Brewing Theology is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Psalm 23 When I saw that the Revised Common Lectionary assigned Psalm 23 this week, I thought, “Challenge accepted!” For many of us, Psalm 23 is reserved for funerals and memorial services. Every funeral and memorial service I have officiated has included Psalm 23. The other readings might vary, and the preacher may not even include the psalm in their...

April 14, 2024 Romans 12:1-10 Look, I get it; change is difficult. Renewal is even harder. But I am thankful that God has not left me with the faith or theology I had when I was younger. I give thanks every day that God is renewing my faith. God makes me see people in my midst, truly see them in ways that my prejudices would otherwise prevent. Because Christ’s Grace and faith are reckoned to me, my understanding of others is transformed. This is a transformation of the church as a body....

April 7, 2024 Genesis 1:26-31 Psalm 139:13-16 Easter 2 The resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for our whole selves – our bodies, minds, and souls. Who we are - every part of our being - is wrapped up in being created in the image of God and is tied up in Christ's life, death, and resurrection. From the beginning of humanity, we have been declared “good” by God. Do we always act “good?” Certainly not, but God called what God created, you, “good,” so you are good regardless of what...

March 31, 2024 John 20:1-18 Whatever the reason you came here this morning, our risen Lord is calling you by name, calling you to you in the midst of your grief or doubt. Calling you in the middle of joyous laughter and fun with onlookers says your behavior is inappropriate for the location. Calling you, just as he called the disciples away from their nets, calling you to a new life of following him, a life that promises new life. The grace of God, the love of God, is all around,...

March 24, 2024 John 12:12-29 In our procession of fools, we miss that there is so much more to this story. In each stop between the Mount of Olives (Palm Sunday) and The Skull (the cross), Jesus is gathering all of humanity into him, the very best and the very worst we have to offer. No prayer or ritual must first be spoken or performed on our part. And that is grace. If Jesus calling Lazarus from his tomb last Sunday was the prelude to Holy Week, then Palm Sunday is Act One of a larger...

March 17, 2024 John 11:1-44 Jesus is calling each of us to “come out!” Now, I know what you are thinking. If God speaks to you or someone tells you, “God spoke to me,” the temptation to take a step back or to think the person chased their drinks from happy hour with a shot of NightQuil. But (and you know how I feel like big buts), the truth is that God is speaking to us today – in subtle and not so subtle ways – just as God has been speaking to the saints before us. To step out of the shadow...

February 24, 2024 John 11:7-15 Lent 2 When we lump a group of people in a category like “the Jews,” “the Muslims,” “the Russians,” “the Ukrainians,” “the Americans,” “the Mexicans,” “the Palestinians,” or the “Israelis,” we risk an attempt at reducing the imago dei[ix] – the made in the image of God-ness – of those people into a caricature that fits our prejudices and ignores the rich diversity of the group of people. If we learned anything from the Holocaust, if we are learning anything from...

Lent 1 John 1:1-6 The following sermon is the first in a five-part congregational study of the raising of Lazarus. In addition to the Gospel of John, we will be using James Martin’s book Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle as a guide for our study. Set aside the good and bad of what the world has to say about you and know that You are God’s beloved. Consider for a moment what it means to be God’s beloved. Looking back on your life, what enables you to believe this? James...

Ash Wednesday 2024 Matthew 6 Isaiah 56:1-12 The fancy theological term for Ash Wednesday is “repent.” You will be impressed to know that the Greek word metanoia means to turn away or reorient. Today is when we, as Christ’s body, repent, with the help of spiritual disciplines, God’s grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit to turn away from our sin and back toward God. And it is in repenting that we find the Good News of this day. It is not that we repent on our own. If it were entirely up to...

February 11, 2024 Mark 9:2-9 Peter had a glimpse into the mystery of our faith: that God became fully human so that humanity might become righteous. The Good News, the hope contained in the Transfiguration of Jesus, is not the message to come down the mountain and serve the poor – a message many would affirm without ever knowing Jesus. The Good News is that God became like us, like you and me. The light that beamed from the transfigured Christ is the same light that said, “Let there be…” The...

January 21, 2024 Mark 1:21-28 The story of Jesus Christ is a story of interruptions. The announcement of his birth by the angel Gabriels interrupts Mary's life and her plans to be married to Joseph. The silence of Christmas night was interrupted when angels announced the birth of the Messiah to shepherds who watched their flocks by night. John the baptizer was interrupted when Jesus stepped into the Jordan River to be baptized. The lives of the first twelve disciples were interrupted when...

January 14. 2024 John 1:43-51 The calling of the disciples, the calling of anyone by God, to “Come and see,” is about more than saying “yes” so that the Lord can send us out. Philip, Nathaniel, Andrew, and Peter were not called and immediately sent. Their sending will happen three years after their calling. After three years of seeing what Jesus was doing, they would be sent to make more disciples, to baptize them, and to teach them to follow what Jesus had taught the first 12. Before Jesus...

January 7, 2024 Baptism of the Lord Mark 1:4-11 Jesus enters the water of the Jordan River, and as his head breaks through the surface of the water, the heavens open up, and a voice calls out, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you, I am well pleased,” and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove. Emmanuel, God with us, entered the same water where many had left their sins behind so they could turn back toward God. The Son of God entered the murky waters of creation, taking upon himself the...

“The Season of the Great Resumption" Luke 2:22-38 December 31, 2023 - First Sunday After Christmas Simeon and Anna were both filled with expectations. For both, their expectations rested not in the cycle of the Temple but rather in the promise made by God to Israel – to raise up the messiah through the line of David. So, Simeon and Anna waited. Anna waited in the Temple for the coming of the Lord. Imagine spending day and night here in the Chapel, waiting for the Lord to be presented, not...

Christmas Eve Luke 2:1-14 We want joy in our lives. When the world jerks us around, we look for ways to push back and fight back. That’s our story. But (and it’s a big but so you know it does not lie) the story that drew you in tonight is not a story of our initiative against the world's problems. We might find temporary relief in our story, but it rarely leads to the joy we feel tonight, the joy that was laid in a manger. Deep, abiding joy is the result of what God does. Mary sang. The...

December 24, 2023 - Advent 4 Luke 1:26-38 At a particular time and place, in a manner and through people that supersedes what we think to be the normal course of historical human events, God acted, begetting a Son who comes as the fulfillment of God’s promise for the salvation of humanity. Was the angel Gabriel lost? At each intersection between Heaven and Nazareth did Gabriel ask, “Where do I want to go?” Left? Right? Straight? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” From the world’s point...

December 10, 2023 | Mark 1:1-8 Like the Professor in All the Light We Cannot See, John the Baptist is broadcasting gospel good news in the middle of the night. We all want hope which is why we left our Christmas decorations up well into the new year during Christmas of 2020 when the darkness of death and despair was a kind of cloud around us. We all want hope which is why we put our Christmas decorations up earlier and earlier, year after year. We all want hope which is why we will gather on...

December 3, 2023 Mark 13: 24-37 We have the time to wait. Waiting is one of the ways the Church Universal remains faithful to Christ. The work of the Church is to show and tell that Jesus Christ indeed has come and will come again. We shout that God is not done with us. The Church – yesterday, today, and tomorrow – has been commissioned to bear the light of the Light of the world. So then, the life of the Church is a life of waiting between two Advents. We proclaim that Christ was born of...

November 26, 2023 Matthew 25:31-46 | Christ the King Sunday The truth we cannot handle is that this final parable is not about the list of do-gooder achievements each of us counts. Before any of our good, bad, or indifferent works, God has been preparing a place for you for every last one of us. The sheep were invited to a place that was prepared for them, prepared for you. The place of punishment was not prepared for the goats. The goats do not have to go where they are going. They get to...

November 19, 2023 Matthew 25:14-30 Whether we imagine God as a baby wearing golden fleece diapers, in a tuxedo t-shirt, as a sandal-wearing hippie, a tough and harsh dictator, or full of wrath and seeking revenge, that is the God we get. If we expect God to return, righting creation, making everything new as an eight-pound six-ounce baby, then we are missing the story and thus will miss Christ’s return and the fullness of the kingdom of heaven. Likewise, if we expect the wrath of God to come...

November 5, 2023 Matthew 5:1-12 Jesus is the personification of the Beatitudes. The rich who became poor. He mourned over our Sin and rejection. He is the one who truly thirsts and hungers for righteousness so that we would be reconciled with God. He is the only person who is merciful to his enemies, the peacemaker willing to lay down his life for the sake of all Creation. Jesus is not offering his disciples moralistic if/then propositions. Jesus does the Beatitudes to the point of his death....