The Star Pupil - Almost

(The following sermon was delivered as an "interview" sermon during Lent at First Lutheran Church in Kearney, NE in March of 2009)

Scripture: Mark 8:27-38

I remember as a kid being so excited whenever my teacher would ask a question that I knew the answer to. I’d raise my hand and practically bounce out of my seat going “Oh! Oh! I know! I know!” I sometimes was probably as annoying as little Hermione Granger, the little know-it-all from Harry Potter that always answers the teacher’s questions correctly. However, there was this one time, when the teacher asked us what kinds of things we found on airplanes. Now, I’d grown up flying in a small, single engine aircraft. So I felt quite confident that I had a leg up on everyone else in this particular category. I raised my hand confidently and when the teacher called upon me, I answered quite proudly: “Instruments. You can find instruments on airplanes.” The teacher nodded and smiled, affirming I was indeed correct.

Christ The King

(This sermon was delivered on Christ the King Sunday at a small parish in McCool Junction, Nebraska, November of 2008)

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 25:31-46

Admittedly, my initial thought when I read this Sunday's text was "Egads! How do I preach this?" Sheep and goats, eternal hell, all that fun stuff.

This text is always difficult for Lutheran pastor’s to preach. A former professor of mine, Karoline Lewis, illustrated it like this:

As a kid, you go up to your mother or father and say, “My neck hurts when I go like this” – and then demonstrate the pain-inducing move. Our parent’s response: “Well, then don’t do that.” A similar conversation occurs in the minds of preachers for this Sunday. "When I try to preach Christ the King Sunday, my neck hurts." The answer may be something like the following, "Well, then don't preach Christ the King Sunday."

Paul Had A Dream

(This sermon was originally delivered during the chapel service at Luther Seminary the day after Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 16, 2007)


Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Forty-four years ago, a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and uttered these immortal words: “I have a dream.”

For Martin Luther King, his ultimate dream was that blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, Protestant and Catholic could come together, hold hands and sing “Free at last, free at last. God Almighty, we’re free at last.”

I have a dream, too. A dream that is nearly two thousand years old, passed down through the annals of history from a Jewish convert to Christianity named Paul. It would seem to be a smaller dream than the dream of Martin Luther King’s, because this dream only calls for the coming together of a specific group of people known as Christians. My dream is Paul’s dream…a dream “that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”