Sermons (Page 100)
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
A couple of months ago I watched the documentary “Minimalism” on Netflix. I’m a junky for documentaries, and this one seemed especially interesting. The description caught my eye with its rejection of American consumerism by emphasizing “less is more,” and of course it’s promise that it would bring me happiness. Who doesn’t want to be happier? In the documentary, the people interviewed had given up material possessions to one degree or another. On the extreme end were 2 men who had quit their high-paying jobs in corporate America to live a minimalist lifestyle. One of the men boasted of owning less than 300 items…
Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus met three people – Jairus, an unnamed woman, and a young girl. The theologian David Lose notes that each one is utterly different but so very similar. Jairus was a local Synagogue leader who, by his position, status, and gender, had power, prestige, and comfort. At the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum was an unnamed woman living with a chronic illness. Not only was she labeled “unclean,” which robbed her from both physical touch and entrance to the temple, but in her pain, she was a victim of predatory physicians taking money and giving nothing. Then, there was Jairus’s daughter who was barely alive with no power, no rights, and no say in what would happen to her…
Reconciling In Christ Sunday
I feel that there is one part in particular in our passage for today that those of us here at Wicker Park Lutheran Church can pretty easily relate to. It’s the part where water is getting into the boat… so we have water getting into a place that it shouldn’t be. Does this sound familiar to anyone here? Unwanted water? Maybe? For those who don’t know what I’m talking about I’m referring to the flooding of the basement that has been occurring here over the past few months. It’s why we have had a huge capital campaign to raise funds to repair the basement. Now that this problem has been going on for a few months, I’m sure the question on some your minds is “God, why are you delaying taking care of this problem?”…