Sermons at Abiding Peace

The ministry of Word and Sacrament is the center of our weekly gathering, and it is a work of the whole community. Together we proclaim the good news of how Christ has transformed and is transforming our lives through collective prayer, confession and absolution, reading of scripture, songs of worship, gathering at the Lord's table, and sending out for our work and ministry in the world. The proclamation of the Word through preaching is also a vital part of our worship and ministry. On this page, you can find links to past sermons in written form.

We encourage you to be with us in person, but we also know that sometimes that is not possible. We hope that these sermons can be a resource to you in your spiritual growth.

The Anti-Hot-Take Gospel

A sermon on Matthew 17:1-9. [for an audio recording of this sermon, click here. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash.] So, I have a couple of questions today. First, I’m wondering how many of you watched the Superbowl, at least in part that week? Ok, what about the halftime show? The next question is a little bit different: is there anyone who has NOT, in the last 7 days, heard any “hot-takes” on the super-bowl halftime show? There have been a lot, right? I think probably the o

Affirming Identity, Challenging Action

A sermon on Matthew 5:13-20. Photo by satheeshkumar ram on Unsplash In this past week I have had a few unrelated conversations that have involved the distinction between what we do and who we are. What we do is about our actions, and of course those matter. Our actions can shape the course of our lives and have a huge impact (for good or bad) on the people around us. And, of course, our actions can sometimes reflect our character, especially when we fail to do the hard work

Blessing Those Close to the Kingdom

A sermon on Matthew 5:1-12. [for an audio recording of this sermon, click here . Photo by Elsa Gonzalez on Unsplash.com ] It’s been a few years, so I am wondering if anyone here today remembers when we did a one-sitting reading of the whole Gospel of Matthew here at Abiding Peace? (Don’t worry, I’m not going to quiz you about themes, or narrative structure or anything. I just wanted to jog your memory about why it might be important to sometimes take a couple of hours to re

Called to Foolishness

A sermon on Matthew 4:12-23 and 1 Corinthians 1:10-18. [ Photo by Sven Pieren on Unsplash ] In our denomination (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), the process for becoming a pastor is called Candidacy. It involves a variety of requirements, including both formal schooling and practical training, psychological testing, a number of writing submissions, and three separate meetings in which the candidate sits in a room full of more experienced pastors and synod leade

Discipleship from Birmingham City Jail

A sermon on John 1:29-42, in conversation with Dr. MLK's Letter from Birmingham City Jail. [an audio recording of this sermon is available here. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.] I would be willing to bet that if asked to name the signature phrase of John’s gospel, at least 9 out of 10 seminary graduates would say “come and see.” It is a phrase repeated a number of times, in different voices, throughout the narrative, but that’s not why biblical studies departments teach us a

The Voice We Listen To

A sermon on Matthew 3:13-17 for an audio recording of this sermon, click here. Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash We have a lot of exciting things happening in worship today, including the baptism of one of our incoming members, so rather than giving the kind of full exposition on today’s texts that I would normally try to offer in a sermon, today I just want to offer a quick reflection on the meaning of baptism. Because there is one detail from Matthew’s story of Jesus’s

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