Mount Carmelcast

This week, Pr. John uses the reading from Mark 10 to help us recognize the ways we are spiritually blind. 

Text to come

This week, Pastor John points out all of the acts of healing that Jesus performed in the book or Mark, and what those acts mean to us. 

In his sermon this week, Pastor John asks us to be more aware of those who are "unclean" in our eyes, and points out that God through Jesus works to help them, just as we should.

In this week's sermon, Pr. John reminds us that while rules and laws are practical, it is God's grace that brings us life, and we should be grateful for that. 

This Sunday's sermon was delivered by guest preacher Rev. Brice Eichlersmith. 

This week we begin the season of Advent with a prophecy from Jeremiah during a very dark time in Judah’s history.The prophecy is about a branch from the family tree of David that will one day execute justice and righteousness. This is interpreted by Christians to point to Jesus.The need for a savior, for the promise that justice and righteousness will win in this discouraging world is the good news we await at Christmas!

This week, Pr. John tells us the story of the confrontation on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah to help us understand why it matters what god you believe in. 

This week, Pr. John reminds us of the importance of putting God at the center of our lives, and that when He is at the center, his purposes and agendas are at the center and command our attention. 

This week, Pastor John tells us that stories like Ruth's serve to remind us that God wants us to broaden our definition of family and see everyone as our family.

This week, Pr. John reminds us that the Ten Commandments, like all scripture, is meant to transform us to help us find our own story. 

This week, Pr. John asks how often you ask for help from God to use your voice, and tells us how Moses asked God to help him use his. 

In his sermon this week, Pr. John shows us how in Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles a with a mystery man--God--to a draw, but God's message was that how we treat our brother, sister, or neighbors is important and is God's business. 

In today's reading from Genesis, Sarah laughs to herself when God promises she and Abraham a son. Pr. John points out that their cynicism about their future is misplaced because "for God all things are possible."

This week, Pr. John helps explain how community, making a difference, and experiencing a relationship with a higher power are the cornerstones of the story in Genesis 2. 

This week, our Director of Faith Formation, Nick Ralston, preaches on Luke 12:49-56, which is a challenging passage because of the fire Jesus tells his disciples he brought to the earth. Is the fire literal, figurative, or something else?

In this week's reading from Luke 12, a successful farmer is declared a fool by Jesus because he lives only for himself. This, Pr. John points out, is functional atheism, and we need to fight it in our own lives. 

Most of us feel ill-equipped to pray, but Jesus gave us a prayer to use, and that also shows us a framework to use for our prayers. 

This week, guest preacher Rev. Craig Pederson tells us that in the story of Mary and Martha, we learn that Jesus will always be with us. 

We are called by God to be neighbors and love those around us, instead of just having neighbors. 

Pr. John dwells in the words of Luke 10 and offers his thoughts and questions regarding the passage. 

During this Independence Day week, during which we celebrate our freedom as Americans, Pr. John asks us what we do with the freedom given to us as children of God. 

This week, Pr. John talks about how we become occupied and are often complicit with our oppressors as our true selves get buried. But God's promise is that these occupations will be broken by God's Holy Spirit when we trust in him. 

Pastor John's sermon this week reminds us to recognize and celebrate the gifts we've been given by God and how they are an invitation to be a part of God's community.

Pastor Brice Eichlersmith is the guest preacher this week. He preached on Romans 8. There is no text for his sermon.

We have been given a gift: sin cannot destroy us because is no longer reigns over us thanks to Christ. We live in a different world now, one of grace and love. And because of that, we celebrate our baptism every month. 

In a broken and divided world of privilege, despair, and self-righteousness, we all have our burdens, whether we recognize them or not. But God has promised to take on our burdens for us to give us a life filled with purpose and free of guilt, shame, loneliness, and despair.

In Paul's letter to the Romans, he says he is not ashamed of the gospel. But are people today ashamed of the gospel?

In the book of Acts, Luke talks about the growing Christian church after Jesus' ascension. Pr. John highlights one story of Paul and Barnabas who risked all to tell the world that God came down to us in the form of Christ.

This week, guest preacher Pr. Peter Strommen explains how the reading from Acts 10 challenges us by telling us that our faith in Jesus should be based in Christ's love of everyone--"them"--and not just "us."

This week, guest preacher Rev. Bee Vang from Amazing Grace Ministry in Fridley, MN, spoke about Jesus' commissioning of the disciples to bear witness and how that translates to our lives. 

For his Easter Sermon, Pastor John talks about the resurrection story and how it asks us to find God in our daily lives. 

For Palm Sunday, we focused on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. While many lauded him king, others asked, “Who is this?” In his sermon, Pr. John says Jesus is indeed king, but not in the ways many expected.

This week, Pr. John explores the parable of the sheep and the goats and asks if, in the final judgment, it really comes down to how much we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited the prisoners. How does this fit with the Lutheran belief that we are saved by faith and not works?

Pastor John delivers a "state of the congregation" which points out that while it feels like the Christian Church is in the wilderness right now, there are opportunities that we need to be open to in order to grow and serve our community.

This week, guest preacher Pr. Rollie Martinson explores Jesus’ parable about the wedding banquet and how the host responds to the guests, and wonders what happens if you plan a wedding banquet and no one bothers to come?

In his sermon this week, Pr. John asks us to consider why we may think we're more deserving of things than anyone else, especially when it comes to God's generosity to his children. 

This week, Pastor John reminds us that forgiveness is not a free pass, but has a cost and we need to practice giving it as well. 

Pastor John tells us this week that the story of the transfiguration teaches us that the world is sacramental, alive with the presence and gifts of god. And that we should use our faith practices to listen and look for God's presence among us through Christ. 

This week, our Director of Faith Formation, Nick Ralston talks about the miracle of food--both when Jesus and his disciples fed over 5,000 people, and the miracle that is the work of people try to eliminate hunger. 

This week, Pr. John explains that the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that prayer is not about bending God’s will to ours. It is about learning to trust in God’s will and align our self with what God is up to.

Pr. John's sermon uses Matthew 7 to tell us how we are called to love others, and to not pass judgement on them because we need to judge ourselves first. 

This week, Pr. John talks about prayer, and how it's a personal and relational conversation with Abba--our dad, our father. 

Pr. John's sermon this week is on the beatitudes and how they describe God's kingdom, and its differences from the real world. 

This week, guest preacher Pr. Tim Strommen tells us that in our walk with Jesus and our life with God, we need to know that as humans we will get off track and fail sometimes. But we need to know that maintaining faith practices and being in community will help us stay as faithful followers. 

This week, Pastor John talks about why New Year's resolutions are hard to keep--because humans are in bondage to sin and our own mortality--and how God meets you in those darker places and never abandons you. 

Pastor John talks about the contrast in Matthew's telling of Jesus' birth story and how it is opposite from the peaceful story of a baby born in a manger, and focuses on the politics of the time. 

In his Christmas Eve sermon, Pastor John talks about the meaning and imagery of light at this time of year, from the hymn "Silent Night," to candles and lights shining in the darkness, to our lives being filled with the light of Jesus. 

This week, Pastor John asks whether you are vertically inclined or vertically challenged--that is, whether you have an openness to recognize that God comes down vertically right into our lives. 

Advent is a time of waiting, and in today's lesson from Isaiah 42--the "servant song"--we discover that the waiting is better characterized as longing for God's promise to be fulfilled: "it will be done." Jesus' arrival guaranteed God's promise and also gave us a servant who has come to be on this journey through life with us.