Sermons with Reverend Killjoy

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 14:15-21. "I will send you another Advocate." Jesus' first discussion of the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel leads me down many interesting paths that all wind up right here at my job in the last week. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 14:1-14. "Do not let your hearts be troubled." As Christus Victor moves forward in its transitional process, we can learn from Jesus' own "leadership transition" from his disciples. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Ezekiel 34:7-15 and 1 Peter 2:19-25. With timely news about Christus Victor's Ministry Site Profile, these lessons give us an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a faithful leader. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Luke 24:13-35. My favorite story in the whole Bible inspired me to tell a few stories of my own, before dropping into talk about the power of the Eucharist. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Easter, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Exodus 15:1-11, 19-21. The new Provisional First Reading for the Revised Common Lectionary presented me with a challenge for my first day back from vacation. On war and peace and what it is we're truly celebrating this Easter season. 

 Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Easter Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10. It's Easter Sunday. There were 250 people there. We had a good time. Christ is risen. You can't fix him. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Maundy Thursday. Scripture: John 13:1-17, 31b-35. It's Maundy Thursday, and we did foot-washing for the first time in possibly the history of this congregation, so I got to talk about it .

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for Palm Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11. Finally back after weeks of guest preachers and awful weather, this sermon about Jesus' palm procession into Jerusalem got into the way we try to limit Jesus with our expectations. Luckily Jesus did what he knew was right, for God and for us. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 4:5-42. On International Women's Day, we get the famous story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. I tell about a couple of the women whose faith has shaped my own, and then I talked about how the Samaritan woman was an example to too-often-hapless Jesus' disciples. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a. In this one I talked about some of the origins of my historic distrust of organized religion, reignited by the latest religion-flavored war the US started in the Middle East. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the First Sunday of Lent, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11. I am so excited that I found this audio recording, which seemed to have disappeared immediately after I recorded and tried to upload it. Nonetheless here it is, so you get to hear my shorter sermon for the day of our annual congregational meeting. We talked about temptation and responsibility, and how we find ourselves with each. 

Part Two of sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12. My friend and former professor Mary Solberg's book, "A Church Undone," helps us to remain wary of allowing ideology to replace our faith in the Jesus of the Bible with faith in power and violence. This is the conclusion of the sermon, because this website is being dumb and I'm in a hurry. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12. My friend and former professor Mary Solberg's book, "A Church Undone," helps us to remain wary of allowing ideology to replace our faith in the Jesus of the Bible with faith in power and violence. This is only the first part, with an additional few minutes of conclusion to be added as a later episode because this website is being dumb and I'm in a hurry. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23. In which we talk explicitly about the human rights abuses currently being perpetrated in Minnesota by federal agents. Did you know that in the Gospel of Matthew, Herod's arrest of John the Baptist is the impetus for Jesus to begin his public ministry? Or that he does so using the same words John had used? "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." I'm here to tell you, it's coming near right now in Minnesota. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 1:29-42. Considering the current ongoing federal occupation of the Twin Cities, I think I kept is pretty straight by talking about theology of the cross and about how we project our beliefs and our biases onto Jesus. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN for the Second Sunday of Christmas, Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Scripture: John 1:1-18. This one gets a little rambly but has some things to say about paradox and ambiguity. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 2:1-20. You've heard this one before. The story, at least. What new thing can God do with this Christmas story? What new thing can God do with us? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25. This sermon includes my 2025 Pop Culture Year in Review around talking about Joseph who is almost the star of Matthew's version of this story. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11, Luke 1:46b-55. From Isaiah to Mary to John the Baptist, we have so many expectations of who Jesus is and what he means for us. How do we live out the values we share with Jesus? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10. Who is Jesse, and what are all these tree metaphors about? In this season of Advent, what are we really waiting for? 

Trying something new: here is a clip of my sermon from Thanksgiving Eve. What will happen? Will I ever do this again? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44. Welcome to a new church year and a new opportunity to make fun of "the rapture" while keeping hope alive for this world God loves. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Deuteronomy 26:1-11. This Deuteronomy reading is one of my very favorites, with its ritualized first fruits giving and its "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor" profession of faith. So it was easy to tie many of my favorite themes together before the congregation tucked into a whole lot of pie after worship. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 23:33-43. Jesus on the cross is a great place to start talking about stewardship commitment Sunday, right? With a side of anti-fascist holy day history, what could be better? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 20:27-38, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17. A short sermon this week to talk about the difference between cleverness and wisdom, and knowing when to trust in God. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 6:17-31. What is a saint? What does it mean to be a saint? How does one become a saint? Why is Jesus blessing and woe-ing people, and why are we loving our enemies? Lots of good questions today, and maybe a few answers too. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: John 8:31-36. This week, with confirmation of four young people, one of whom was baptized earlier in our gathering, it was time to talk about Christian freedom, the freedom God offers us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I tried to limit my advice-giving while offering our confirmands something to hold onto as they move into this new phase of their lives of discipleship. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Genesis 32:22-31, 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5. Jumping off of 2 Timothy's famous declaration that "all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching" and other uses, we dug into the iconic story of Jacob wrestling with the angel and gaining his identity as Israel. I suggested wrestling with the Word of God through Bible study, and invited the congregation to join me in doing so. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4. This sermon highlighted the previous day's installation of Rev. Yehiel Curry as Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. This lesson from Habakkuk always reminds me to lift up my head and watch for the vision that God has for us. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Amos 6:1a, 4-7, Psalm 146, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31. Jesus talks about money, so we talk about money, part two. All four scriptures carry the same theme, that we should trust in God rather than in wealth. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 6:1-13, Amos 8:4-7. Jesus talks about money, so we talk about money. You don't have to like it. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. Today I told a cute story about when my son was young, then talked about the symbolism of the cross across history. Who has used it, and how? What does it mean to you to display a cross now? 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 14:25-33. In worship today we changed a number of things: moved our new chairs for the first time away from being the pattern of the old pews, creating a new center aisle. We also began implementing a new liturgical setting, ELW Setting 4, by doing a full chanted eucharistic liturgy for the first time in a long time. In order to facilitate that, we created all new bulletins of a completely different size, scope, and scale. Jesus' confrontational teaching about hating father and mother, etc., helps us understand how we process and react to unfulfilled expectations, and Comments? Write it on the bulletin and give it back to me!

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 13:10-17. This one was a lot about the congregation itself, Christus Victor in Apple Valley, and about our upcoming Fall Festival and how we welcome people. Also some good themes about what makes this church - or any church - special. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 12:49-56. Jesus says he comes to bring division, because he is trying to divide the people away from the unhealthy patterns that have come to govern their lives. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Luke 12:32-40. After missing last week's sermon audio due to technical difficulties / operator error, we're back this week with some good old fashioned stewardship talk, including a hopefully-humorous diatribe about the perils of sports betting. Treasure, indeed. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Genesis 18:20-32. Conflict! Abraham's disagreement with God is a good place to start a conversation about how we disagree in the church, and the Lord's Prayer in our Gospel lesson from Luke is also helpful here. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Genesis 18:1-10a. Amid stories of my summer in Tacoma, WA 20 years ago for CPE, I talked about hospitality and saying what you mean. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:9-13. After last week's technical difficulties prevented me from sharing sermon audio, this week we're back! Our gorgeous reading from Deuteronomy may not be the very most obvious pair with Jesus' parable known as the Good Samaritan, but it still works extremely well. You already know. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18. In which I figure out that how my own history and assumptions were clouding my understanding of the scripture and the message for the day. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Psalm 8. In the wake of yesterday's news of the assassinations of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, along with yesterday's nationwide No Kings protests, plus the recent fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine, I just.... I needed to say something. It was time to denounce political violence and white supremacy and Christian nationalism and acknowledge our relationship to all of those, then fall entirely on the grace of God. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: John 14:8-17, Acts 2:1-21. Finally a sermon that was only as long as I intended it to be! Look, it's Pentecost, and we're talking Holy Spirit here. At least I did get to talk about one of my favorite songs for a very Spirit-adjacent reason!

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: John 17:20-26. In which I start with a long story of how I learned to translate churchy language into normal people language, so that I can talk about Jesus praying for us and for the unity of the church. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Scripture: Revelation 21:10, 22-- 22:1-5. That's hard to read, but the parts it skips are descriptions of the Holy City and its gold and precious stones, rather than the stereotypical scary Revelation stuff. Anyway, I told the story of using Tree of Life imagery to reshape my old congregation in Kalamazoo, so shoutout to those folks for making this one possible. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Today we had the best scriptures - John 13:31-35 ("I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you should love one another." is 13:34), Revelation 21:1-6, Acts 11:1-18. Plus it was Synod Assembly for our Saint Paul Area Synod, so I gave a brief recap of the action there. John 13:34 and Revelation 21 are my two favorite things in the whole Bible, so I got into that in addition to the Synod Assembly stuff. I also made some family references that my mom liked. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. In which I get to talk about Revelation and Jesus the lamb as the shepherd who guides us. I included part of my standard Revelation introduction here and tied it into this congregation's interim status, so it was a fun one for me. 

Sermon audio at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. In which I talk about college and Revelation and mention the other scriptures as well. Festive!

My third Sunday at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN. Today the church had moved out of their historic sanctuary space for a renovation, so we met for the first time in their recently-built Gathering Space, which worked pretty well. One wall is windows looking at trees, and overall it's somewhat crowded but nice high ceilings and good sound and a big visible screen. Anyway, it's the second Sunday of Easter, so the sermon was about what sermons are about every year on that day, with some local flavor. 

Easter Sunday! I talked about my favorite Easter three years ago, and the parallels and differences between here and there. 

Maundy Thursday was First Communion for ten kids in third through fifth grades, so I invited them forward and sat with them and gave this sermon as a children's message to them and the whole congregation. It got festive as I struggled to keep their attention. I've been here an entire week already, so why not change it up?