Lutheran Church of the Cross was grateful for our guest pastor, Kate Drefke today.
The text was not available at time of publication
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
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We can be walking along and not see Jesus walking next to us. How can we, who are disciples not see Christ among us and what does it take for us to see him?
This is an unrehearsed homily, so there is no accompanying text!
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
We see Jesus in each other, we see Jesus in the wine and bread. Have we truly come to believe because we haven't seen him?
This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it. The sermon notes which are included for convenience.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 23 - 2nd Sunday in Easter
"Seeing Jesus". Text is from John 20:19-31
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God.
Easter, at least the season of it, has only just begun. Even though we're a week after the Sunday of the Resurrection, we're only now beginning to talk about Jesus's post resurrection appearances and how he is beginning to live into this amazing gift he's given to us, first to the women at the tomb, and then to those they'd met, the disciples. Here in the upper room. And although there were on 10 of the remaining twelve there, frightened about who might be coming for them, Jesus nevertheless appeared and ate with them and showed them his wounds and blessed them and gave the holy spirit to take with them to bless others.
We don't know where Thomas was that first night that Jesus came to visit. There are so many possibilities. It had been a frightening time for the disciples who felt as if they must go into hiding, and perhaps, of all of them, Thomas had some place else to go. Maybe Thomas had made a friend ijn Jerusalem and hadn't told anyone about them. What remains with us, though, throughout this set of passages, is that Thomas did not see and therefore, did not believe until Jesus showed his face once more.
Christ died. Christ arose. Christ wasn't just some political victim executed for expediency, profiled and
This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it. The sermon notes which are included for convenience.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 16 - Sunday of the Resurrection
"For all". Text is from Matthew 28:1-10
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God. Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God.
This is indeed the day that our God has made! This day, more than any other, is one of praise and joy. The light has finally conquered darkness and overcome it. No longer is the body of Christ hidden away in a lonesome tomb but he is with us, alive and glorious.
Today's Easter reading comes from the book of Matthew and is so full of wonderful imagery that we can so easily imagine that we were right there with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who scholars generally agree is the mother of Jesus.
They alone sat vigil outside of the lonely tomb, along with soldiers standing watch, lest someone come and take the body from the tomb, or worse yet, rob the body of Jesus of some relic. This was a man executed by the state and reputedly performed miracles, and the word was most definitively out there, it was certainly within the realm of possibility that someone would seek to profit off of that fact, and the state did not want anything like that to happen. So guards were positioned outside.
What does the Ascension--and by extension, the Resurrection--mean for us today? One thing it means is that the one who is to judge us is well known as a friend to sinners.
lease listen to the sermon rather than read it. The delivered sermon is often considerably different than the sermon notes which are included for convenience below.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
May 8, 2016 - Ascension Sunday
"Ascended friend". Text is from Luke 24:44-53
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers, saints and sinners, disciples of Christ and children of God.
We have spent the last few Sundays preparing ourselves for the departure of Jesus from among his disciples. Indeed, since he returned from the dead, he's made quite a number of his appearances, and we've gone back to the farewell discourse so we could remind ourselves about what Jesus told his faithful apostles what the departure means to them. We've felt their anxieties, held their hands with their questions to Jesus, been with them to understand what was this mystery, that Jesus meant, that he would not be among us any more, that he would physically be taken up into the midst of God, while leaving his Holy Spirit among us to keep us company.
And now that time is here. We see that Jesus is to arise into his glory, with his final words on earth shared among the fortunate few that were witness to his time on earth. We remember what he's told them, and through them, us: "Stick together. Love one another as I have loved you. I have to go to the Father. If you loved me, you would be happy for me that I go to the Father." And while we want to be happy for him, to us there is a certain feeling of loss, the same kind of feeling when a good friend or loved sibling decides to find better opportunities in another city. It pulls at our hearts.
Jesus gifts us peace and love during is parting time. He also left us the Holy Spirit so we would not be alone.
lease listen to the sermon rather than read it. The delivered sermon is often considerably different than the sermon notes which are included for convenience below.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
May 1, 2016 - Sixth Sunday in Easter
"Parting Gift". Text is from John 14:23-29
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers, saints and sinners, disciples of Christ and children of God.
Jesus continues to answer questions of his disciples in what has come to be known as the Farewell Discourse in the gospel of John, those words that he offers to his disciples to let them know what is to become of him and what they are to do when he is no longer physically with them. And although we are in the season of resurrection, the Easter season, the time between when the empty tomb was discovered and the time when Jesus finally ascends into heaven, there are some very good reasons why we have gone back in John to hear Jesus's words about his leaving. Because in this text, we can finally reflect on what it must have certainly meant to the disciples to have Jesus the man be gone from their presence at last, and yet what it means to have him yet walking alongside them.
The new heaven and the new earth hat God is offering to us in the end does not supplant the need to steward the earth now.
This is an unrehearsed homily, so there is no accompanying text!
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 27, 2016 - Fifth Wednesday in Easter
"Fifth Wednesday in Easter". Text is from Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
On our own we are lost and bewildered and can wander off track far too easily. Is it not great that we have this wonderful good shepherd to guide us along the way?
lease listen to the sermon rather than read it. The delivered sermon is often considerably different than the sermon notes which are included for convenience below.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 24, 2016 - Fifth Sunday in Easter
"By Our Love". Text is from John 13:31-35
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers, saints and sinners, disciples of Christ and children of God.
In just a few short verses, Jesus is providing us with a wealth of information about his nature and his future. Given the context of this statement, he speaks of the Father being glorified in him and him being glorified in the father. He foretells his departure and he gives the disciples one more, important command, that they love each other as he has loved them.
So even as we are proceeding forward from the cross and the great resurrection, we are, at this point late in the Easter season, being drawn toward the Ascension and finally the Pentecost. This saying of Jesus, drawn as it is from Chapter 13, takes place after the Last Supper. Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples. He has given Judas the piece of bread, pointing him out to the beloved disciple as the one who would betray him. And we begin with "After he had left", meaning Judas.
Even on our best days, we can find things that cause us anxiety or stress, and none of us are immune to the pain that life brings. But God brings us hope of freedom from stress and pain.
This is an unrehearsed homily, so there is no accompanying text!
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 20, 2016 - Fourth Wednesday in Easter
"Fourth Wednesday in Easter". Text is from Revelation 21:1-6
On our own we are lost and bewildered and can wander off track far too easily. Is it not great that we have this wonderful good shepherd to guide us along the way?
lease listen to the sermon rather than read it. The delivered sermon is often considerably different than the sermon notes which are included for convenience below.
Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley.
April 17, 2016 - Fourth Sunday in Easter
"Not In It Alone". Text is from John 10:22-30
Good morning to you my sisters and brothers, saints and sinners, disciples of Christ and children of God.
Jesus is speaking to Judeans who have preconceived notions of what the Messiah is supposed to be, what they've heard about Jesus what their own interpretation is of the promises that Jesus is to fulfill. We can empathize with them at least for a little bit because indeed, they've been waiting for a Messiah and they've heard some good things about this Jesus of Nazareth but he is not exactly acting and speaking what their version of the Messiah is like. And so they're impatient and they want to call him out, to "speak plainly" and tell them whether he is or not this Messiah, this Christ that they are ready for.
And Jesus answers plainly. They just have to hear what he's been telling people all over the place, that the information is already there. That they would already know if they just believe. That if they were members of his flock, they would already believe, and then this question should not be coming up at all. And we find some variation on this next line, that the sheep know his voice, and they follow him automatically, with no questions asked.
