16Oct 2017 by Kirsten Sauey Hofmann

Sermon from October 15, 2017

Pastor, Sermons
Gospel Text: Matthew 22:1-14; Epistle Reading: Philippians 4:1-9 This is one of those days where it’s hard to say “The Gospel of the Lord,” after reading the Gospel. The good news of the Lord. This one doesn’t feel like it. The Gospel of Matthew continues to throw hardball after hardball lately.  We keep getting to hear parables of judgement, which reminds me why I struggle to  like the Gospel of Matthew.  Because I’d rather hear parables of grace, parables of love.  Those are the ones we all would rather hear, right?  Like the parable of the lost sheep or the prodigal son - parables where we see God’s extreme love for us.  The parable I just read was almost a parable of grace, and then at the end it took a…
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31Jul 2017 by Kirsten Sauey Hofmann

Sermon from July 30, 2017

Pastor, Sermons
Gospel text: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Jesus has many parables to tell us today that give us glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. But to start, I wonder if Matthew’s phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” is problematic? Because we’re not talking about heaven as that place in the sky you think you might get to go to someday. We’re talking about the kingdom of God, the holy realm, the place where God dwells, which would include, but not be limited to this earth in this present time. Jesus is opening our understanding, or challenging our understanding of how we might envision God’s kingdom to be. We like to think God’s kingdom is full of rule followers, law-abiders, people who are nice to each other, and hopefully our animals. But what Jesus…
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17Jul 2017 by Kirsten Sauey Hofmann

Sermon from July 16, 2017

Discipleship, Pastor, Sermons
Gospel text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Today we get to hear the Parable of the Sower. This is one of those famous passages from scripture. And it happens to be the first parable in each of the Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It may have been Jesus’ first parable, but it certainly paves the way for the Gospel writers in telling the parables of Jesus. In the middle of what we read, in the verses we skipped, Jesus explains to the disciples why he uses parables to speak to the people. Jesus says that the crowds have indeed fulfilled the prophecy - if you remember, fulfilling prophecy or what was written in the Old Testament is Matthew’s thing. That prophecy comes from Isaiah and says, “You will indeed listen, but…
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