Pr. Cheryl Walenta Gorvie Sermon - blog

“ Peas be with you” Digital Artwork by Claude AI, prompted and edited by Eve Cooney, inspired by Matthew 28: 1-10 What’s with all the jokes and silliness today?! Well, sometimes people say that when Jesus was resurrected, then death did not get the last word, or Jesus laughed in the devil’s face, making a joke of death. So: ha ha, we get to laugh about it. That’s the deep theological reason for a Holy Humor Sunday. Also this week after Easter, after all the busy-ness, t

Alleluia! Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia! This is our call-and-response refrain every Easter Sunday. Because we’re not only witnesses of the resurrection. We are more than mere spectators. We are participants in the proclamation! Alleluia! Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia! We say these words even if we’re not sure what they mean! What’s an alleluia anyway? Well, the short answer is: it’s the Latin-ized form of the Hebrew wo

I never imagined John’s Gospel could be a love story. But this is the amazing thing about returning to the same old stories—in God’s Word, there is always something new to learn because the Holy Spirit is always revealing something new. (I’ve been at this pastoring and preaching thing for long enough that maybe I’ve forgotten stuff I used to know, and maybe that’s why it feels brand new again.) But the world is always a little different, and God’s Word is connected with

This year, we already know the bad news. It’s around us every day, the horrors of war, the painful realities of hunger and people losing their jobs or losing their homes, the stress of rising costs for everyday items including gas. So during this season of Lent, we didn’t need more bad news, more focus on sin or penitence or giving up the things that bring us joy. We have focused instead on good news—isn’t that why we’re here, to celebrate Jesus as the Gospel of Good News?

Whenever you hear a refrain, a callback, a repeated reference—this is when you know you’re supposed to be paying attention. The words should stick with you. It’s like when someone dies, someone you really loved, especially if their death was unexpected, or maybe you weren’t ready to say goodbye—you might not remember the last thing you said to that person. You might not remember their last words, the last thing they said to you. But you’re likely to remember the things

God does not see as humans see—God can see and understand the human heart. And as humans, we can barely admit how limited our sight truly is—we think we know everything, or at least we think we know enough to judge righteousness. Jesus reminds us of our limitations, what we cannot know nor understand nor even see. John’s Gospel is full of themes of light and dark, even to the point of mentioning the time of day in stories of Jesus-the nighttime conversation with Nicodemu

One thing about encountering Jesus is that light will be involved somehow. In John’s Gospel, light and daytime come up frequently, as themes aligned with seeing and understanding, whereas darkness and nighttime align with not-seeing and lack of understanding. Last week’s Gospel lesson was the story of Nicodemus, a rabbi who approached Jesus at night-time, asking questions but not understanding Jesus’ answers. Today’s Gospel lesson has Jesus approaching a woman at mid-day,

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest, a phenomenal preacher, and author of several books, including this one, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others . I looked to this book for what the author says about Nicodemus, but she also has a lot to say about the nature of what we can know about God—and what we cannot know about God. Now seems like a particularly good time to notice what we hold in common with our neighbors and fellow people of faith, seeking peace rat

Have you ever had a conversation with the devil? Apparently that’s a thing that can happen, according to the Scripture lessons we’ve read for this morning. Maybe you haven’t argued with the actual devil, but have you ever felt like you did? In the Gospel lesson from Matthew, we learn that Satan knows Scripture. When tempting Jesus to jump from the top of the Temple, Satan suggests this is a reasonable idea since “He will command his angels concerning you” and “on their

Ash Wednesday is not just about you. Don’t get me wrong—Ash Wednesday does involve you, as the sooty ashes are maybe tickling your forehead right now. But we don’t get together to observe Ash Wednesday solely for the purpose of purifying our own individual selves through acts of penitence, like smearing our foreheads with ashes. We’re not here to flog ourselves out of guilt for our sin, mercilessly punishing the flesh that has been created in the image of God. We’re de

(Sitting with the children) Since Jesus talked about salt, I thought today would be a good day to do some baking. Okay, we’re not going to really bake anything, but I have all these baking ingredients in jars. Some of these ingredients look the same as others—which of these is flour? Baking powder? Baking soda? Sugar and salt? But how can you tell which ingredient is which? By the box it comes in. But if it’s out of the box, how do you know? Maybe you gotta taste it?

I’m gonna be honest with y’all: there are some texts in the Scriptures that I get tired of preaching about because I’ve read and studied them so many times, and the Beatitudes are one of these. I barely pay attention because I think I already know all there is to know—“Blessed are the poor, blah blah blah.” But if I have learned anything about the commitment to wisdom, it’s this: the very moment that I feel the boredom rising is a signal to pay even closer attention. Be

Downtown Minneapolis skyline It’s hard for me to imagine what it’s like to live in an occupied territory, where I hardly feel safe leaving my house, where neighbors occasionally go missing. But I’ve been told this is what it’s like to live under an occupation in Minneapolis right now, with the occupying force known as ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) roaming the streets. One of our neighbors, Pastor Meagan McLaughlin from Christ Lutheran Church in W

What are you looking for? If you came here looking for God, you picked a good place. And a good time: this liturgical season of Sundays after Epiphany is all about the revealing of God, exploring who Jesus is and how Jesus reveals to humanity the attributes of God. If you’re looking for clear proof of who Jesus is, well, that depends on who you’re willing to listen to. What we have are testimonies from the Gospels—the four Gospels in our Bible (what are they named? Mat

John the Baptist promised fire—remember what he was preaching in the wilderness? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” [1] He tells people that the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John is looking for a flamethrower, and what he gets is Jesus. Is John surprised by Jesus? Was Jesus not what he expected? Jesus didn’t show up with any of the fire that John had promised! Jesus simply shows up, demonstrating the humble si

News flash: sometimes people travel. Maybe even you have traveled recently, to visit friends or family or explore something new during some holiday time. And if you did travel, did you have to carry a passport with you, or proof that you are a citizen of some country? Were you allowed to bring luggage with you, or were you forced to leave it behind? Were your bags searched, or were you asked to provide an inventory of what was inside? Did your luggage get lost along the

Today is Reign of Christ Sunday, also known as Christ the King Sunday. Calling this Sunday “Reign of Christ” makes a little more sense in our context because in this country, with the form of government we have (or aspire to have) we don’t talk about kings that much (unless we’re saying we want no kings as our official rulers). One weakness in having a king as the head of a government is that sometimes kings think they don’t have to answer to anybody. That’s a problem wh

Can you tell that the end is near? The end of the government shutdown—good, that’s a start. The end of the calendar year in about 7 more weeks. I wish we could say we’ve seen the end of people living irresponsibly, as we heard about in the second letter to the Thessalonians, along with the command “anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” So here’s your public service announcement for today: Biblical warnings about idleness—unwilling to work—were about the RICH, not th

Have you heard of death doulas? You may have heard of doulas—it’s the Greek word for slave or servant—though in our culture we use the term doula to refer to people accompanying a birth of a child. A doula helps as an advocate for the mother-to-be, to assist her through the process of labor and the first stages of parenthood. As a doula accompanies a birth, a death doula accompanies a person who is dying, assisting them through the end stages of their life. I saw a quot

There’s a beautiful quote by Martin Luther: “This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” This quote is not, by the way, found in the 95 Theses. I thought this