Pr. Cheryl Walenta Gorvie Sermon - blog

You know the Sistine Chapel? That famous building in the Vatican, where Michaelagelo painted frescoes depicting stories from Scripture, like God creating Adam and imagining Jesus at the Last Judgment. He painted these in the early 1500s, so 500 years ago, and visitors are still showing up to see these works. In fact, every day, some 17,000 to 20,000 people visit the Sistine Chapel to marvel at these works of art. Last year, seven million people passed through this holy sp

I wish I had better news for you today, but I don’t. The truth is this: the Gospel is not fair. Jesus tells this parable where the hardest workers don’t get paid more according to their hard work. It feels like people are getting good things that they don’t deserve. And we live in a world where people also get bad things they don’t deserve. What kind of justice is this? I suppose this is to be expected from the God who sustained the people of Israel through the wilder

How do you explain the idea of sin as being in debt to someone, perhaps in debt to God? This is how Jesus explains it in the parable from the Gospel lesson, about an unforgiving servant. Apparently sin has some kind of value, such that debt can be accrued by sinning repeatedly against someone. This is a difficult statement, because you could imagine that sin is just one person’s opinion against another person’s opinion of what is right or wrong. That only God can judg

The trouble with living in a parable is that you don’t know how it ends. For most of this past year, I have wondered if Gethsemane Lutheran Church has been living in a parable. We have had a man live in a tent in an outdoor stairwell on our property. We’ve gotten to know many unhoused neighbors and people passing through the neighborhood in need of various kinds of help. Some of those people needed emergency medical attention and were cared for by church members who hap

Today’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 15:1-28) is a story about what is actually offensive. The Pharisees, who—let’s be clear—are not the villains in the story, come to Jesus to complain that his disciples are not washing their hands properly, not observing the religious rituals and customs. Is this a big deal? Maybe, maybe not, but Jesus points out a greater problem with the Pharisees’ own behavior: not providing for their elders, and teaching people that it’s okay to give o

Isaiah’s words are profoundly weird: everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! Okay, that part isn’t weird—it isn’t hard to imagine a stream of running water, clean and delicious, a gift from God. The next part is weird: you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Did he just say “buy”? Was that an accident? But then Isaiah says it again: come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Okay, how do you buy things without money? And if you are buying things wit

There are a lot of voices speaking about the United States of America and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and there are plenty of celebrations. Some of you may have been awakened last night by fireworks displays. Some of you are sleeping in this morning to recover from partying, and good for you, taking the holy Sabbath seriously and doing what your mortal body needs you to do today. As thoughtful followers of Jesus Christ, we are neither entire

Who are you working for? When you’re making decisions, especially if it’s a decision that might upset someone else, whose interest do you prioritize? And then what’s the reward for the decision you do make? What’s in it for you? I’ve heard Paul’s words a lot of times—“the wages of sin is death”—but it didn’t make any sense to me, until I noticed it next to the word “fruit.” I realize that doesn’t make any sense either; let me explain. For those of us living in a cit

It’s not easy living in the real world, but this is the only world where we find Jesus, who refused to let us imagine that peace is beyond our reach, or that a better world is something too far away to bother with. Jesus is rooted in reality: do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth, he says, I have not come to bring peace but a sword. Oof, that sounds opposite of what Jesus is talking about right? Isn’t Jesus all about peace? Of course he is. But he c

Last week, I spoke about our local Synod Assembly for the Central States Synod, which is the annual business meeting of churches doing ministry and stewarding money and responding in faith. There are rules and parliamentary procedures and I’m not especially jazzed about all that, and I would have skipped the explanation entirely except that the whole reason we bother with all the procedures is because we’re trying to govern the church within community. We don’t elect repres

Central States Synod logo What is a synod, anyway? This is different from a senate, which is an assembly or council possessing high deliberative and legislative functions for a group of people. A synod is a governing council of a church body, and the word synod comes from Greek words that mean “together on the way.” Different church groups use the word synod differently—in the Roman Catholic Church, a synod is an assembly of bishops. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod i

Why do we keep telling the same old stories? Every week, in this church and in churches all around the world, we are visiting and re-visiting the same ancient Scriptures. Why? Not because we forget the stories (though sometimes we do), not because repeating the words makes some kind of magic happen, and definitely not for our own entertainment. The stuff in the Bible isn’t always particularly entertaining. We keep returning to scripture because here we find God’s Word,

Show of hands: who here has ever approached a major life event—and I mean major, like starting in a new school or a new job or getting married or welcoming a baby into your household or retiring from work, you know, major—and because you did all the things to prepare for the big event and because you studied and learned what to do ahead of time, that everything went absolutely perfectly, no surprises, no regrets? Anyone? Is it even possible to ever be completely prepared?

Take this moment to re-center your ideals. Whenever we gather to worship God, we’re not leaving the world behind, but we are gonna zoom out and get the wide-angle view of what God is doing in human history with this incarnation business. We cannot fully understand God’s motives, of course, but we can sit with what God is doing. Every Sunday, we read the Scriptures while asking, what does this have to do with the world I’m living in right now? In these weeks after Easter

How much does anyone worry about what it means to be saved? Saved as in eternal salvation. Okay, maybe it is important, to have a broader sense of time—eternity—and the power of God to bring abundant life. Yeah, but also I’m American and a product of consumer culture and the expectation that whatever I want should already be in my hand right now. Anything with importance at a distant time might as well be imaginary—what relevance does it have for today? Who really care

“ 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