Pr. Cheryl Walenta Gorvie Sermon - blog

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

Sometimes I just want Jesus to be nice, you know?  Jesus gives us difficult assignments, like he told these disciples in the verses just...

Jesus said, You cannot serve God and wealth, and then he told this parable about a rich man and Lazarus.  It is meant to be extreme—an...

Having a balance scale up here is a good visual for these Scripture readings today—what does it mean to have a world in balance?  Of...

Image from "Boundless" summer 2025 newsletter. It is easy these days to find the bad news.  In a world affected by climate change, war,...

When Jesus says “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions,” I used to think that meant I needed to...

Everyone be seated, and grown-ups, you are invited to turn on your listening ears because you get to go first today.  Usually we have the...

Is God paying attention to all the wrongs going on in the world?  Does God even notice when humans are suffering or in pain?  How can...

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about hell.  I tend to take for granted that hell is not a foremost concern of people in the...

Kitchen scene, with Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary in the background, Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Europeana. How long do you think I...

It would be nice to ignore parables.  If you’re the kind of person who dismisses stories because that’s for little kids or for people who...

I’m so glad we’re all here today for this Gospel story about Jesus casting out demons.  How many of you read the lectionary texts ahead...