Sermons By Alan Bentrup

Everything changed. So what are we going to do about it?

Every cross flowers with new life. Every tomb holds the hope of new birth. Every darkness is overcome by light. It’s true. It is absolutely true. Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

A funeral preached at the burial eucharist of Jordan DeClerk.

That’s the truth of this story. That’s the Good News of this day. Death is hell, but Jesus Christ meets us here.

Jesus Christ calls us to wait with him. In the intimacy, the vulnerability, and the silence. In the fear and the grief and the despair. We’re called to wait.

What are the stories we don't want to tell?

God loves everyone you hate.

Who told you that you were the worst thing you had ever done?

We’re going to let God speak to us in the midst of the changes of this life. I don’t know what changes you are dealing with. Maybe it's a change in your health or well-being. Maybe it’s a change in your family. Maybe it’s a change in your work. Maybe it’s a dream that didn’t work out, or even a dream that is working out better than you imagined. In the midst of all of these changes, we’re going to listen for God’s voice.

There are profound implications to being named salt and light. Salt and light transform things. Salt and light reveal things. And we are called to transform human activity in such a way that it reveals God in this world.

Jesus' strategy for facing the road ahead can be found right here in today’s Gospel, in the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. This is how we face the challenges, the uncertainties, and the opportunities of life. This is how we face the road ahead.

He only really says two things today: “Repent,” and “Follow me.” At some level they are two sides of the same coin. Repentance is more than just a moral change. It is a life change, a turning point. We look in a diΛerent direction. We travel a new road.

Jesus oΛers more than his address. He oΛers an invitation. “Come and see,” he says.

Luke tells us what happened, John tells us it means. Luke tells the Christmas story with facts, John tells it with poetry.

Regardless of who we are, regardless of what we’ve done, and regardless of what we’ve been through or going through, God is with us. The Good News of the Incarnation, the great joy of Christmas, is that God is with us

A sermon for our Blue Christmas service

No wasteland is too far gone for God to restore it. No person or situation is so dead that God cannot find life in it. That’s what we’re preparing for this Advent season… for the hope, the joy, and the love of God that is coming to transform this desert world.

Thank you for believing in the mission of this church, for being companions together in faith, and for being a reminder of the love of God to all you encounter in the world each day. I am grateful for you, for this place, and for the ways God’s dreams are continuing to be revealed in the midst of us.

And that’s why we renew our baptismal vows on this day. To remind ourselves that we are loved and chosen and part of God’s kingdom. To remind ourselves that we take our place in the communion of the saints. To remind ourselves that we belong.

Whatever is going on in your life, whether death or divorce or pain or fear or shame…that’s the place where Jesus stops, looks up with love and acceptance, and calls you back down into a new life.