Lutheran Church Of The Savior Sermon Podcast With Rev. Andrew Tengwall

Holy Trinity Sunday, Lectionary Year CRomans 5:1-5The Holy Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - is a bedrock Christian doctrine, as vital to our theology as it is irrelevant to our actual lives of faith. What does this confusing, beautiful, paradoxical doctrine tell us about our relationship with God? Bonus: in this sermon, I divulge the most important piece of information regarding our new Bishop-elect here in the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the ELCA.

Pentecost, Lectionary Year CGenesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21I failed to record last week's sermon (really, I had my phone there, and thought I'd recorded it, but somehow it just doesn't exist), so here's one from this week at least. This week I talked about the ancient, amazing Tower of Babel story as a mythical explanation of human difference, then talked about how difference affects our experience as people. How does the Holy Spirit relate to human difference?

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year CActs 16:9-15The story of Lydia is a bigger deal than I thought it was. God did some amazing work back in Philippi, and as we celebrated Madalyn Claire's baptism at LCS on Sunday, God did some amazing work here as well.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year CRevelation 21:1-6This might be my favorite part of the whole Bible, so as you might expect I got a bit worked up about it. God will be with us. God is already with us.

Third Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year CJohn 21:1-19Easter is real in Jesus' body; how can we make God's promise of new life in Christ real in our bodies, in our lives today?

Second Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year 2CActs 5:27-32Peter boldly tells the High Priest to take a hike, and in doing so proclaims the good news to the world. We can learn from him, though probably don't need to be quite so confrontational about it.

Easter SundayLuke 24:1-12You may think the resurrection of Jesus is unbelievable. If so, you are in good company. Relatedly, Luna Lovegood is one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. Bonus: "The Lovegood Oddity," a random quotation from HP7, may become the name of our family band.

On the spur of the moment, I decided to record this message, because why not? It was a pretty great wedding, so recording some bit of it might be a good idea. Posting it here may be a less-great idea, but isn't that what forgiveness is for? Erin and Chris chose to write their own vows, and they chose two readings: Philippians 4:4-9 and Colossians 3:12-18.

Vigil of EasterLuke 24:1-12The stories of the Vigil tell us that God is always the same, and is always making things new. In this sermon I also continued my accidental tradition of writing a new hymn text for Holy Week, because why not?

Maundy ThursdayJohn 13:1-17, 31b-35Love one another. I think these are the most radical words in Scripture, which does not explain why I talked about Facebook so much in this sermon.

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year CIsaiah 43:16-21On Saint Patrick's Day we were blessed with the opportunity to baptize a family of three, two young adults and a six-month-old baby. It was pretty awesome, and that's the context for this sermon.

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year C. Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32The story known as the Prodigal Son. Such a familiar story to so many, yet there are always new ways to hear it. How can we be the prodigal church? ORIn which I attempt to embarrass myself by singing Journey in the course of a sermon. (Mission accomplished!)

Third Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year CIsaiah 55: 1-9We read this passage from Isaiah 55 every year at the Vigil of Easter, as one of the great Hebrew Scripture stories of God's mercy and faithfulness through all of human history. Set alongside such rich, popular tales as the creation story, Noah and the flood, crossing the red sea, Ezekiel's dry bones, and Daniel's friends in the fiery furnace, what is it about this Isaiah reading that makes it an annual requirement at our most sacred gathering of the year?

Second Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year CGenesis 15:1-12, 17-18I'll finish this month's preaching the way I began it, by talking about how God is responsible for God's work. This story of God's covenant with Abram/Abraham is one of my favorite in all Scripture. God walks between the animals, in one of the most surprising and grace-filled stories around.

First Sunday of Lent, Lectionary Year CLuke 4:1-13In the wilderness, Jesus went through what we go through. What does our wilderness time look like? A bit of the devil as Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort, plus this sermon contains a bonus rant against my current #1 pet peeve, the cliched "You come into this world alone, and you go out of this world alone." I can barely begin to tell you how much I think that phrase is a harmful lie. I must've been cranky that day.

Ash Wednesday Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21Ash Wednesday doesn't really make sense. We mark our foreheads with ashes, a public sign of repentance, and then we hear Jesus' words in Matthew telling us, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.” What are we doing?

Luke 9:28-36Transfiguration, Lectionary Year CIn Luke's Gospel, Jesus was praying when he was transfigured. Can prayer transfigure us as well?

Jeremiah 1.4-104th Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year CGod is responsible for God's work. This sermon revolves around two stories I heard from my brilliant wonderful wife, and I believe she told the same two stories in her own sermon on this Sunday. I had also used one of these stories in my February Newsletter article. Lutheran Church of the Savior also held our Annual Congregational Meeting on this day, and I wanted to frame our work together in the larger context of God's work.

Luke 4:14-213rd Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year CWho are we? What are we about? By reading from the scroll of Isaiah at the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus emphatically answered this question. Can we do the same?

1 Corinthians 12:1-112nd Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year CAll our gifts come from God, and all go to God’s purpose.