Sermons @ The Lutheran Church of Our Savior

Pastor Claire explores the way that God can make miracles happens through the story of a healing at “The Beautiful Gate.” She wonders what kinds of “gates” we can see in our own lives, and asks us to hesitate at those gates to see what God might do.

Happy Easter! Pastor Claire proclaims the wonder of the risen Christ in a joyful sermon connecting the promises of Easter to the promises of our baptism.

Pastor Claire studies the way Jesus talks about apocalyptic times. How are they supposed to lead us into relationship with God? She dives into the text to understand what Jesus is really telling us about days of tumult, and how we can use his instruction to enrich our faith.

Pastor Claire tackles the classic Christian commandment to love one another this week. She shares how these words speak for themselves and explores what love looks like when it is put into action in the world.

This week’s Gospel finds Jesus following the story of a vineyard owner who leases his land to some particularly bad tenants. Pastor Claire examines what we are to learn from this story, where Jesus sides with the landowner. What is he trying to teach us about gifts from God and how to use them?

Jesus offers more healing this week, this time to the blind beggar Bartimaeus. Pastor Claire was able to share a song called “Gentle Healer” by Michael Card during the context of worship that is not part of this recording due to copyright restrictions. The song began the sermon and helped explain some of the ways that Jesus related to his community with love and gentleness. Pastor Claire explored how tender the gift of healing, and the power of sight can be with a story about love and aging.

Transfiguration Sunday always ends the Epiphany season with a bang! This year, Pastor Claire explores the unique relationship between Jesus and Peter. She explains how the revelatory moment of the transfiguration can be linked to Peter’s slowly growing understanding of who Jesus truly is.

A Boy Scout takeover at church prompts Pastor Claire to reflect on how Jesus ministry can connect with experiences of scouting. She shares an empowering story that helped her discover what it feels like to receive healing and encouragement from Jesus.

As new members take up their journey with the community, Pastor Claire focuses on essential lessons of faith. She explores what it feels like to be a person of faith. And she shares how thinking of ourselves as riding in a boat floating on the water can help us feel the presence of God in our lives.

The seeds of faith in all of our hearts are on display today as Pastor Claire studies the Parable of the Sower and follows Jesus into the garden for a lesson about the kingdom of God.

This week, Jesus accomplishes so many different kinds of ministry in the blink of an eye, it’s almost hard to keep track. Pastor Claire explores what through line Jesus is following to direct him as he teaches and heals his way through community. Do you have a guess?

The Gospel of Mark is famous for NOT including a Christmas story, so it’s an interesting place to turn right after we celebrate Christmas. What kind of beginning did Mark choose to write about in his telling of the life of Jesus? What would Christmas celebrations be like if we used Mark’s ideas about the opening of the story to inspire us?

Pastor Claire rejoices in the final Sunday of Advent with a sermon about the Angel Gabriel and some questions about how angels will continue to appear in all of our lives

Pastor Claire brings the hymn, What Child is This? To connect with a story from the book of Ezra about the people of Israel rebuilding the temple after they returned from exile. She contemplates what child would have the audacity to be born in a world of war and tumult. And she wonders how the story of Christ’s birth can help us understand the complexity of joy, which seems to spring from the depths of sorrow.

Pastor Claire helps us enter into the first Sunday in the poetic season of Advent with a meditative sermon this week. She studies the prophesies of old that foretell of Christ’s birth, and thinks about how we all learn to know Jesus and accept the conditions of the world as we grow up. She shares a poem by Mark Strand and interprets how learning to love God and find God even in the dark is one of the great journeys of adulthood.

The focus is on kings this week, as we celebrate the final Sunday of the church year— Christ the King! Pastor Claire explores what the lessons of King Josiah in the Old Testament can tell us about the kingship of Jesus. She draws attention to the feelings in our heart that we have when we are moved by the Word of God, both in the form of Scripture and in the form of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus.

Pastor Claire shares one of her favorite readings from the book of Isaiah chapter 11, and focuses on one verse: “A shoot shall come out of the stock of Jesse, a branch of his roots.” She meditates on how we can see ourselves as part of a great family of faith, and how our love for one another can be seen as a way of fighting evil.

A story of the prophet Elijah creating a magnificent altar to the God of Israel is the centerpiece of our lessons today. We wonder about what it means to honor God in our world, and reflect on the moments when we’ve felt God’s presence. We ponder, as we celebrate the annual church holiday of All Saints and as we welcome a new baby in with his baptism: How does having a relationship with God connect us with all of our ancestors?

This Sunday we celebrated both this year’s Confirmation class and the church’s annual Reformation Sunday. Both occasions offer us opportunities to remember that the church is always becoming new. And becoming new is one of our greatest strengths—whether that newness comes from theological leaders that shape the church in the halls of power, or young leaders who share their visions with us locally. Pastor Claire studies the story of the young king of Israel, Rehoboam, to identify some of the most important aspects of leadership and inspire the confirmands to take their first step into leadership as servants of their people.

Pastor Claire celebrates a baptism in worship with the story of faith and devotion from the book of Ruth. She explores the love that Ruth and Naomi shared, and what we can all learn from the welcome Naomi shared with Ruth, and the vows Ruth made to Naomi

Pastor Claire draws her sermon from God’s call to Moses. She focuses on the moment when Moses asks God to share God’s name, and God tells Moses simply “I Am Who I Am.” She invites us to wonder about the name for God, and about how we learned who God was from older wiser people in our lives who shared God with us.

Pastor Claire studies the story of Abraham and Sarah this week in her sermon. In particular, she draws attention to the trees that are a central symbol of this famous story. She invites everyone to imagine a favorite tree that has provided shelter to them at a time in their lives. And she asks listeners to wonder how favorite trees, which bloom anew every spring, might be perfect examples of us the ways that God is always up to new things in our lives— even when nothing new seems possible.

Pastor Claire begins a new season focusing on Old Testament stories. Where better to begin than the story of creation, when God swept over the waters to create light and life. It perfectly connects with the baptism taking place in church— God wishes us all to receive water as the breath of life and light of Christ, an eternal source that can connect us to God’s own self at the center of creation.

When Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am?” He poses one of the essential questions of Christian faith. Pastor Claire invites us to explore what it means to name who Jesus is, and what he does. She reminds us that the way we think of Jesus will determine the ways we allow ourselves to follow Jesus, especially as we continue to try to build up the church in his name.

This week’s Gospel story about Jesus meeting a Canaanite woman on his way to Tyre and Sidon should leave us full of questions. Why does Jesus react so uniquely to this woman asking for healing, when he is usually so open and connected to those who seek him? What about her causes his gruff reaction? Is he speaking from his own humanness, operating from a moral, intellectual, or racial superiority? Pastor Claire helps us interpret this text, and see the bravery of this woman. She connects it to the difficult work of being open to sharing God’s good news with strangers in our community. To illustrate the point, she shares some lessons from the church blessing booth at Alive After 5.

The water is a wild and wondrous place, and this Sunday’s gospel reading finds us on the water with Jesus and the disciples after a storm. The disciples are fearful, cowering in their boat. Jesus? He’s walking on water!! One disciple, Peter, cries out to Jesus from the boat. Pastor Claire invites us to imagine ourselves in Peter’s position as he cried to Jesus on the water. What did he hope Jesus could offer him, a strong and confident fisherman and navigator of the water? What did Jesus really offer him in return?

In honor of First Communion Sunday, Pastor Claire studies the lessons of the “First Communion” Jesus served— the Feeding of the 5,000! This beautiful meal shared with a crowd teaches us lots of lessons about what was most important to Jesus. Pastor Claire explains how learning to stop, sit, and share a snack can help us invite Jesus into our midst whenever we need him.

In this Gospel lesson, Jesus shares tons of different images about what heaven is like. Pastor Claire invites listeners to see how images for heaven can come from the most ordinary places. God invites us to connect with the divine in our day to day lives, and ensures that even our most ordinary moments are not wasted!

Pastor Claire turns to the Parable of the Sower with a special interest in the character of the sower this week. She reminds us that the Word of God will always take root if it is sown by those determined to share it. And she asks us all to consider who the determined sowers are in our own lives that inspire us to dream big and keep sharing goodness with the world.

Pastor Claire explores the meaning of these famous words Jesus uses to describe his ministry. What does it mean that his burden is light? Perhaps Jesus is inviting us to know what he does— that it’s hard to be light all the time, in a dark world. And yet, that with his help, we can always find a little light to share with someone in need…

Pastor Claire uses this sermon to wonder about what God is up to in times of anger and tension. What does it mean that Jesus brings not peace but a sword? She invites us to see how this invitation to join God in a range of our most challenging emotions is an instruction for the complexities of community life. She reminds us that the call to live together, and work through challenges together is all part of God’s great design for us.

In the spirit of Father’s Day, Pastor Claire reflects on the “father-figurely” advice that Jesus shares with the disciples as they embark on their mission work. He explains what to do as they minister to their neighbors and how to care for themselves. Pastor Claire shares how we can all benefit from reminders like this once in a while, and how some of our father figures supply them when we are most in need!

Pastor Claire explores what Christian and Muslim texts about practicing faith can teach us, as we celebrate the baptism of our newest member, baby Jack.

The church celebrates both Memorial Day and a baptism in the Lynch-VanDenberg family on Pentecost Sunday. Pastor Claire celebrates this lively occasion with a sermon that uses some trivia to unlock the overlap between the histories of Memorial Day and Pentecost, and uplift the excitement that always surrounds a baptism.

On this Trinity Sunday when we celebrate the mystery of God, we also acknowledge our own community holiday of Pride. This is a day when we recognize that God’s love takes as many forms in our lives as God does. Pastor Claire helps us see the creative and colorful work that God does all around us by reviewing the story of creation—and sharing another story about creative courage.

Pastor Claire examines the way Jesus prays for the disciples in today’s sermon. She thinks about what it means for us all to pray for each other, and how we can practice praying aloud in our own lives.

Themes of parenting and loving others this Mother’s Day intertwine with Jesus message of love to his disciples. Pastor Claire encourages us to connect with the femininity of the Holy Spirit, and look to see how Jesus set the stage for us to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at our side always.

Jesus surprises his disciples by appearing to them on the road as they exit tumultuous Jerusalem and walk toward Emmaus. Pastor Claire explores how walking can be a way of finding healing, and how we can all look to moving our bodies as a way of connecting with God.

Jesus is back! Against all odds, he’s raised from the dead and ready to interrupt regularly scheduled programming for the disciples again. Pastor Claire studies the emphatic commitment to sharing peace that Jesus brings with him when he returns to earth, and invites listeners to consider what it might mean to offer peace to one another.

Christ is risen, Alleluia! Pastor Claire shares the best news ever of Christ’s resurrection. She helps us reflect on what it means that the joy of Easter always comes, under any circumstances, and what our call as Christians is to respond to Easter in our midst.

The sacred “Triduum” or three days of Easter begins with Good Friday. This dark day, we remember Jesus death for our sins. Pastor Claire encourages us to see this dark day as a promise that Jesus can meet us even when things feel very dark.

We enter into the most sacred days of Holy Week with Maundy Thursday as we remember Jesus last supper with his disciples. We read the story of washing feet and hear uplifting promises about the care that Jesus promises us throughout our lives, even when we must say goodbyes.

This Sunday, we end Lent with a baptism-- a special celebration to mark the end of a season of devotion. Pastor Claire reflects on the contrast of solemnity and celebration in Lent. She illustrates how we can use the story of Lazarus to understand how Jesus works through good surprises to keep us (and our faith) on our toes!

Jesus dramatically heals a man born blind in today’s Gospel. But Pastor Claire invites us to draw our attention not so much to this physical transformation as to the ripple effect in the community. What happens when someone on the margins is brought into the spotlight? We have the chance to participate in such mini transformations each time we step into the spotlight by claiming who we are and sharing who we are with others. What would happen if our communities were more accepting of such moments?

A dramatized reading helps bring to life the vivid dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well in this week’s Gospel. Pastor Claire explores what Jesus means us to understand about him when he calls himself living water, and where we can all go to seek living water in our own communities.

The famous verse, John 3:16, is the central focus of the sermon this week. Pastor Claire invites the children at church to consider what it means to receive gifts from God and share them— and then asks the adults to recognize how transformative sharing gifts can be!!

Pastor Claire kicks off a new pattern for the Lenten season this week. She begins her sermon with a children’s message, featuring a story about one of the inspiring symbols of Christ that can be found in the sanctuary windows. She then turns to the question presented by the Gospel for this week— a battle between Christ and the devil that will captures the essential question at the heart of our Lenten journey. How does Christ offer us liberation from temptation?

We celebrated Transfiguration Sunday this week, the culmination of the Epiphany season. Jesus is finally revealed as the Messiah in glorious fashion on a mountaintop. Pastor Claire explores how his disciples reacted to this extraordinary moment, and what we can learn from them about letting Jesus into our own ordinary lives.

Jesus dives into some pretty sensitive issues in this week’s Gospel. How we should best follow his words on topics like adultery and divorce has been a source of debate for centuries. In this sermon, Pastor Claire invites us to learn from the WAY Jesus puts himself in the middle of conflict, rather than prescribing his exact words for our modern situations.

Pastor Claire tenderly considers the essential message of the famous blessings Jesus proclaims in the passage known as the Beatitudes. She explores what it means to be blessed and, in honor of her recent ordination service, shares a testimony about the moment that led her to be a pastor. Isn’t it funny how God’s blessing finds us when we least expect it?