2026 – Whom Shall I Fear?

June 21, 2026June 16, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Matthew 10:24-39

“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Sermon Text

You are loved, eternally and completely. I want to say that again at the outset. You are loved, eternally and completely. From before the foundation of the world, you were part of God’s grand dream for salvation. To see you brought into the Kingdom and grown up in love and holiness. God so loved the world, and God so loved you, that he sent his only begotten Son to live, die, and rise again for your, for our, salvation.

If we truly believe that to be true, we are left with a quandary. Despite the knowledge of God’s divine care, we are prone to worry. Not the healthy kind of concern that asks us to be thoughtful and cautious, but the soul consuming worry that only feeds itself and destroys us. Not either the clinical anxiety which requires medical intervention. I’m talking about the habitual, the personal, and the very real fears we stoke within ourselves in the face of a life full of uncertainty. I’m talking about the sort of fear we have power over and the kind of confidence, founded in God, that can counter it.

I think one of the dangerous things the Church can claim to offer is a life that does have any difficulties, worries, or fear. Those are not things we can ever fully escape this side of eternity. The difference that our faith makes is the ability to overcome even the most overwhelming parts of our life, because of the love that God has for us. I’m not going to say that you will not sit and worry and fuss about life, but I am telling you that all that worrying is at the foot of the throne of the God who has control of each and every aspect of the creation that was made for and entirely toward love.

Jesus delivers the message we read in our scripture today in the context of sending his disciples out to do the work of ministry. They are to go from town to town, proclaiming the good news and healing everyone they meet through the power of Jesus. They are going, not to places that are perfectly set up for them, but that are oftentimes going to be actively antagonistic toward them. Jesus specifically says, “You see how they’ve treated me, can you imagine what they’ll say and do to you?” He wants his disciples to be prepared for the fact that following God will have consequences.

Jesus sets his disciples up for this reality, that they are going out into an antagonistic world to bring the Gospel to it… Then he tells them not to worry about anything that comes their way. He says that they must go out and proclaim Christ’s salvation no matter the consequence, must do the work of healing and reconciliation even if it means they are chased out of town, and they must do so without ceasing. They have a choice to acknowledge God and suffer the consequences, or deny the mission they’ve been given and benefit richly because of it. I’m intentional in framing it that way – Jesus is telling his disciples that there is an easy way out and a hard road ahead, and that if they want the easy road it is not with him. Even if one road leads to destruction, they may indeed choose it because the other path is so difficult to walk.

Jesus goes further to say – if you keep with me, you may be betrayed by your family. The passage here about loving father and mother more than the kingdom is not Jesus giving us an excuse to abandon difficult family members, nor an excuse to ignore them in exchange for “doing the Lord’s work.” He is highlighting a truth still felt by people in places where Christianity is illegal. If your family accepting you is more important than doing this work, if your family not shunning you would prevent you, if having your family turn you over to be killed is a non-starter – then this work is not for you.

We are then led to another truth that we in our position of privilege in America have to acknowledge. We are not likely to face the sort of dangers that Christ lays out for his disciples, so why is it then that we do not enjoy his promise either? We are told not to worry about anything, because God is good enough to feed wild birds and attend to their birth and their death, and we are more valuable than any bird that flies in the air. Elsewhere, Jesus again turns to birds and notes that they do not spend their time worried about where food will come from, but trust God will provide it.

I have recently taken up birding as a bit of a hobby. I have my birdfeeders set where I can see them while I go about my daily housework. Beyond the birds that come to my feeder, I have also just become more aware of where our avian friends are in the world. The sharp cry of the red-winged blackbird and the repetitions of the grackle carry across any space that they find themselves in. You are never very far away from a bird, and if you look you can see them flitting here and there to find the next bit of food they need for themselves and their nestlings. Flying here and there with purpose, efficiency, and dare I say… Trust.

Jesus asks us to look to birds to assuage our worries so that we never can go without the reminder that we are cared for. Life is hard, and if you are trying to live it like a half-decent person you are not afforded any of the shortcuts others might take. You cannot steal or cheat or deceive your way into a better future – you have to face each trouble as it comes. If you are advocating for the work of the Gospel – to proclaim salvation, to warn against sin, to bring folk food and shelter and medicine – then people will get upset. Not because we are purposefully provoking them, but because goodness upsets people. Yet, in the midst of our most dejected days, Christ gives us a symbol to seek out… Look for the birds, see them being cared for, know that you are cared for even more.

So, I ask you, take whatever worries you brought in here with you today, and leave them behind. Yes, you’ll still have to deal with what is worrying you when you leave. Yet, I hope that as you go, you’ll see a bird fly by, or settle on a branch, and see in it a reminder that you are loved with an everlasting love. Fear nothing, fear no one, for God is with you always. The birds proclaim this truth for all to see. – Amen.

Sermon 06/07/2026 – Who is Invited?

June 7, 2026June 16, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Sermon Text

Who is invited to sit at God’s table? Who makes the guest list for the grace of God? Is it you or me? The Magisterium of the Church? Who has authority to pull up a seat and say, “Tuck in!” Our lips may immediately say, “Only God! Christ alone! Whoever the Spirit calls!” but I am skeptical that we are committed to that truth. I am skeptical because I’m sure if I ask a different question we would probably have different answers. “Who isn’t invited?”

“Who isn’t invited?” That is a question that tantalizes more than any other. At first we may, again with a pious heart, say “All people are invited! None are barred!” Yet, our actions suggest differently. Look around this room and ask yourself how diverse a body we truly are in this congregation. I’m not just speaking in terms of race or place of origin, I mean in dress or attitude or disposition. Our incomes are not so varied as to shock, our manner of dress is comparable if nothing else, and we all have our Ps and Qs so aligned as not to distress our neighbors with too great a varied response to worship.

We are not alone in our homogeneity. The most segregated hour in America, along all lines, is a Sunday Morning. Churches attract their own little niche of people and they do so subconsciously. In the mode of worship they employ, in the time they offer it, and in the way they act throughout it. Some of this is inevitable. Though we wish to “be all things to all people,” at the end of the day there is only so much we can do in the bounds of our order of worship and within an hour and change on a single day of the week. There are different churches because there are different people and sometimes God needs us to employ our differences to save people with different needs. Yet, I feel, if we take that line of thought too far then Church becomes a place you have to shop around for, a thing you consume rather than are consumed by, it becomes a place we go to receive and not a place we become a symbiotic whole with.

Our Scripture today captures the scandalous nature of Jesus’s ministry well. Calling his disciples as he goes, he finds Matthew the Tax Collector. We do not know if Matthew was a Roman transplant into Judea or a native Judean who took on a Roman job but either way we know what his reputation was. Tax collectors in his day were seen as traitors and crooks – taking money to support the soldiers and empire that would throw you in the gutter for fun and crucify you for talking back. Matthew, Judean or Roman, was seen as someone working against the people of God, robbing them for his own health and for the good of their enemies.

Yet, when Jesus sees him, he knows what Matthew is to become and not what he is. He does not see a Roman traitor, he sees an Apostle, or someone who will become one at least. He calls for Matthew to follow him and Matthew follows immediately. Then, either at Matthew’s house or someone else’s, Jesus has dinner. People are coming to hear him speak anyway, so a crowd begins to gather. Yet, the people who are invited to be at Jesus’s table, those who he wants closest to him, are the rejects. He has the tax collectors and “sinners,” a catch-all term here meaning, “those people,” sit down right beside him.

As Jesus breaks bread and eats, some of the crowd gathered around the house leans in to ask his disciples a question. These are the local pastors of the area, the Pharisees and Teachers, and they’re concerned about this traveling miracle worker. “He does these wonderful things, teaches these wonderful teachings, but now he is sitting and eating with these people? Make that make sense to me.” The disciples do not get a chance to answer for Jesus, because he publicly answers their private accusation disguised as a question – “A doctor does not attend to people who are well, a doctor is called to heal the sick!”

Here enters in the contradiction that Jesus always leaves in the midst of his teachings. Jesus is saying that the folks he is sitting with need him more than the people coming in and criticizing him. Does that mean that the Pharisees and Teachers aren’t sinners in need of salvation? Of course not! They are, however, people who should know better. They have received God’s grace through the established means of the Temple and the fellowship provided by the Synagogue and the tutelage of the law. They are folks who are not “cured,” of sin, if such a thing is possible, but they are folks on their way to recovery.

They have, however, forgotten that they are only where they are by the grace of God. Only the accidents of how they were born and how the cards have fallen in their life to this point has allowed them to be Pharisees and Teachers rather than tax collectors and publicly known profligates. They have allowed themselves to forget that anything they do right they were taught and supported into doing and all they do wrong has left their mind is a sea of perceived righteousness. They may not break the rules as readily or as often as those they now criticize, but they have not been transformed by God’s grace – they have let their hearts harden if anything.

There are two main things that keep people from coming into Church, and neither of them have anything to do with Jesus. The first is past hurt from the Church, ways that the people of God have actively harmed them – that is a talk for another time. The second, however, is still tied to the failing of the Church. We stand on a hill of perceived holiness, we spread our arms out to the world and say, “We’re here if you want us!” Then we shake our head at all the people who don’t waltz into our sanctuary. We do not go out into the world and bring the Gospel with us, if we did that we’d lose control. We do not invite folks in with a wild and uncompromising invitation, because it would ask too much of us and our habits and expectations.

Christ our Lord not only sat with sinners when he found them, but actively sought them out. He did not ask them to get clean and perfect immediately. The Pharisees were not shocked by their sudden repentance or holiness, they still viewed them as sinners and thieves. It is unlikely that the people gathered around Jesus that night, sin sick their whole life long, were suddenly and permanently changed in that one night… Yet I’m willing to believe that several of them started the long, hard road of discipleship after coming close to Jesus that night.

The Disciples that night were serving a role that we often neglect in our role as Christians. They were standing around the table, letting people come to Jesus, and answering the questions of the people who would doubt the validity of the people coming to eat with him. They were not interrogating people to see if they were worthy of God’s grace, but refuting those who questioned it. The Pharisees could not get close enough to browbeat those seeking Jesus, because the Disciples stood in the way. What would it look like for us to do that? To be the sort of people who kept the judgmental eye off of those seeking Christ, and spared no expense in bringing his table to those who most earnestly wanted to eat from it.

People of God, the table of Grace is set before us. As we approach to take part in Christ’s passion, let us let this grace transform us. Let us become defenders and advocates for folks to make their way to this place of grace. Christ has come to save sinners, and that definitely includes us. Are we willing to let it stop with us? – Amen.

Sermon 05/31/2026 – In the Beginning

May 31, 2026June 16, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…

Sermon Text

Trinity Sunday is one of the more difficult Sundays of the year. Every day that we gather together as the Church, we are celebrating a triune God. This means that God is three persons but still one complete entity. God the Father is distinct from the Son and the Spirit, but all three are still one God. This is complicated and mystical and generally not something we often try to put into words as a Church because there are several million ways of teaching it incorrectly and only a handful of ways that begin to approach the truth.

Yet, across the history of the Church, there has been a repeated call by ill informed people to do away with the concept of the Trinity. They will point to the fact that the word does not appear in scripture and then find ways to formulate a world where God exists in all sorts of inferior ways to the truth of the trinity. Some say God the Father became Jesus Christ who, upon his ascension became the Spirit. Others say Jesus was merely adopted by God and given a special place in creation, but is not actually God in the same way God is. And so on and so forth, the truth of the Trintiy is lessened until God is broken apart and diminished into something far different than what scripture reveals.

Scripture is clear that Christ is God, having full equality with God since before creation.[1] Scripture is likewise clear that the Holy Spirit is God, revered and honored in equal measure.[2] If we believe that these two are treated as God, and we believe that there is only one God, then God must exist as three persons – Father, Son, and Spirit – and still remain the singular God who we worship and adore. To be united as one, while remaining distinct, is not something that we can picture in our own human existence, but it is fully possible for God.

Our scripture today does not provide a view of the Trinity, except through the lens of our Christian faith. No person reading this scripture before Jesus walked the earth would believe God was a Trinity just by reading Genesis 1. Yet, for the Christian, our faith gives another reading.

In the Creation of the world, all three persons of God were fully present, active, and in sync with one another. God the Father, who exists in Spirit above and beyond all things, breathes the Holy Spirit onto the uncreated universe. The movement of the Spirit causes the waters to be troubled, the uncreated mass suddenly begins to contemplate the potential of order. When God speaks, the Word of God is sent forward, the only and eternally begotten Son creates at the behest of the Father’s words. “Let there be,” is followed immediately by “Here it is.” The Father sends, the Son creates, the Spirit enlivens. Across Genesis 1 and 2, nothing becomes something at the behest of the Trinity which forever existed in isolation.

The reason for the creation is never given in scripture. The closest we come is to the general theme expressed in several places – all things exist to glorify God, and so all of creation exists to glorify its creator. I would add to this a second, more relational note. As all things exist to glorify God, so all things exist to glory within what God has done, is doing, and will do. In other words, the existence we have with God is reciprocal. God does not stand on high and demand worship, building a universe for Divine Adulation, without making the creation benefit from the arrangement. The universe is created for God and God offers the fullness of the Divine Being for the creation to enjoy.

Scripture has a word that is used to describe the three persons of the Trinity, they are all participants in Θεοτης (theotēs,) a word that is usually defined as “Godhood,” “Divinity,” or “The Godhead.” Personally, I like to describe it as God’s “God-ness.” To be a being of theotēs is to be equally part of the thing which is called “God,” to participate in that unique existence.

We are then pleased to see that, throughout all of scripture and all of history, God has made this “God-ness,” available to those who seek after it. When Adam and Eve are thrown from the Garden, God does not leave them behind, but allows them to continue worship. When Cain kills Abel, God shows him love and spares him. Across centuries of violence, the Ark is built. God the Father exists in covenant with this world, through Noah and from the time of Noah until today, always working toward reconciling the world back to its creator. In due time, God sent the Spirit to rest upon certain people called, “Prophets,” and ensured that through them the eternal Word of God was made known.

All this would be sufficient and good, but God is not one to settle for “Good Enough.” In a backwater part of the world, in a strange confluence of history, God sent the Word to become flesh and dwell among us. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the fullness of God-ness dwelt. Jesus was fully God and fully human, his human-ness and his God-ness in perfect harmony despite being distinct. Christ lived, died, rose again, and ascended all so that we could receive the Spirit into ourselves. To this day, we are houses for the Holy Spirit, and through Christ’s participation in humanity, we are able to participate in the unity of God. Though we are never recipients of the “God-ness,” that defines God apart form creation, we are able to enter into the perfected, divine, humanity of Christ but being subsumed into his body, the Church.

The Trinity is complicated, the celebration of it ever incomplete as we struggle to imagine the kind of unity that can exist perfectly across three persons. Yet, gathered here as the people of God, we are likewise participating in a strange contradiction. You and I are distinct, you are distinct from the people around you, and yet we together are the Church, and therefore we are made into the Body of Christ. If Christ’s body was raised, the we too can be lifted from our current state. Because God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are together lifting us up. – Amen

[1]

[2]

Sermon 05/24/2026 – Abundant Prophecy

May 24, 2026June 16, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Numbers 11:24-30

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

Sermon Text

Pentecost! The day we celebrate as the “Birth of the Church,” when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and blessed them with a multitude of languages, allowing them to communicate the gospel to any and all people who came near to them. Folks looked at them like they were drunk, some accused them of general indecency, but the truth was all the more fantastic. Christ, who had ascended some days earlier, had kept his promise and sent the Spirit down to rest on the disciples. The men and women in the upper room were out in the streets telling the story of Christ’s death and resurrection and the whole of Jerusalem was amazed.

The Spirit is something that we in the mainline churches are often accused of lacking. We do not often engage in ecstatic worship – we aren’t dancing in the aisles or speaking in tongues. We do not do much extemporaneously, “in the present moment,” instead leaning on our liturgies and hymnals. To many in the modern milieu of American Religion, we are placed at odds with our Denominational Descendants in the Holiness and Nondenominational churches and a line is drawn between us. In one corner there are the staunch and boring traditional folk and in the other the ecstatic and lively contemporary worshippers.

These are not new distinction, every period of history has shown worship taking these forms. One the formalized and measured, the other the spontaneous and free. The difficult thing that we must assess as Christians, people practicing our faith now, is how we need to apply these broad categories to our life. Is it better to be free completely? Or is it better to do what we know works and guarantee our presence before God through ordinary means of grace? Today I want to offer a far more true to life option, one that is complicated as only truth can be. The Spirit of God is not constrained to one method of worship or the other, it is above, beyond, and through them all.

We have already addressed that people responded to God’s Spirit being poured out on Pentecost with skepticism. “What are these drunk fishermen yelling about? And why are they yelling it in Latin, Gallic, and Persian?” The people were gathered in Jerusalem that day to celebrate “The Feast of Weeks,” which commemorates God’s gift of the Torah to the people of God and the yearly harvest. This dual celebration ended the festive season that followed Passover, much like how Pentecost ends our celebration of Easter today. They were worshipping God as God had commanded, and in so doing received God’s goodness, yet God was also at work through those who were receiving the Spirit in a new and different way, the Church.

This mirrors the story told in our scripture for the day. The Sanhedrin, the seventy elders of Israel, had gone to meet with God and received the Holy Spirit. They prophesied before God, speaking deep spiritual truths in a way they never would again. They did so at God’s command, in the God sanctioned way of approaching the Tent of Meeting which housed God’s throne – the Ark of the Covenant. Yet, as they proclaimed truth by gathering around the Tent, God was not limited by the “sanctioned,” way of doing things. While the Elders gathered there, the Spirit rested on two men, Eldad and Medad, who spoke God’s truth without the metrics and means the Elders had used. Yet, Moses assures us both means are valid, true, and fully under God’s control.

As is obvious to most anyone who sees me, I am a huge proponent for the “ordinary,” means of God’s grace. Gathering in churches, receiving the sacraments, and praying as we read the scriptures are sure ways to come close to God. I go further in my personal application of them, trying to steep what we do here in the traditions and methods of the Church which stretch back, in some cases, to Christ’s disciples themselves. In this ancient ways, and in my gift of them to the congregations I serve, I seek to give us a sure path to God’s grace. I consider it one of my duties as an elder to relate, preserve, and innovate upon the ancient work of the Church.

Yet, God is never limited by the ordinary. I knew a godly woman (and mucked out her horse stalls once a year,) who could pray like nobody else I knew. More than that, she also prayed in a way I had never seen, speaking in a language only she and God knew. In this conference I know someone who, though he has now begun the process of ordination, did more work as a lay person and a licensed minister than most any ordained elder I have ever seen. Truth is spoken, miracles performed, and good work down outside of the hierarchy and usual means of the Church every day.

The problem comes, inevitably, that we prioritize one thing over the other. We look at people doing things in fresh and new ways, and so neglect the foundation that makes those new things possible. Likewise, we get so caught up in the way things are, we fail to see what God is]’ doing beyond our walls and outside the usual way things are done. Pentecost is the day God tore down the separation between old and new forever, creating a kingdom that is eternal and that simply “is.” In this new world, we are constantly bringing out treasures “old and new,” to God’s glory.[1]

We are blessed this Pentecost to baptize young people into this world. We are likewise blessed to welcome a family into our Church. As they grow, they will challenge us to do new and different and better things. As we welcome them into our family of faith we will offer a foundation that makes these new works possible. The Spirit, alive and moving, seeks to make prophets of us all – people who speak the word of God as if it were our own. Let us follow that Spirit, to the font which was poured out centuries ago, and to the springs that appear without warning. Old and new, planned and unplanned, God is at work. Let us be at work too. – Amen

[1] Matthew 13:52

Sermon 05/17/2026 – Why do you look up?

May 17, 2026May 13, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Sermon Text

We come now to the close of Easter. Soon, except for Baptisms and certain celebrations, we will stow away our Paschal candle and its light will not shine again. The season of resurrection shifts into a new season, one of mission and of commitment to living our faith out in the world fully and properly. Our celebration today looks to Christ’s ascension and the accompanying things it tells us about the world we live in. Like the disciples, we look up, but just like the disciples, we cannot let our eyes remain heavenward for too long.

The Church holds that there are a handful of ways in which we ordinarily meet with God. The celebration of Holy Communion, the prayers which we offer to God, the scripture which stands as a perpetual testimony to God, and the community of the faithful we call the Church. Sometimes these allow us a glimpse of God, sometimes they allow us to see God more completely – our eyes locking onto the divine and the divine looking back toward us. These are, however, mostly modes of faith that move our eyes upward toward heaven. When we come together to worship, to celebrate the sacraments, when we pray privately or in worship… All of these are examples of us creating space to look up from earth toward heaven, even for a moment.

Despite the importance of this time we take to look up, it is never the intent of God that we spend our whole life with our necks nearly broken in an attempt to see God’s movements in the heavens. It is fully possible to be so fixated on seeking God in the places we expect God to be that we miss the important ways God is trying to show up outside the ordinary. When we are constantly looking up, we miss the fact that God is around us, in the world, and not just in the “sacred spaces,” we have often tried to lock the Holy inside of.

Our scripture shows the disciples having followed Jesus for forty days after his resurrection. Having seen the horrors of his death, they now fully appreciate the wonder of his resurrection. Not just raised from the dead, but perfected in his flesh in the way that tells us what we will someday look like. The risen Christ was the same Christ who died on the cross, but without the veil of misunderstandings that kept the disciples from seeing who Christ really, truly, fully was. God and man, now shining in an obvious as well as perfect unity. This is the resurrected Christ.

Amidst further teachings and miracles, the disciples follow Jesus and he promises them that the Holy Spirit will soon be poured out into the world, and that they would be the first to receive the life it gives. Not fully understanding, they think Jesus is planning to end the world shortly, to bring the kingdom of God to fulfillment in one decisive movement. Jesus does not let that linger, however, and gives one final instruction to his disciples. “Forget about figuring out when everything will be finished, look to what there is to do now! I give you the Spirit so you can give it to others. Speak the truth to the Judeans first, then to the Samaritans, then to the entire world! Go and change the world and trust that I’ll settle any scores after that.”

The disciples then watch Jesus disappear into the heavens, not literally the sky above us, but the place where God dwells. In his place, two angels appear and question the disciples lack of movement. “Why do you look up? He’ll be back.” The disciples stop their worshipping, stop their staring, and then go into Jerusalem to await the coming Spirit. The disciples realize that, while looking to Heaven has its merits, their job involves more than just sitting and looking up.

There is a balance in our faith between devotional and missional pursuits. The two are not oppositional, they are not even opposite ends of a spectrum, they just both take time and resources to complete. If you invest time and money into expanding worship and prayer and sacramental access you do not guarantee that the same amount of money and time and resources will go into missional works of mercy, evangelism, and general community support.

I have only seen once successful complete fusion of worship and service. My wife, in her incredible penchant for ministry, planned a system whereby every fifth Sunday was a mission Sunday. The congregation would gather in the fellowship hall, read scripture and pray together, and then they would assemble kits and supplies for local non-profits that they would then go out to deliver. It built community relationships, it got people resources they needed, and it combined the acts of worship and service such that all involved could see in the work they did a different kind of devotion, a way to worship while working.

These were still occasional services though, and each week the congregation still had to find the balance between the two shades of our work on earth. The angels here, helpfully, give us an understanding of how to go about our work. The disciples have done nothing wrong by standing on the mountain and watching Jesus ascend, they were asked to go up and do exactly that. The angels were not their to chastise them, but to redirect them. “The time for this work is ending, the time for another is beginning.” After the disciples return to Jerusalem, they do not immediately get to work, they still gather together and pray in the upper room until the Pentecost comes. The mode of their work changed, but the validity of either type did not.

Among the reasons we meet weekly as a Church is that it assures us the presence of God. We know we can find God in the pews when we gather to pray and worship and proclaim scripture because God promises to be found in these things. What makes the difference for us, both individually and as a Church, is if we can make tangible movement toward mission in the time between our worship gatherings. What are we doing to serve the world? How are we proclaiming our salvation and our scriptures? How are we being God’s people?

My job as a minister, and especially as an Elder, is to provide a place where we can gather and receive God’s Spirit and grace. In gathering like we do this morning, God is offering us the fuel, fire, and perspective we need to go out and do our work outside this room the rest of the week. It is my earnest hope that, as time goes on, I will be able to add more opportunities for us to gather devotionally across the week.

I am called, at the same time, to point us outward. Though we in the United Methodist Church hold that Deacons are the kind of minister who work primarily out in the world, I am not exempt from this requirement either. It is my hope that, with everything we receive in this service on Sunday, we can go into the world and share a bit of it with those around us. The virtues that God builds within us, the insight the scriptures show us, the goodness that is shared between us, we owe the world to show them these truths. The laity of the church are to be equipped by ministers to go forward and do the work of the Church, the minister likewise provides guidance, rest, and sacramental strength to those works.

We are all gathered here, on this blessed day, to look up and remember that Christ is our advocate for all time. When we pray, Christ is seated beside the Father and praying alongside us. When we cry, Christ sits in the presence of God weeping with us. In all things, we have an eternal advocate we can worship and praise with everything we have. That same Christ, however, has asked us to see him not only in bread and wine or choirs or prayers, but in the face of our neighbor, and of those in need. We must be a people who do not spend our time only looking up, because Christ is revealed in more than just our worship. To truly know God, we must serve one another, our neighbors, even our enemies.

Take time then, as we continue our service today, to truly embrace Christ’s presence with us in worship. Take the strength that comes from knowing God is with you in all things and let it prepare you for a week lived out in the world. Once we leave this room though, do not let your rumination lead to stagnation. See Christ in the people around you, worship him with your care. – Amen

Sermon 05/10/2026 – St. Stephen the Deacon

May 13, 2026June 16, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Acts 7:55-60

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Sermon Text

Stephen is someone I look up to. A Greek speaking Jew, a Hellenist to use Biblical Language, he was something of an outsider in Judea. Judean Jews would not see him as being really Jewish. Likewise, Gentiles would look at him as just another Jew in the gutter. He is a foil to Paul in the book of Acts. His death inspired Paul to go on with his attempt to persecute the Church – a mission that was as much about Paul denying his identity as it was any genuine religious conviction.

Unlike Paul, Stephen embraced his identity. Though we are given just a handful of verses describing him, we can see that he was a trust member of the Christian community and someone who made a lot of difference. Firstly, we know he was a Hellenist by his name. Stephen is a thoroughly Greek name. While all the apostles’ names are written in Greek, most are cognates. In other words, people like John, are named Yoannen in Greek, which is just another way of saying the Hebrew Yohenen. In the same way today John is the same as Jean is the same as Johannes. Stephen is just a Greek name, and so we know that Stephen is of Greek descent.

Secondly, we know he was trusted because of the moment he enters the Biblical narrative. A concern is raised by Hellenistic Christians that their widows are not getting the same help that Judean widows are. We are never told the cause of this – was it intentional because of bigotry? A barrier of language? The scripture never says because the Disciples were focused on remedying the problem more than they were trying to find someone to blame. They called forward several Hellenists to take over the distribution of food. One of these people was not even Jewish, just a God-fearing gentile.

The work embarked upon by these men erased the issue. No longer did anyone feel that they were being overlooked. I think today of our modern struggles with racism. Sometimes you hear people worrying that if people of color are put in positions of power they would abuse white people in the same way that they have historically been abused by white power structures. While we must admit that power is a corrupting influence, we cannot have oppression ever be considered a natural condition of humanity. Stephen and the other Greek Jews did not begin to deny Judean widows food once they were in charge of food distribution. Why? Because the oppressed are never the enemy of one another. We could learn a lot about listening, and about promoting leaders from all backgrounds, from just this brief episode in Acts 6.

After this episode, Stephen is arrested for the preaching he has been doing in Jerusalem. Stephen is, again, an outsider. His preaching would have been easier to attack than that of the Judean disciples. The words he spoke were easier to paint as heretical, because people were already looking for excuses to exclude him for one reason or another. A false accusation of blasphemy is brought against him and a mob is formed to take him before community leadership. Reading the text, we might be led to believe this was the full council of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, but that is unlikely.

Jews in the first century were against the death penalty, those who were in power at least. This makes it unlikely that the death of Jesus or any other apostle was carried out with the full council present. Secondly, the full Sanhedrin was seventy people, good luck getting even half of them into a room at a given time. Instead, this is probably a small group of community leaders and a mob who opposes Stephen’s work. Stephen, who does preach a sermon born out of frustration with his Judean brethren, has angered a select group of people willing to kill. Stephen is lynched by a mob, not executed by a lawful authority.

Stephen’s death marked the first time someone died on behalf of Jesus. It started the series of events that would bring Paul to be converted, by first inspiring in him a plan to execute the same mob justice in other cities and towns. His ministry was perhaps the most dangerous one to the status quo of anyone who had been active in Jerusalem at the time. He was getting people to come together, Jews from Judea and from outside Judea. He had a Gentile under his leadership who had committed to living among God’s people as a believer. He created, in microcosm, the Church as it is meant to be. A people who care for one another, a people from all walks of life, a people saved by God’s grace and committed to the community they have become a part of.

Stephen will always be someone I look up to. He transformed his anger and frustration at the way the world was into action on behalf of, not only his own people, but all people. He was devoted to service and to love. Many have used him as a weapon, describing his murder as justification for attacking Jews. That is a travesty, a misuse of his legacy. Stephen, like so many advocates today, was fighting against a system that overlooked the least of these, and as a Greek Jew, his people were first on his mind. Stephen was willing to look injustice in the face and tell people that he and his people mattered just as much as anyone else. As such, he like advocates who say something similar today, he was rejected – and, yes, killed – for that belief.

We have to band together as a people, to serve one another, and to promote goodness in the same way that Stephen did. Listen to people when they tell you about their pain. Advocate for putting people in power who want to change the world, not double down on obviously broken systems. Work to repair this world that has become fractured, not by ignoring the problems that are but by fixing them at their root. We choose, day after day, if we will be with Stephen or with the mob that killed him. I choose to be with Stephen, with the Church, with Christ. – Amen.

Sermon 05/03/2026 – Good Answers

May 3, 2026May 4, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

1 Peter 3:13-22

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Maintain a good conscience so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight lives, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Sermon Text

Apologetics is the discipline of answering questions people have about the Christian faith. The word comes from the Greek, “Apologia,” which connotes a legal defense of a position. More properly, an “Apology,” traditionally refers to the process where somebody defends or recontextualizes accusations placed against themselves or on another person’s behalf. There are many famous apologies in the world, but my favorite is written in 1611 by Amelia Lanyer. In her poem, a long description of Christ’s passion, she takes a moment to lament the Herod would not listen to his wife when she said to leave Jesus alone. Building on this, she looks to Adam and his treatment of his wife in the Garden, and our subsequent blaming of Eve for the fall.

“And then to lay the fault on Patience back/ that we (poor women) must endure it all/ we know right well he did discretion lack,/ being not persuaded thereunto at all; If Eve did err, it was for knowledge’ sake,/ The fruit being fair persuaded him to fall: No subtle Serpent’s falsehood did betray him,/ if he would eat it, who had power to stay him?”[1]

Lanyer goes on to paint a little more of the picture of this unhappy arrangement, but her main focus is to tell the story of salvation, so her “Apology,” on Eve’s behalf is short. Still, I hope you can see the typical form of an apology. “What you have heard is this/ what is actually true is this/ therefore we should really see things as this…”

In the early days of the Church, Apologists worked hard against the criticisms of Greek and Roman philosophy as well as Jewish religious tradition. Incorporating those worldviews into their arguments, the early apologists adapted where possible, conceded where common ground could be found, and rejected what could not be reconciled to the Gospel. Today, apologetics is mainly a pursuit of historical and scientific criticism, and less a matter of philosophic debate – though this too comes into the field. Most “apologetic,” classes teach people a very specific kind of worldview and argument.

The curious thing to me, however, is that the context in which we are told to arm ourselves with “apologia,” is not in the context of learning clever arguments or discourse. In fact, later in the Letters of Peter, he specifically speaks against “cleverly devised,” stories in favor of the simplicity of the cross.[2] While I am thankful for the ability to defend my faith intellectually, I do not believe Peter expected everyone to know everything about philosophy, history, and the natural sciences in an attempt to justify their faith. Instead, I think there is academic apologia and practical apologia, the latter being what all Christians are called to.

Peter begins our reading today by asking his people to do good, not only to themselves, but to the ones around them. Feed the hungry, help the widow and orphan, supply for the poor however you can, these were the kind of works he was asking them to engage in. Along with this, the early Church was actively gathering to worship, celebrate the eucharist and the love feast, and to read the scriptures together. Peter was asking his folks to live a life that made it so that, if anyone accused them of wrongdoing, it would be obviously false. In being above reproach, when their enemies came against them to kill them, those who were being honest about the situation would see they were wrong to punish the innocent Christian.

Recently I reread the story of Polycarp’s martyrdom. Polycarp was a bishop in Smyrna, a city sitting in a bay on the coast of what is now Turkey. Polycarp was noted for his teaching and his leadership. Likely a student of John, Polycarp was a second generation Christian. He led the Church through a time of persecution, in which the government of Smyrna was heavily invested in killing Christians.

His Martyrdom, the story of his death, tells us a lot about how we are meant to defend our faith. When his captors came to steal him away, he did not run, despite having the time to do so. He walked downstairs, welcomed them in, and set a table for them to eat. He said they should take as much as they wanted, and that he only asked for an hour to pray. Standing in the house, Polycarp would pray for two hours for the good of all those he knew, had met, or had even seen on the streets. When he was done, he climbed into the carriage, and submitted to be taken to the arena to die.

He would be asked to offer incense to the god who protected Caesar. He refused, saying Christ alone was his God. The rulers begged him to recant his faith, to accept that an eighty-six-year-old should not die in an arena. He refused, and when he was asked to explain his faith he said, “I will to you, if you want to sit down and talk about it. I will not stand before this crowd just for them to shout me down.” Polycarp would be tied to a stake and burned following his refusal to talk or recant. The fire, it is said, would not burn him, and it took a dagger to the heart to kill the saint.

Polycarp, in the extremity of his martyrdom, gives us a lens to the reality that Peter’s contemporaries were living in. People were dying for their faith and the defense they had to give was not just a conversation over coffee, it was usually a matter of them standing up before their death and giving an unwavering declaration of their commitment to Jesus, even if that means death.

1 Peter is a guide for living as an exile in this world. He asks hard things of the faithful in his charge. He says they should obey their leaders, even as their leaders kill them. He says they should not return the abuse they receive, because Jesus did not abuse his tormentors, but forgave them. The evil around us, Peter says, cannot be allowed to corrupt us. We have to do right, to love, and to pray even in the face of the most terrible situations we can imagine.

The key take away for today is that our faith is something that will cause people to expect answers from us. We are blessed that, in our context, those answers are not usually a matter of life and death. Living in a country, living in a world that has known Christendom for some ten centuries, we have somehow lost track of something the martyrs of history, and even of today, inherently understand. Jesus, Polycarp, thousands of saints since them, died without a harsh word on their tongue… Yet, when it comes to our conduct in the world, we have a reputation for anything but gentleness and peace.

What would it look like if Christians lived a bit more like Peter asked them to? If we were gentle and kind and righteous. That does not mean we have to be complacent or unopinionated, but it means that we have to act like the examples of faith we have been given throughout history. How often does someone publicly question our faith and we find ourselves angry? Disagree with us and we prepare to make war with them? Christ, while dying, prayed for those who nailed him to the cross – why am I about fight people for some petty grievance?

I usually like to be a bit more optimistic in my closings, a bit more focused on our potential than our reality… Yet, I have to ask, “What is our excuse?” In a world so full of conflict and pain and war, why am I feeding into the anger and pain and more… I who suffer nothing, who go through life with complete freedom, who am I to wage war against my neighbor in this way? Again, not that we cannot have disagreements, maybe even fights, if we really need to litigate something going on… But I don’t think we go into most battles trying to provide an “answer,” we go in trying to “win.”

Christ, the fullness of God and perfected humanity, did not win in this life. He suffered and died and was pressed down, though never crushed… All throughout this, his anger was only lifted in righteous indignation for others, he answered questions so that others might know truth, he lived in gentleness and peace, and in all that he did modeled what a perfect life could look like for us. If we wish to be Christians, who can answer for the hope which we have been given, then we need to give good answers – not through rage, legislation, or discourse – but through earnestly living into a life where we, “have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind…”[3] – Amen

[1] Amelia Layner. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. 1611

[2] 2 Peter 1:16

[3] 1 Peter 3:8

Sermon 04/26/2026 – Costly Communion

April 26, 2026April 21, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Acts 2:42-47

[The believers,] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

“They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Sermon Text

It may come as a shock to many of you here, but I am a collector of miscellaneous knowledge. All things I can know, I would like to know. Whether that is the full workings of an obscure computer program, the long and storied history of a piece of media and its strange creator, or just the little bits and bobs of what different parts of the world are properly called. Whether it is identifying aglets on the ends of strings or cataloguing the rise and fall of a single video effects artist – knowledge is power and I wanna be real strong. It is my passion and my goal to know about everything, everywhere as much as I can.

Despite this propensity and love of the quixotic aspects of life, I have a bold statement to make about what information I have accumulated. That is simply this: knowledge, though incredibly helpful, is not the single most important aspect of life and especially the life of faith. I do not say this in an anti-intellectualist way, there are a thousand million different ways that knowledge can augment our faith, protect us from scam artists and bad actors, and generally help us in our discernment throughout life. However, even all that knowledge is not enough without a proper understanding of something far more important – κοινωνία (koinonia.)

A pretty speech about the potential follies of knowledge, followed by a Greek word, how trite. Trust me though! This Greek word has a purpose here, in fact, I would say that koinonia is the only Koine Greek you need to know! Why? Because Koinonia is the foundation of all Christian ethics, all Christian life, and all Christian religious practice. It is, in a single word, community. To put a few more words to it, it is the way that a community comes together to share, love, and care for one another. This single word undergirds everything we do because it calls us to be together and hold all things in common. In fact, Koine, the root word of Koinonia, just means whatever is common, banal, vulgar – the things all people share.

For me, knowledge is the thing that I have to subject to this rule, but it stands for any advantage we might have in life. When we have money, that means nothing without and undergirding of community. When we have talent, it does not matter unless we use it to better the lives of others. When we have any advantage of circumstance, birth, or labor, we subject them to this one idea which the Church established from the very beginning – shared responsibility for the good of one another. No one joined the early Church without an expectation that they would be cared for and that they would be expected to care for one another.

Expectations are something we all fear to have put upon us because expectations naturally breed responsibility and even worse, regret and disappointment. I think one of the things that has damaged the Church in its witness to the world is we stopped having expectations of anything that was not programmatic. We expected on a Sunday the sermon would be just so and the music and the order of worship exactly as we like it, but once we left the building, who knows or cares? Our private life is somehow removed from our religion and we are not willing to always take the things we hold call, “mine,” and transition them to a more communal “ours.”

This problem is more apparent in the wider Church with a big “C,” than this particular church we now stand in. As I have said many times, this is a generous congregation, and one that does far better at taking care of its members and the community around it than most. I would encourage us, however, not to rest on our laurels when it comes to this virtue. There is more than money and time that goes into making a community vibrant, it takes all kinds of gifts and work to really see something like what we see in Acts comes together. It takes the strong, the knowledgeable, the gifted, the moneyed, the visionary, the [insert gift or talent here,] ad infinitum to make vision a reality and the Church in the Community of God.

Going back to my particular gift – I know lots of things. It is one of my pride and joys in life to be a veritable encyclopedia of miscellanea. However, that is a useless endeavor if not for the commitment I put next to that – to use my knowledge for good, to teach others all of it I can, and never presume that intellect is the same as know-how. I’ve been blessed with a life and a curiosity that makes me willing and able to seek out the rabbit holes of life that let me know things others might not. The only true value these things have is in being able to share them with others, so that they may build up their own stores of know how and critical thinking. Likewise, it is only circumstance and interest that has let me get here, the second I think that I am any better than anyone else for knowing that “Phoenix,” and “Palm Tree,” are the same word in Greek is the moment I have lost the point of this life.

Put another way, the Apostle Paul called us to understand “Love,” as the guiding force of every aspect of our life. “If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”[1] Love, Community, Care – these define a human being as being part of God’s family, God’s Kingdom, and whatever our gift or ability we have to use them for the good of all people.

So let us combine our forces – whatever we can bring to God, God will accept gladly. If you have money to spare, and do not use it for good, then it is useless. If you have talents and never apply them to help those in need – they are going fallow. Whatever you bring to the table, set it down and let God do something with it. Cause when all is said and done, we will be evaluated by nothing other than our ability to love and serve one another. The only word we need to know in Greek or any other language is, “Community,” because in that one word is all love, cooperation, goodness, and greatness that defines our faith. Be a “Community,” not an island, and give your best as best you can. – Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3

Sermon 04/19/2026 – The Lord, the Judge

April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

1 Peter 1:17-23

If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Sermon Text

Judgment. What kind of image does that conjure in your brain? Do you see court rooms or hellfire? Maybe you see the snickering of gossipy onlookers or a cruel glance from across a room? Whatever the word makes us imagine, it is a word we cannot escape. We are all of us subject to judgment in a multitude of ways, the only question about the way judgment manifests in our life is which judgments are valid, therefore worth listening to, and which are not, and then worth ignoring.

This cuts in both directions too. We are not just evaluating the judgments we receive to know if they are valid, we have to know if the judgments we make are worthy as well. We are all constantly evaluating the world around us. Arguments, bits of information, people, as well as situations are put up against a rigorous and sometimes automatic set of criteria that then determine what we should do about them. Sometimes the decision is affirmative, sometimes its negative, but it happens without us trying to make it come into being. Without a single ounce of intent, we can pass judgment upon someone or something.

With this in mind, we are faced with a singular contradiction within our life of faith. We are called to be discerning people, we talked a bit about that last week. Yet, in the midst of our discernment, in the midst of our evaluations we are also warned “Do not judge, lest ye be judged.”[1] While part of this could be hand waved away with an argument regarding specificity of language and differences in Greek words for judgment and discernment… I think any such argument will fall flat in light of the practical considerations we face. To live in this world, we must make judgments, but to make a judgment is to ask for an equal measure of judgment to be applied back toward us.

Our scripture opens with a brief meditation on judgment. “If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile.” We need to break that apart to really make sense of it. Firstly, “If you invoke as Father,” is referring to our paternal relationship we have with God. The argument Peter makes in this verse is that, by making the claim that God is our Father, we are subject to subsequent truths and expectations. “… the one who judges impartially according to each persons’ work,” tells us the character of the God who we call Father, namely that God is perfect in the judgment God makes, because God is capable of making judgments impartially, only looking upon what a person does or does not do. This implies that God’s judgment being impartial is different than ours. Finally, because we worship an impartial God who is “Father,” to us, then we are to live a quiet and “fearful,” life because of that truth.

With that basic outline examined, we can talk but the two pieces of instruction Peter gives. Firstly, that God is impartial, and therefore our judgments are not. If we can make that acknowledgment, then a lot of life becomes easier. I often criticize the aphorism that somebody “Just tells it like it is,” because such thinking is deceptive. When we “tell it like it is,” what we are doing is telling our version of the truth as though it were absolute. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we are the one sane observer in the world, and ignore that we too are fallible and capable of making bad choices and decisions.

I will speak of my own failing here. When I worked somewhere outside of the Church I had this wonderful thing called, “coworkers.” Coworkers are something I miss in churchwork, but that had their own sets of problems. Once, I made two mistakes of judgment in talking to one of these coworkers. Firstly, that they were trustworthy. Secondly, that they would understand the Spirit of my evaluating a friend of mine. So when she said, “Your friend is real weird around my friend, I think he thinks she is into him.”

To which I said, “He thinks every woman’s in love with him.” I did not mean this as a serious critique of my friend, and I do not think I was wrong either. However, when she inevitably told her friend, and my friend inevitably confronted her about his fear she had feelings for him, her friend told my friend, “You really do think everyone’s in love with you, don’t you.”

This is a silly, dramatic example, but if you think on the way we live our life we make more serious judgments all the time. We assume someone is dangerous because they look mean, but maybe they’re just tired. We assume someone isn’t really in trouble and just after something, so we ignore them when they approach us on the street. We assume that someone who decides or even entertains a decision other than one we would make is either uninformed or wrong… We assume and assume and assume, such that we are unable to make an actual determination about the individual situations in front of us.

We are not, however, in a world where we can go without some level of judgment. Sometimes people are trying to take advantage of us. Sometimes someone is truly making a bad choice and we might be able to help them avoid it. Sometimes we are in a circumstance where we have to do something and sitting around waffling is not going to get that thing done. Judgment is not something we are forbidden from doing, it is something we are asked to weigh heavily before we act upon. In the context of Matthew 7’s prohibition against judging, Jesus immediately says that we ought to “remove the plank,” from our own eye, before “removing the sawdust,” from our neighbors. That seems to imply that familiarity with getting through a problem does give some grounds for us to help others.

That’s where the next part of the admonition comes in. “live in fear,” does not mean to clutch at our pearls or shake at every little opportunity to worry. It is instead a call for us to take seriously every aspect of our life. If God, the impartial judge, judges us by our actions, and Matthew tells us that we are reciprocally judged based upon how we judge others, then suddenly everything is placed under an umbrella of responsibility. If I choose to make a judgment, and to make that judgment known, I should be confident that it is really made impartially and toward the good of those it will affect. If I am to voice my opinion, to follow through on a course of action, to raise concern… Again, and again, and again we are asked to do these things with a great deal of seriousness.

I think that is why our reading ends with Peter calling on the people to practice “mutual affection,” literally, “love like a family.”[2] The ideal familial love asks for us to look out for each other’s good. It means sticking through hard times and difficult conversations. It suggests investing in one another enough to choose our words carefully when we speak and not being too upset when someone fails to do the same. It also means owning up to wrongdoing. To admitting when the judgments and actions we took were not good, appropriate, or for the good of others. We have to be serious about our words, our thoughts, and especially when the two collide in our judgments.

So, here’s the homework for you to take with you this week. Keep track of your judgments, large and small, write them down if you have to. Then, look back at them. Evaluate, “Now why did I think that? Was it right to think that way? Did I really need to say it after I thought it?” Ask these kinds of questions, interrogate your own decision making, and see if in the space you make through your serious consideration, God gives you a much better sense of mercy, grace, and impartiality. – Amen.

[1] Matthew 7:1-3

[2]Philios – “The love of brothers/family.”

Sermon 04/12/2026 – Believe, However you Can

April 12, 2026April 8, 2026 / John Langenstein / Leave a comment

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Sermon Text

I am a lifelong skeptic. I do not believe anything easily. Despite this, I have a fascination with the fantastical. Stories of the paranormal and whispers of secret realities always interest me, not so much because I believe any part of them, but because I think it is interesting how we get from the stable ground of reality into the shifting sands of speculation, Whether the topic is UFOs, ghosts, cryptids, or just mysterious internet rabbit holes, I am always ready to learn more about something, especially if that thing lets me understand more of why we believe the things we choose to believe about the world.

Being a skeptic is not a virtue unto itself. In fact, I would say, that many times it leads me to question things that you could just take at face value without issue. Likewise, being a person who questions things, I can sometimes swing around to accepting supposed truth from a trusted source without further investigation. Afterall, if I did my due diligence previously, then I should not need to do it again. Why question what has already been answered? As with anything, the virtue of “prudence,” is found in discerning how much questioning is reasonable and how much goes too far or not far enough.

In our own faith, discernment is a specific term given to describe a spiritual as well as mental ability to evaluate a situation or teaching and determine its validity and character. We are all called to discernment in our lives, but some are gifted with a special degree of sensibility. A story comes to mind of a friend of mine who, while attending a revival, had to leave during the altar call. When asked about it, he said, “I don’t care what he’s saying, but I can tell that man preaching is of the devil!” From anyone else I would question that assertion, but knowing my friend, and his usual response to others, I’m willing to say something was happening that night that he, being a discerning soul, could see that others could not.

The scripture we read today is usually presented in terms of skepticism. Thomas, having been absent for Christ’s appearance to the disciples, doubts them when they tell him that Jesus is raised and that they saw him in the room with them. We are never told why Thomas was absent, but his absence is the root cause of his doubt. While everyone else saw Christ, examined his wounds, learned about the resurrection, Thomas is left to take them at their word. He refuses to accept what they said, unless he sees the truth himself.

Another personal story comes to mind. My Grandfather, in his final months of life, was on a lot of drugs to manage pain some of his worse cancer symptoms. One day, my family came home to him talking about the pure white chicken that had perched outside his window. All of us refused to believe there was actually a chicken in the middle of Martinsburg and wrote it off as his pain meds causing vivid hallucinations. Yet, one by one, we saw that chicken outside. Though we never learned where it was from, we learned that it was a real bird perched outside our house. Until we saw it, though, none of us were willing to take our other family members at their word regarding that bird.

Thomas is not asking something unreasonable by saying that he will not believe Christ is risen and walking around unless he sees him do so. He is asking only for what the other disciples were given. “If you all really did see him, then I want to see him too. More than that, I want to investigate those wounds and prove you aren’t just painting some guy who looks like Jesus to look like he’s been hurt. Thomas eventually gets his wish, he sees Jesus and Jesus offers his side and his hands to Thomas… Yet, when given the chance to investigate further, Thomas refuses. He has been given the gift of Christ visiting him once again, and that is more than enough for him to believe.

The lesson that we should take from the story of Thomas is not that we should believe something without evidence. “Blessed are those who believe without seeing,” is a blessing of all Christians after Christ’s ascension, not a reprimand for folks who need an extra push to believe in Christ. The real lesson is that, when Thomas needed something more to move from unbelief to belief, Christ was willing to provide that for Thomas, so that he could believe. Jesus offered Thomas his hands and side, and if Thomas needed to examine them, Jesus would have let him, because Christ is much more interested in us believing, than the means by which we come to believe.

I had a group of young people in one of my churches. One of them said, “I struggle to have faith in God right now, because I look at the people of God and how they treat each other and people not like them, and I cannot imagine having faith in something that makes people like that.” So I followed that up with a question. “Ignoring the people you know are doing the wrong thing… Who is the godliest person you know?” Immediately they named a sweet, kind, prayerful lady in the church. “If you cannot believe God for God’s sake,” I told her, “Then believe God for her sake. If you can believe God is good because the Godliest person you know is good, then that is a bridge at least to getting you to faith for its own sake.”

I am a skeptic, as I have said before, and if you want to know how a skeptic keeps their faith and is able to be a minister, the answer is, “With great difficulty!” I need more help than some others to keep my faith going. That’s why I take intentional time to be in prayer, to celebrate the sacraments as often as I can, and to engage with the work of God in the world. I need those extra trappings to keep my faith fed. Other people can simply sit down and say, “I believe in God because of who God is.” God bless them for it. Most of us, above this, fall somewhere on a spectrum of how easily belief comes to us. All are valid, so long as we acknowledge and pursue what we need to believe.

I like to leave you all with a practical note, so I’m going to give you some questions to ask yourself this week. Take time to notice, maybe even write down, the times this week you feel close to God and the times you feel far from God. What triggers those feelings? Once you know which things make you feel closer to God, ask yourself what you can do to more intentionally and frequently engage with those things. Finally, for those things that make you feel far from God, if they are things you cannot avoid entirely, then ask how you can wrap them in one of the practices that does make you feel close to God.

Here’s an example of this kind of examen. I feel close to God when I am in prayer, even if it is just praying “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Repeatedly. Therefore, to feel close to God I should take intentional time to pray – sneaking down to the sanctuary throughout the week to be alone and pray as well as praying as part of my nighttime routine. I feel farthest from God when I am caught up in busywork – the third load of laundry for the day or the second run of the dishwasher. Dishes need done and laundry needs folded, so what would it look like if, as I did both of those, I layered prayer into my work. Every time I take something out of the basket, “Lord Jesus Christ son of God…” Every time I finish folding it, “Have mercy one me a sinner…” In this way, I may strengthen my faith, even just a little.

Belief is the state of trust we have in God because God’s goodness and power has been proved to us. It is not a static sensation or reality. It needs fed, nurtured, and sometimes coerced into being. Sometimes we will be on fire for God, sometimes it will feel like we need a lot of help to even utter an “Amen.” The good news is that, when we doubt or are unsure, God offers us what we need to believe. If we are willing to ask… If we are willing to try… Amen

Teach us to Number our Days

A Walk through the Lectionary

Author: John Langenstein

Sermon 06/21/2026 – Whom Shall I Fear?

Sermon 06/07/2026 – Who is Invited?

Sermon 05/31/2026 – In the Beginning

Sermon 05/24/2026 – Abundant Prophecy

Sermon 05/17/2026 – Why do you look up?

Sermon 05/10/2026 – St. Stephen the Deacon

Sermon 05/03/2026 – Good Answers

Sermon 04/26/2026 – Costly Communion

Sermon 04/19/2026 – The Lord, the Judge

Sermon 04/12/2026 – Believe, However you Can