2026

Sermon 07/12/2026 – Sow Without Ceasing

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Matthew 13:1-9

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”.

Sermon Text

I believe one of the most important things you can do with your study of scripture is to involve other people. If you are sitting in your room reading the Bible, you will learn a lot. I think that that is one of the things we most neglect in our lives, just taking up the Bible and reading what it has for us. Yet, if we read it alone we miss out on some of the deeper truths it reveals. The truths that come from us engaging with scripture and with each other. Until such a time that we are able to see the words of God, reflected in the Image of God, in the person sitting across from us, the word will not fully come alive.

In this Church, one day in Sunday School, as we were going through the parables of Jesus, one of our very own said something that stuck with me. As Jesus taught about a sower going out and throwing seeds wherever they went, they described the farmer with a single word. “Irresponsible.” I like that word to describe the work of the sower.

Having killed more plants than I care to admit, I can tell you I am no authority on farming. However, even I know that it is necessary to plant in good soil and to water and tend to the thing you have planted. In my garden right now, I have two distinct plants doing very differently in terms of their health. One, my beautiful tomato plants that are thriving despite my incompetence. Planted in buckets filled with potting soil and watered regularly, they are thriving in a way I have to assume I have very little to do with.

Across the way, however, sits a lonely amaryllis. It was planted haphazardly, because I did not think it was necessary to open a whole new bag of potting soil to plant it in the ground. After all, that’s where all the dirt is! Needless to say, that thing is withered and half dead, and I’ve all but abandoned any hope of it growing into anything. We all know, that if you want to grow something, you need to plant it in the right kind of soil.

This parable, then, becomes a therapeutic piece for Christians. When we read it, we are assured that the people who have failed to join the Church, despite our best efforts, are not our fault. No, the word of God has just found poor soil to grow in. This parable becomes a way to explain why ministry does not always succeed. It is a consolation more than it is an instruction. I do not think this is the best way to read this parable.

Jesus was not in the business of giving us a reason for failure so much as explaining what we should do. If we use the parable primarily to explain our failures, then why did Jesus bother to teach it at all? No, there is another lesson to take from this parable and that lesson is found in that word that one of our own folks used. “Irresponsible,” gardening is the most important kind when the thing you’re trying to grow are the fruits of the Spirit.

You do not have the power, now or ever, to control another person’s heart or circumstances. No matter what you do, they will be their own person and you will be your own person. Thus, as you tell about your faith or share the gospel, you can never be sure how the person you talk to will receive it. Maybe they will hear the good news and become a member of a church! Maybe they will show up to a few events and then disappear, or maybe they will spit in your face for the trouble. There is no way to know what will happen, until the leap is taken and an attempt is made.

Jesus describes the parable later in the scriptures and defines each category of soil as a different kind of person. The seed the falls on the road and is trampled are those who never accept the word, those that grow among rocks are those who accept the word and then, without a root, leave. Those that are choked by weeds are those who are taken in by the worries and pleasures of this world and fall away. While those who grow in good soil are those who hear the word, and develop roots, and become part of God’s church.

The thing about the parable is that Jesus never says to seek out good soil. Jesus says that this is the nature of proclamation, that it will not always be accepted or acted upon. The point of the parable is not to carefully wait for the perfect moment and person and place to share God’s word. It is to do it, whenever you can, however you can, and trust that sometimes the result will be someone being saved by your effort. The word of God never returns empty and even if it not taken to heart and allowed to transform a person, the exercise of sharing what God has done in your life will at least strengthen you, personally.

I want to return to my garden for a moment, because I think it provides an apt image to tie into this parable. I told you about that amaryllis I carelessly planted… Well, that darn dead plant started growing again after a few good rains. I started adding it to my rotations of plants to water, knowing that it isn’t fully dead… It is shooting up new sprouts, putting forward the start of flowers, and getting ready to become more than just a brown, dying lump in my front yard. I planted that flower recklessly, but I had no idea if it would find good soil until it started growing up.

Talk to people about your faith. You don’t have to be eloquent, you should never be forceful, and ideally you should practice often enough you aren’t terribly nervous. When you can, how it makes sense to, share what God is doing and has done for you. There is always a need to testify to God’s goodness, and there are always people who need to hear it. So, be irresponsible with God’s grace, throw it everywhere you can until you can’t anymore. If you do that, then you might just see some growth in the lives of the people around you. – Amen.

Sermon 07/05/2026 – True Liberty

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Galatians 5: 13-26

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Sermon Text

250 years of America. That’s a prominent anniversary if ever there was one. Two and one half centuries have passed and in that time, we as a nation have seen highs and lows, ebbs and flows, in our prosperity as well as our morality. We are a nation, but more than that we are an ongoing conversation. In 1776, as the Continental Congress came together to finalize the Declaration of Independence, they enshrined a set of principles that all people would, ideally and progressively, gain access to. Of these principles, none were more clearly stated that the belief in a God given right to, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If the Law and the Prophets hang upon the love of God and neighbor, then the American experiment hangs upon the fulfillment and practice of these three ideals.

I am here to tell you, as both a student of history and of religion, that we have never succeeded as a nation in living up to either set of ideals. At the outset we established a democracy that evaluated a person’s access to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as being dependent upon other features of their life. Voting rights are the easiest to track, as only white men with property were free to vote for a majority of our history, with people of color and women only having the right for less than half of our existence. Yet, beyond these rights, many other have been taken, or hidden, or denied. The “Indian Savage,” that was denied their homeland, systematically eliminated, and cast aside suffered too. Each generation bore a new opportunity to do what was right, and in denial of the goodness they could have done, took up a sin to bear at the same time.

The seeming contradiction of our quest for liberty was not lost on the people who walked the streets of Boston and Philadelphia long ago. Methodist ministers were some of the most vocal in bringing our great contradiction to mind. “How can you fight for liberty?” They asked, “While keeping the poor in poverty and slaves in chains?” Even Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration and lifelong slave holder, knew in his heart that the sins of his age would not be forgotten, “Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?.. Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever… The almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest…”[1]

We are not in the era of slavery, and so we can do little to change what marks it has made upon our nation. We are not in the era of Indian removal, though we are obligated to tell the story of the Trail of Tears. We are born into the era we now live, with all the opportunity and pitfalls it affords. Will we see the ways that God calls us to liberty? Will we reject the sins of convenience that we are prone to enjoy at the expense of others? This is the choice we have to make today.

Scripture only speaks of liberty a scant few times. In a world where you had an emperor who controlled everything, our world of democracy and essential rights would seem completely alien. Yet, when we are told about liberty in scripture, it is always given a major caveat. “You are free,” the scripture says, “so that you may do good.” We are freed from the expectations of the law, from the burden of working out our own salvation, from the weight of our sins… Yet, none of this freedom is a warrant to do whatever we want.

How different would the history, not only of this nation, but of the world be if people did not take their liberty and use it to the detriment of their neighbor? How many atrocities could be prevented? I know that when I think of the things that make me proud of my country, it is not the excesses of any person I commend, but the willingness to serve and sacrifice for the good of our neighbors and even of strangers.

Think of those stories out of history that you most value. In my own life, I find the most patriotic I feel is when I remember the way people in my own life have lived out the ideals of our nation. My great grandfather worked hard as an engineer in the Army, protecting infrastructure at the risk of his own life and limb. When he returned home, he continued his work on the railroad, raising a family and learning to sew to help keep them clothed. He was always living for his neighbors and serving the people around him. My grandfather, similarly served in Viet Nam, a tenure that eventually cost him his life many years later due to his exposure to Agent Orange. He suffered, he died, and he did it for the good of the people he loved.

Domestically, I think of those I know who work in advocacy. Who spend their time and money to make sure that the people in the state legislature and in Congress vote for the good of their constituents. A fellow minister friend of mine, Rev. Dr. Starlette Thomas, who is working without ceasing to promote a future without racial separations. All those people I know who serve food in soup kitchens, box up food at food pantries, and do what they can to meet the needs of the people around them. These are the principles that America thrives off of, and that secure “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as a real and present possibility in their life.

If we want to be a nation that lasts another 250 years, we need to prioritize this kind of good work and communal attitude. We also, it must be said, need to do something to fix our politicking. We cannot develop as a country if every four years the new administration undoes everything the last one did. We cannot see our nation thrive if every administration works to put more and more money and power into the hands of the rich. We cannot support our current form of government where our politicians are looking to produce sound bites to get reelected, and win symbolic cultural battles, rather than working for the good of their people.

In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitis, first American Pope, Leo XIV, asks us to see the danger that comes from our current political landscape. “When politics abandon a long-term perspective,” he says, “and reduces itself to short-term calculations or sterile polarizations, then the language of the common good loses credibility… social inequalities and divisions grow.”[2] It is not a popular or common thing to care for your neighbor, to love the stranger, to be American in practice and not just in a vague cultural aesthetic. The America I believe in, that I endorse, that I strive to be part of, is one that welcomes strangers, cares for its neighbors, and actively works to ensure all the good things of life for every person that walks on its storied streets.

Our generation will hold a good deal of evil within it that historians will be shocked by. Some of it is obvious, some of it only history will be able to speak to. Yet, if we have any hope of history remembering us well, telling our stories with the bittersweet smile that only history affords, then we must commit to service and love and denial of self. You have been given liberty, by God as an innate right, and by the government through acknowledgement of the same. Do not let anyone take that from you or from anyone else. The second liberty is denied to one person, it is in peril for all others.

250 years, what an achievement. What wonders we have achieved, and what horrors we have tolerated… We cannot change the past, for good or for ill, but we have a hand in establishing the next chapter of our history together. Love, live, serve, give. This alone will make us into the nation we all wish to be part of. – Amen.

[1] Thomas Jefferson. Notes on the State of Virginia. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: H.C. Carey and Lilea. 1825) 221-223

[2] Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitis 2.63 2026

Sermon 06/28/2026 – What Shall I Offer?

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Matthew 10:40-42

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Sermon Text

The gifts we offer to God allow us to receive gifts in turn. To give to God is to receive, in due measure, the same value of our gift again. Scripture is clear that God does not neglect the work or resources we invest into the work of God and God’s church. Yet, I think, our worldly view of the matter often corrupts our vision of what God is willing and capable to do with our gifts and with the reward that is owed to us. We hear the promise Jesus makes in our scripture, that helping a righteous person means we will be owed the rewards of the righteous, and that the same is true of someone who helps a prophet, and as a result we dream of every dollar we give being multiplied and ever hour of work repaid with two more of leisure. We assume what our reward looks like and we neglect what we are truly being given.

There are many ministers who preach many sermons encouraging people that if they give their money freely, then God will bless them with expansive bank accounts and no worldly troubles. There are many people who, in order to try and leverage God’s goodness, will cut checks to charitable causes to try and tip the scales in their favor. There are many who, when told not to lay up treasures on earth, put a large asterisk next to it and say, “Unless you write it off as a gift from God.” We have decided that God wants us rich, healthy, and equipped with all worldly happiness – but I am convinced that the God who offers us that easy road is not the God of scripture.

What we have read this morning is Jesus sending his disciples off with one last instruction. After telling them to work without pay, to trust in God’s protection, and to expect a great deal of opposition, Jesus tells his disciples that anyone who helps them will be blessed. As they work as prophets, God will reward those who help them to speak God’s word. As they work righteousness, God will reward those who help that justice roll down like water. Even the simple act of giving a child a glass of water, when done in the name of Jesus, is transformed into something far greater.

The disciples were the righteous, they were the prophets, and if we want to see what sorts of rewards they received for their work we just have to examine their lives. They were not rich, in fact they lived in poverty. They were not powerful, they were trampled on by everyone they ever met. They did not know peace, they were persecuted and killed and maimed, all because of and not despite their devotion to God. The reward that Jesus promises for our participation in God’s good work is not plenty nor power, but goodness, mercy, and, in eternity, the fullness of God’s presence.

As the Church grew and someday found a home in the upper classes of Roman Society, aspects of its teachings were subdued. Jesus’s insistence that we are to live a life rooted in care for others at the expense of our worldly goods is not popular with the rich in any time or place. Likewise, the idea that generosity is expected and does not correspond to immediate and reciprocal rewards is not going to sell many books. We expect a transaction out of our faith and God is offering us something far less concrete and far more relational. God, who offers to us the full abundance of eternal life, does not try to win us over with petty gifts, but invites us to be truly transformed by the work we embark upon.

If I give to those who are in need, I will not in turn be made rich – I will be made more generous. If I support those who are doing what is right, I will not be given power and fame, but I will be more like those righteous people. If I help facilitate the preaching of God’s word and the rebirth of souls, then I will benefit from that life giving word in due time. When I give water to the thirsty and food to the hungry, Christ will not forget the kindness I have given to them. God is not offering us a personal development plan, God is offering to make us new.

I do believe that God will not punish us for earnest and good stewardship of our gifts. If we give to those in need, we will find enough to feed ourselves. If we support the work of the Church, the Church will support us in due time. If we devote ourselves to the work of ministry and the alleviation of pain for others, we will find comfort in our times of need. This is only possible if we learn to do two things well. Firstly, to give without expectation of tangible reward and, secondly, to steward our gifts reasonably and with a mind toward generosity.

The first is self-explanatory. If we give, we should not expect immediate rewards of money, power, or circumstances. That second one is harder though. If we are to give properly, then we need to actually keep track of our money so that we can give freely. We need to deny ourselves and live simply, so that we can always have the money available to help others. I’m not saying we need to get rid of every comfort or every amusement, nor that we need to go without essentials, I simply mean we need to budget so that giving is one of the first things we plan to do and not the very last thing.

As I have said previously, I am on a pretty rigorous program to pay down my debts from seminary, and that prevents me from giving as much as I would like to. However, I still make a definite plan each month for my expenses to always allow me to give to worthy causes. Sometimes that means I get to give toward someone’s GoFundMe or meal train, sometimes that I get to put money in the plate toward something this or another church is working on, and sometimes it means that I can simply bless someone with some small kindness. If we are to be blessed, in any form, for our generosity, then our generosity cannot be an afterthought.

I encourage you, therefore, to take an accounting of your expenses from this month. Review everything you bought and did not buy, those subscriptions you don’t use… Etc. Look at each aspect of your life, and see what you can do to better steward your generosity. – Amen.

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

/ 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?

/ 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

/ 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

/ 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?

/ 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

/ 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

/ 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