Whose Opinion Matters Anyway?

October 25, 2020

Reformation Sunday:  Giving Thanks for the Gospel

I focused my sermon today for the youth who were being confirmed.  

To be a youth is to receive lots of advice.  Pastor Rob offers that one can successfully ignore one particular piece of advice often given to young people:  The opinions of others don’t matter.

This is not true at all — what others think does impact our lives.  However, we know that youth tend to listen a great deal to the voices of their piers, which often lead them astray and beat them down.  How do we learn which opinions and whose voices we are to listen to?

In confirmation – and in our lives as baptized Christians – we are confirming the desire to be a disciple of Jesus, which means to put his voice, his counsel, his “opinion” first in our lives.

Most importantly, and this is the Gospel, God has rendered his judgement, publicly declared his opinion in the cross and in your baptism:  You are a beloved child of God.

A Community of Care

 October 18, 2020

Pastor Rob explores a mystery of history:  How was it that a rag-tag group of disciples with a totally counter cultural message spread the Gospel?  The pious answer is, of course, through the Holy Spirit.  But Pastor Rob explores the more concrete answer, namely, the Christian community.  In the early church, communities of Christians gathered and lived out the faith, hope and love of Christ.  This stood in total contrast to the pagan world around them in which people looked out for themselves.

We live in a world today that is also in need of a different kind of community, not one based on achievement, class, race or popularity, but one based on faith, hope and love.  That is our Holy calling as a church, and one that by God’s grace, we are living out!  As we continue in our Season of Thanksgiving at St. Paul, on this Sunday we give God thanks for the congregation of St. Paul and the church in our lives today

Putting on Christ

 Sunday, October 11, 2020

Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1-14).  This is a great image, full of generosity and joy.  Yet there is a catch — you gotta have the right clothing to be at the wedding!

Pastor Rob reflects on the clothing that we are given and called to wear as Christians.  Looking at Philippians, Pastor Rob puts forth that living for others and praising God are the clothing we wear as Christians.  Lastly, Pastor Rob returns to the passage from Matthew’s Gospel to consider where we can find such clothing!