Mother’s Day Sermon

A Church article with View Comments posted 14 May 2010.
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A sermon preached at my internship site, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Sterling, IL, on May 5 and 9, 2010.

The message connects John 14:23-29 (the text for Easter 6, Year C) and Jesus’ promise of shepherding comfort to the way that mothers provide a glimpse of God’s comfort and grace. It also speaks to the difficulty of Mother’s Day for some, as it can bring up painful memories and make some women (and men!) feel excluded. Ultimately, God’s comfort and grace is for all people, especially for those who know God’s brokenness.

The True Vine

A Church article with View Comments posted 10 May 2009.
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Occasion: Easter 5, Year B
Text: John 15.1-8

This sermon was preached at East Iron Hill Community Church, Maquoketa, IA‎, on 10 May 2009.

Mother’s Day isn’t easy for some people – it wasn’t easy for Jennifer and I for a long time. We were married at the end of 2004, and after about a year of wedded bliss, we decided to get started on our family. We thought that it couldn’t be too hard, after all people turn up pregnant all the time who weren’t even trying to get that way. We went out and bought little odds and ends we were sure we’d need when the baby came. We dreamed, we planned, we saved – and we were so sure it was going to work out. Time passed. Months turned into years. Things did not work out for a very, very long time. And as Mother’s Day rolled by in 2006 and 2007 and 2008, those were dark days for us. When you so desperately want to be a mother or a father, and you see people being celebrated for that, and you can’t – through no fault of your own – it’s a terrible experience.

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