“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” Mark Twain “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me […]
Sermon Luke 3:1-6; 2nd Sunday in Advent – December 9th, 2018
The first few lines of today’s gospel may sound boring to us. ‘In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of […]
Advent Devotion 2018: Peace, Joy and Love – Week 1: Peace
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in […]
Sermon Mk 5: 21-24; 35-43; Eternity Sunday – November 25th, 2018
It always happens at this time of year: I feel a disconnect between where I am, emotionally and spiritually, and where the world around me is. Our church calendar is very clear about it: it’s not Christmas yet. No, as we are approaching the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ (as the popular song […]
Sermon Mark 13: 1-8; 26th Sunday after Pentecost – November 18th, 2018
‘Not one stone shall be left upon another – all will be thrown down.’ Today is a somber day on the German calendar. It’s ‘Volkstrauertag’, the day of national mourning in Germany, a day that can be compared to the U.S. American Memorial Day. This day of remembrance was instituted after the horrors of […]
Sermon Revelation 21: 1-6; All Saints Sunday – November 4th, 2018
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death […]
A Monologue by ‘Katharine Luther’ loosely based on Romans 3: 19-28 with Preface
Preface to today’s message: Today is Reformation Sunday. This is a day we usually celebrate in the Lutheran Church as we remember how Martin Luther brought something new to the table and emphasized God’s amazing grace for all creation. Today, a little later in this service, the message is going to be rather playful and […]
Sermon Mark 10:35-45; 22nd Pentecost – October 21, 2018
We are living in quite amazing times. Technology has gotten us to the point where we don’t have to leave the comfort of our home in order to connect with others, or to explore the world. Social networking often happens over the computer screen; the best seats in the house when watching sports these […]
Sermon Mark 10:17-31; 21st Pentecost – October 14, 2018
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Countless people all over the world and of many different religions have wrestled with this question. The premise is that there must be a heaven, an afterlife, eternal life, something that we can look forward to as we live our lives here on earth […]
‘Wunderbar together’ – Pr. Kerstin Weidmann’s invocation at the United German-American Associations of the San Francisco Bay Area Banquet October 7th, 2018
Last Wednesday, October 3rd, didn’t only mark the 28th anniversary of the German Reunification; that day also marked the beginning of the ‘German-American Year’ a special year of commemoration of U.S.- German relationships. The motto for this year is, ‘Wunderbar Together’. I personally think it’s a great motto; many non-German speakers know what ‘wunderbar’ […]
Sermon Matthew 6: 25-35; Erntedank/Thanksgiving for the Harvest – October 7th, 2018
Whenever I hear today’s gospel lesson (Jesus saying, ‘Don’t worry what you shall eat and drink and what you shall wear’), I am reminded of a certain tune that then I can’t get out of my head again: ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ by Bobby McFerrin. Anyone here who’s never ever heard that song? […]
Sermon Mark 9:38-50; 19th Pentecost – September 30, 2018
You may wonder what the attached picture is about. It’s a little hard to see, but it’s a picture of a clay tablet with an ancient writing called cuneiform (which means ‘wedge-shaped’), that was used in ancient Babylon. This particular tablet was written about 1,750 BCE during the Bronze Age – that’s roughly 3,750 […]
Sermon Mark 9:30-37; 18th Sunday after Pentecost – September 23rd, 2018
When my son Jonathan was in the 7th grade, he didn’t necessarily choose his elective classes in school according to his skills and interests. No, one of his electives that year was 3 D Art, a class he chose because one of his best friends was taking it. When Jonathan first told me about it, […]
Sermon Mark 8:27-38; 17th Sunday after Pentecost – September 16th, 2018
‘Follow the Leader’ My husband is a big Bob Dylan fan, so we hear Dylan’s music quite a bit in our house. Not that I am the greatest fan, but Dylan’s lyrics, more often than not, make me think. No wonder he was an icon of the 60s, and his early […]
Sermon James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23; 15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 2nd, 2018
Can you believe it’s almost Labor Day again? Labor Day traditionally signifies the end of summer, although, according to the calendar, we still have a couple of weeks of summer left. For many students, school has started again – or will start after this weekend. Good-bye to the carelessness of summer, hello again to […]
Sermon John 6: 56-69; 14th Sunday after Pentecost – August 26th, 2018
‘Light of the World’ Music and words by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson I am just a stranger, in a promised land I am only learning a game with the rules I don’t understand Going round in circles, I’ve been round before I am lost in so many ways, I can walk no more […]
Sermon John 6:22-35; 11th Sunday after Pentecost – August 5th, 2018
Over the next Sundays, you will hear a lot about the Jesus Christ, the bread of life. I have to admit that I am relieved that I don’t have to preach 4 times on this subject matter, because talking so much about bread would go stale quickly – pun intended. The next two Sundays, […]
Sermon John 6:1-21; 10th Sunday after Pentecost – July 29th, 2018
After the feeding… Today’s gospel story is very dense, very complex – there is a lot happening. But the central story of the feeding of the 5,000 stands out. What a spectacular event, what a miracle! And I could preach something you might have heard before: Jesus Christ has the power to satisfy our […]
Sermon Mary Magdalene Feast Day; John 20: 1-2, 11-18 – July 22nd, 2018
It’s been 15 years now that a book by Dan Brown was a smash sensation. Do you remember this book? It is the ‘Da Vinci Code’. Has anyone here ever read it? I have to admit that I gobbled it up. I like good stories, and this IS a good story – […]
Sermon Mark 6:14-29; 8th Pentecost – July 15, 2018
An Inconvenient Truth In the gospel stories we heard over the course of the last weeks, Jesus more often than not challenges and even upsets those around him. A Greek word that is used repeatedly in those stories is ‘skandalon’, from which our word ‘scandalous’ derives. Jesus causes quite a few ‘skandalons’, quite a […]