Let me start with a question: why do people worship, be it in person or, right now, via a screen? Maybe people feel connected to that great cloud of witnesses, which transcends time and space, whenever they worship. Maybe these services feed them through the familiar words of song and prayer. And maybe they […]
‘There’s Nothing We Can Do About That’: Sermon Mark 10:17-31; 20th Sunday after Pentecost – October 10th, 2021
Good teacher, what do I have to do? The man who is asking this question in today’s gospel lesson is a man who is used to doing. We hear he is a man with many possessions, so presumably he is someone who has to do something in order to acquire or at least maintain […]
‘Living Together’: Sermon Mark 10:2-16; 19th Sunday after Pentecost – October 3rd, 2021
Today is an important day on the German calendar: October 3rd is German Unity Day. This national holiday was established in 1990, on the day the German reunification was ratified by the German president – not quite a year after the wall between East and West Germany started to come down and the […]
October Newsletter
Monthly Newsletter, October
‘Grounded in God in a Changing World’: Sermon Mark 9: 38-49; 18th Sunday after Pentecost – September 26th, 2021
On our recent trip to Europe, my husband Fred and I must have visited around 40 churches. We saw 10 in Cologne alone – and, yes, there are quite a few interesting churches besides the famous cathedral. We saw cathedrals – and ancient humble village churches. We saw any style: Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Neo-Classicist, […]
‘Go Low’: Sermon Mark 9: 30-37; 17th Sunday after Pentecost – September 19th, 2021
As my husband Fred and I were planning our recent trip to Germany, Fred insisted on going to a few places: Cologne and Trier HAD to be on our itinerary. But he also wanted to go to Bingen on the banks of the Rhine River. He wanted to pay homage to the fascinating 12th […]
‘Where Is God In All This?’ Sermon Mark 8:27-38 – 16th Sunday after Pentecost; September 12th, 2021
Yesterday we commemorated the 20th (!) anniversary of 9/11. Can you believe it’s been 20 years? On that fateful day in 2001, 4 commercial airliners were hijacked by Muslim extremists. 3 of them plowed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The 4th […]
‘Open Up!’ Sermon Mark 7:24-37; 15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 5th, 2021
Modern medicine is amazing. Just think about how many illnesses can be treated today, which would have been debilitating or maybe even fatal just a hundred year ago. My husband, who has type 1 diabetes, often says that he probably would not have survived very long, had he lived at the beginning of the […]
‘What Is This?’ Sermon John 6: 24-35; 10th Sunday after Pentecost – August 1st, 2021
Today I want to talk about food. What we eat says a lot about where we are coming from, what our background is, how affluent we are. Food is culture. One of the great things being in the Bay Area is that we have the chance to taste so many different foods from […]
‘Enough’: Sermon John 6:1-21; 9th Sunday in Pentecost – July 25th, 2021
A couple of weeks ago, the Pacific Northwest experienced an unprecedented and also relentless heatwave that lasted for more than a week. In British Columbia, a new heat record of 121 degrees Fahrenheit – or 50 degrees Celsius – was set. Portland, Oregon, broke the heat record three days in a row, topping out […]
‘’Good Shepherd, Bad Shepherd, No Shepherd’: Sermon Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 – 8th Sunday after Pentecost; July 18th, 2021
Before I moved to California almost 24 years ago, I was going through a pastoral residency program back in Northern Germany, and I lived in a small rural community called Dötlingen. Now Dötlingen was and still is a picture book kind of village, with an oak tree in the village center that is more […]
‘Senseless Violence’: Sermon Mark 6:14-29 – 7th Pentecost; July 11th, 2021
The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’, and if we go by that definition, today’s gospel story is anything but good news. Here we are in the midst of summer, when everything is supposed to be more easygoing than usual, and our lectionary throws such a heavy story at us! So today we heard the gruesome […]
‘Not the God We Thought We Knew’: Sermon Mark 6: 1-13 – 6th Sunday after Pentecost; July 4th, 2021
It’s not always easy coming home. Jesus has to make this experience as he returns to his hometown of Nazareth after a year or so of life on the road – a new life as a rabbi and healer, a new life as the Son of God proclaiming the kingdom of heaven come near […]
July Newsletter
Monthly Newsletter, July
‘The Power of Touch’: Sermon Mark 5: 21-43; 5th Sunday after Pentecost – June 27th, 2021
Most of us have been given the gift of 5 senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. These are the channels through which we experience the world, and connect with the world. And those senses are something to be truly thankful for. Now which of our 5 senses, do you think, is the most […]
The Other Side: Sermon Mark 4: 35-41; 4th Sunday after Pentecost – June 20th, 2021
Today is the first Sunday after what the State of California calls a ‘full reopening’ after 15 months of restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And though this ‘full reopening’ has a little asterisk attached to it – there are still settings like healthcare facilities, any facility involving children, and mass transit, which will […]
Wild Seeds: Sermon Mark 4: 26-35 – 3rd Sunday after Pentecost; June 13th, 2021
This year we had a great wildflower season here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yes, there are wildflowers every year, but this year, they just sprang up with abandon, displaying their bright colors and their beauty over abundantly. My husband and I are lucky that a trail up into the hills starts merely […]
‘A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand – But Can It Be Rebuilt?’ Sermon Mark 3: 20-35; 2nd Sunday after Pentecost – June 6th, 2021
Jesus is coming home. And his family is not happy. In today’s gospel story, it becomes very clear that Jesus and his family – mother, brothers, and sisters – don’t agree on his new way of life as the Son of God. He’s an embarrassment to them, tainting the family’s good name and reputation […]
1,2,3 – Divine Dynamic Balance: Sermon John 3: 1-17; Holy Trinity – May 30th, 2021
Today is the Sunday of the Holy Trinity, the day we honor God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And I would like to introduce you to a woman who saw this trinity reflected in all of creation: Hildegard of Bingen, who lived in the 12th century AD in what today is Germany and today […]
Monthly Newsletter – June
Monthly Newsletter, June