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Trinity Sunday

New Day Sermon Trinity Sunday What can we really say about the Trinity? We have lots of words, all of which try to describe it. Maybe it is as simple as God’s creative efforts to be present to us “in many and various ways.”

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Easter 7

New Day Sermon Easter 7 We yearn to find unity in our world and in our communities, but as often as not we come up short. As Jesus concluded his high priestly prayer in St. John’s Gospel, he reminded the disciples (and us) that unity is something God gifts to us, since the first days…

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A Cup of Water

 pentecost 19 New Day Sermon Jesus challenges our desire to be surrounded by people who think like we do, by pointing to the simple gift of a glass of water.  But there is so much more to Jesus’ teaching about community and the wide net of followers that God sees as his children, than we…

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Lord, to Whom Can We Go?

Their names were Carl & Alma Rasmussen.  They were Sages back in the 1980’s before we called our octogenarians by the title Sages. The Rasmussen’s were both well into their nineties, when I came to St. Peter’s as your assistant pastor in 1986.  Carl was the retired systematic theology professor of the former Gettysburg Seminary…

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Places in the Heart

New Day Sermon Pentecost 12 As we enter our third week of lessons from the “Bread of Life” section of John’s Gospel, we focus on how Holy Communion connects us to the saints of every time and place … saints who have places in our hearts … and God’s heart. The YouTube video clip used…

Eating and Living Side-by-Side

John 6: 1-21 Let us pray. Dear LORD: May your holy word and my thoughts work together to provide the spiritual food and energy we need. Help us to recognize your presence and engage ourselves. Amen. ²“A crowd followed him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.” (RSV) They were…

Four Freedoms

In his January 1941 State of the Union address delivered to Congress, Franklin Delano Roosevelt shared these words, as he spoke about national security and a proposed change from America’s traditional stance of non-intervention. In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human…

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A Friendly Invitation

In the fall of 1980, second year seminarians who were returning for classes at what was then the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, were typically pretty excited.  Because our completion of the first year preaching course, Exegesis to Proclamation, meant that we could now supply preach on Sunday mornings.  In 1980, this part of the…

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Fool’s Gold

 I want to know You/ I want to hear Your voice/ I want to know You more. I want to touch You/ I want to see Your face/ I want to know You more. “In the Secret” by Chris Tomlin — New Day Service song. Did you hear Mark Zuckerberg say last week that, “FaceBook…