First Sunday of Advent – Worship – Sunday, November 30, 2025
Stop wasting time! Let’s use this Season of Advent to renew our relationship with God and become better disciples – by focusing on our actions, giving more time to prayer, using our time to give of ourselves to help others, being present with friends, and actively listening to those we love. In this way, faith in our Savior is always the best use of our time.
Christ the King Sunday – Worship – November 23, 2025
Jesus asks us, “What kind of king do you want?” Do we reply that we want a leader who is powerful, one who can save himself and others, one who offers us prosperity, one who can take vengeance on his and our enemies? But Jesus refuses to come in power – instead appearing in abject vulnerability. He does not vow retribution on even those who crucify him – but instead offers forgiveness. He does not come down off his cross to prove his kingly status – but instead remains on that instrument of torture and humiliation, the representative of all who suffer unjustly. And he does not promise a better tomorrow – but instead offers to redeem us today.
Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – November 16, 2025
Are you ready? The end of the world may be far away. Yet, when our bodily life ends and Jesus comes to take us away – have we lived a life of prayer, of emulating the message of the Gospel, and of finding Jesus in our love for others? If so, we will be more than ready. We will meet not as strangers, but as dear and intimate friends who know each other well.
Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – November 9, 2025
Jesus reminds us today, that there is so much more to this world than we will ever know. While we are waiting for what is next, let’s do something unexpected. Let’s celebrate and act out our togetherness in this vast mystery – living boldly in the knowledge that we are God’s children. This life is not the whole story.
Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – November 2, 2025
Those who recognize their poverty within themselves and their complete dependence on God possess the kingdom of God. God’s mercy means doing justice for the poorest and the most humiliated. What meaningful action will I do today to bring a smile to the lips of someone who is poor or broken?
Reformation Sunday – Worship – October 26, 2025
“Reformation” is not something we decide to do. It comes out of necessity. How might God be calling upon us to reform, reshape, reboot? “The Reformation” should serve as an encouragement to be ready for the next change into which God is calling the Church.
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – October 19, 2025
It is never too often to ask God for something. Prayer can be answered through persistence. When we pray for something, we learn about ourselves and grow in closeness with and trust in God.
Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – October 12, 2025
Look at yourself in a mirror. Then write on a sticky note: your name, and an expression of gratitude to God. Finish with a short prayer asking God to help and guide you. Post the note on the mirror as a reminder – every time you see your reflection.
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – October 5, 2025
Your faith, however small it may seem, is plenty big enough. Because it isn’t about how big your faith is – but rather about who you put that faith in. No matter how little our faith, when we put it in Jesus there is no end to what He can accomplish.
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – September 28, 2025
Jesus tells us a parable in hopes that it encourages us to “see” the vulnerable people at the gates of our life – and that we are truly blessed as we enrich the lives of others.
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – September 21, 2025
Our Lord is telling us to use wisely whatever we have. Our wealth and our gifts are a responsibility. We can use them selfishly, or to help our friends and the needy. God gave us temporal things to use. Our wealth consists not in what we keep but in what we give away. God will judge us by how we use the things of which we are only stewards.
Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – September 14, 2025
God’s active, pursuing love is often called “agape love”. It is God’s relentless, unconditional, and intentional pursuit of humanity – driven by a desire for a personal relationship with us.
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – September 7, 2025
We may have to make choices between the call of the Lord and the pull of impulsive and emotional attractions. “What do you ask of me, Lord? Let me know the cost.”
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – August 31, 2025
Luke 14: 1, 7-14 – Lord, you invite us to Your banquet table and encourage us to tear down walls and fences that keep us apart. Keep us from fear. Inspire us to be hopeful. Help us to be grateful. Give us peace. With Your love all things are possible. Amen.
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – August 24, 2025
Luke 13:10-17 – To love like Jesus means to love with unconditional, sacrificial, and selfless love, prioritizing others’ needs and well-being above your own – just as Jesus demonstrated by healing the disabled woman in today’s gospel. This love is not based on feelings but on a deliberate choice to act in ways that benefit others, even when it’s difficult or inconvenient.
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – August 17, 2025
Jesus can bring division among people – those with him and against him. He can also bring division inside each of us. May our prayers ask our Lord for help to sift through the different desires and actions of our lives – and for the grace to ‘know Him more, love Him more and serve Him more faithfully in our lives’.
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – August 10, 2025
Jesus encourages us to invest our hearts and live fully into God’s reign. Instead of facing life with fear, may we know God’s generosity and always be ready to receive from God and to give to others.
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – August 3, 2025
“Treasures of the heart” refers to cultivating qualities and values that lead to lasting joy, fulfillment, and spiritual growth, rather than focusing solely on material possessions. It’s about prioritizing what truly matters in life – like love, kindness, and service to others – which ultimately aligns one’s heart with what is eternal and meaningful.
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – July 27, 2025
Jesus teaches us to pray, in order the we may grow in the likeness of the Father. In the words of Saint Richard that are used in the familiar song, Day by Day: “May I know You more clearly, love You more dearly, and follow You more nearly.”
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – July 13, 2025
Jesus held a simple and unfiltered belief — everyone is a neighbor. Everyone in every sense of the word, not just the people in our orbit whom we have something in common with but also the ones we don’t notice, the people we don’t value, and those we don’t welcome.
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – July 6, 2025
Jesus is preparing his disciples for mission. He leaves them in no doubt about the challenges, obstacles and dangers which will await them. Yet Jesus entrusts them with a message of peace, justice, forgiveness and healing – the Good News of God’s kingdom. This same message has been passed down through the Church for centuries. Now it is “our mission”.
Third Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – June 29, 2025
The antagonism of Jews and Samaritans was strong in Jesus’ time. It highlights the worst of religious intolerance and racism. Today, we often indulge in angry words and vengeful feelings that become burdens on us, not on those who offended us. As long as we want revenge and withhold forgiveness, we are wasting energy, and holding God at bay. Jesus wants to break through the barriers and walls separating people – then and now.
Second Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – June 22, 2025 – Audio only
First Sunday After Pentecost – Worship – June 15, 2025
Jesus tells us that there are many things that we need to know – but He will not tell us. He only says that, over time, the Spirit of truth will guide us, speak to us, and declare all to us all that we need to know. We are given a portrait of the three persons of the Trinity. Jesus speaks of himself, of the Spirit’s activities, and of the Father. The Trinity is our way of life made possible by God.
Pentecost Sunday – Worship – June 8, 2025
The Holy Spirit is ours to share as much as it is ours to receive. Jesus promises we will do great things under the influence of God’s Spirit – that the world will know about the love of God and the forgiveness of sins; and people will experience generosity, mercy, peace, joy, grace, and hope.
Seventh Sunday of Easter – Worship – June 1, 2025
Jesus is no longer to be found in Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem, or Israel. He has ascended to advocate for us in the presence of His Father – where He will watch over us everywhere we are, and prepare a place for us by His side.
Sixth Sunday of Easter – Worship – May 25, 2025
Jesus gently tries to prepare the disciples for the day when he will no longer be present to them in bodily form. Unlike us, who know the story, they did not know what was coming next, so they were confused. God helps us to grow even in times of confusion.
Fifth Sunday of Easter – Worship – May 18, 2025
Jesus chose ordinary men as his closest followers. They had no wealth, education or position. They could be petty, cowardly and ambitious. Yet they allowed themselves to be drawn to Jesus. Lord, may I accept Your personal invitation to follow You – to serve as Your friend and Your witness. May I accept You gratefully as my brother – and love one another as You love me.
Fourth Sunday of Easter – Worship – May 11, 2025
Make room for God in our lives – so we can hear his voice. Don’t be distracted by other voices who tell us that we need to do this or that – so we don’t have time for Jesus. Rather, recognize His voice in worship, while praying, during Bible study, at a retreat – or simply during a day that we take to do something special with God.
Third Sunday of Easter – Worship – May 4, 2025
Jesus and the Miracle Catch of Fish
Even though Peter had likely seen Jesus perform other miracles – he may still have had doubts about giving up his livelihood, his family, and everything he knew – to follow Jesus. Healing his mother-in-law and changing water into wine were phenomena outside Peter’s experience. But fish were different – he knew all about fish. This miracle hit home to him as others had not.
Imagine another disciple asking Peter about his impending decision, “But how can you do it?” – and Peter’s likely answer, “Just look at all those fish!”
We all need to leave things behind in order fo follow God. For some of us it is addictive behaviors, for others an emphasis on our own success or the adulation of the crowd. It helps to look not just at what we are leaving behind and what God promises us – but also at what God has shown us already.
Second Sunday of Easter – Worship – April 27, 2025
Thomas was a modern man, finding faith hard, like many people today. He was let down by the others who ran away, the leader denied Jesus, his trust in the group of apostles had been abused. He didn’t want much more to do with them. He had gotten tired of it all. He wanted to believe but needed a sort of proof. But faith grows within a community. That’s why we baptize children, because faith grows from the beginning of life. We find growth in our faith through the community – for example, in sharing our faith as a group in worship, reading a good spiritual book, sharing our doubts but never closing the door to Jesus, or sharing our faith in thanks for what our faith gives us.
Easter Sunday – Worship – April 20, 2025
We are going to run into places in our lives where we’ve got stones that need to be moved and it’s going to be scary. It’s going to be stinky. But look at what happens when we have the courage to roll the stones away. Jesus brings life.
Palm Sunday – Worship – April 13, 2025
The Pharisees knew who Jesus was. They asked Jesus to quiet the crowds of His followers, who were praising a humble Jesus in loud voices. The Pharisees were afraid to lose control of the Jews and raise the ire of their Roman overseers. Jesus refused. In fact, He responded to the Pharisees that if He were to silence His Jewish crowds – Gentiles (“stones”, John the Baptist had called them) would cry out praising God with many more voices. We may imagine Jesus rebuke of the Pharisees’ request, “If my people, the Jews, don’t praise God for me and receive me, then I will take for myself another people from the Gentiles, from the stones.” Jesus could have come riding into Jerusalem on a war horse or a chariot, – mowing down anyone who tried to stop Him. He could have had an army of angels clear the path. But He came in humility to bring peace. Let’s be the “stones” that Jesus is talking about – slow to speak, quick to listen, gentle, kind – and follow Jesus in His humility.
Fifth Sunday in Lent – Worship – April 6, 2025
Live in the fragrance and the scent of God. It is gentle, light and lasts long. As is wears off of us, we are spreading love, and others know that something deep in us gives off the aroma of Christ’s love to all around us.
Fourth Sunday in Lent – Worship – March 30, 2025
The most powerful way to learn about love is in being loved and about forgiveness is in being forgiven.
Third Sunday in Lent – Worship – March 23, 2025
Ask God for a little more time to bear fruit. What nourishment do I need to become a fruitful tree that gives of itself generously?
Second Sunday in Lent – Worship – March 16, 2025
Jesus’ heart goes out to us as He lives among us everywhere. Pray that our hearts become like His, and that we look on the needs and the cries of people like He does.
First Sunday in Lent – Worship – March 9, 2025
We can defeat evil with the Word of God. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 while He was being tested in the wilderness – “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Pray that we remember the Word of God, and not allow evil deceive us when we are tempted to just do what “we” want to do.
Last Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – March 2, 2025
How often have our eyes and ears been closed to see Jesus and hear His word in our daily lives? Pray that God’s word will waken, liven, and activate us to work along side of Jesus – as we glimpse His coming glory on Easter.
Seventh Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – February 23, 2025
Those who we love are in our prayers – including those who might be thought of as enemies, hopeless, overlooked or neglected. Pray that they may experience kindness and love – and that any who describe them negatively may be given the vision that Jesus had.
Sixth Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – February 16, 2025
The Beatitudes – Luke 6:17-26 If we loved each other as ourselves, there would be no poverty, no hunger. The poor would be fed, the destitute cherished, the mourners comforted. How can I help make Jesus’ kingdom a reality for someone else today?
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – February 9, 2025
The Miraculous Catch of Fish
Peter may have seen some of Jesus’s previous miracles – such as healing bodies and making wine. But fish were different. Peter knew all about fish – and the sight of a full-to-overflowing boat load of them hit home to him as other miracles may not have. And now Jesus was asking Peter to follow Him and be “fishers of men”.
As Peter rowed back to the shore, he may have considered everything that he would have to give up: his livelihood, his family, everything he knew. He must have had doubts. Would he be able to leave so much behind?
Imagine being there and asking Peter, “How could you do it?” And hearing Peter respond, “Just look at all those fish!”
We all need to leave things behind in order to follow God. It may be addictive patterns of behavior, an overweening emphasis on our own success, or the adulation of the crowd. It helps sometimes to look not just at what we’re leaving behind and what God promises us, but also at what God has shown us already.
Just look at all those fish.
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – February 2, 2025
Like Mary and Joseph, we should lead our children to God by our example. Lord, help us live and model healthy Christian relationships and family life to everyone we encounter.
Third Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – January 26, 2025
Jesus read the words of the prophet Isaiah to His friends and family, in His hometown. It was Jesus’ announcement of His coming ministry to the poor and oppressed – and a reminder to open our hearts to the suffering around us. Lord, make me hunger for justice and work for peace. May your compassion be a constant burning fire in my life.
Second Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – January 19, 2025
The servants at a friend’s wedding have run out of wine. Jesus’ mother, Mary, tells them – “Do whatever He tells you.” Jesus then turned six large jars of water into the best wine to satisfy the wedding guests. Do we pray to God for the miraculous healing of a sick friend, or simply for the fortitude to accept the outcome? Do we pray for straight A’s, on our exams, or for a positive attitude for whatever results we get? We must trust that our Lord knows what he’s doing better than we do. Praying is much more about changing us than changing things. Lord, Teach me the joy of simply sitting before you, Teach me the peace of resting in your love, Teach me the strength of simple faith, Teach me the silence of trust. Amen.
First Sunday After Epiphany – Worship – January 12, 2025
John the Baptist’s ministry was completely focused on pointing people to Christ. Telling them that Christ was coming. That is what our ministries should be focused on too. It is not about us. It’s about Him. It’s not about our glory and fame. It’s about His glory and His name.
Redeemer Lutheran Church - Hartford, WI 