Pastor Joel Leyrer - Ash Wednesday - Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Text: 2 Samuel 12:1-13

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Dear Friends in Christ, One of the crowning achievements of the artist and sculptor Michelangelo is a 17-foot-tall marble statue of King David as a young man. The size seems appropriate because David is one of those larger-than-life Bible figures. Outside of Jesus and Moses, there is more written about him in the Scriptures than anyone else, and it is fair to say that even those with only a passing knowledge of Old Testament are familiar with his name.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - The Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany - Sunday, January 31, 2021

Text: Mark 1:21-28

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Dear Friends in Christ…We have just experienced a year of competing voices by those in positions of authority. Our recent presidential election cycle was marked by accusations and controversy. We’re closing in on a year long pandemic featuring all kinds of experts with lots of initials after their names presenting conflicting views on what should or should not be done – and we’re bracing ourselves for more of the same. And we’ve experienced civil unrest both nationally and locally with charges being made by one group and countercharges being made by another.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Epiphany Sunday - Sunday, January 3, 2021

Text: Matthew 2:1-12

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Dear Friends in Christ. One could easily make the case that after the birth of Jesus, the best-known event in the wider Christmas story is the account recorded in our Gospel lesson and serving as our text today – the coming of the Magi, or Wise Men.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Christmas Day - Friday, December 25, 2020

Text: Luke 2:13-14

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Dear Friends in newborn King, Christ, the Lord: In a book of personal memories collected from those who served in World War II, a soldier from Massachusetts wrote about his first Christmas away from home. He doesn’t say how old he was, but we could guess he was probably 19 or 20.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Midweek Advent 3 - Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Text: Revelation 3:7-13

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Dear Friends in Christ, If you did a little detective work, you would discover that somewhere you can find a Christian church today of one denomination or another named after every one of the seven churches listed in the Book of Revelation. That’s actually a bit surprising because, as we’ve learned through our examination of each of them in this sermon series, in some of his letters Jesus is pretty critical of what’s going on in a particular congregation and issues very strong warnings. We might think a church today may not want to be identified with a church that is mostly exposed for its flaws.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Advent 2 - Sunday, December 6, 2020

Text: Revelation 2:12-17

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Dear Friends in Christ, Would you agree that because of email and word processing and text messages and all the various forms of social media available to us today, letter writing has pretty much become a lost art? Around this time of the year, we may receive some Christmas form letters with an additional hand-written line or two, but the days of regularly corresponding with one another through long, hand-written, multi-page, newsy letters are about over – at least for most of us.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Thanksgiving 2020 - Thursday, November 26, 2020

Text: Genesis 32:10

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Dear Friends in Christ, A relationship which had begun badly ended even worse. Now, after a cross country move and years of trying not to think about it, the chickens were coming home to roost.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - Last Judgment - Sunday, November 8, 2020

Text: Daniel 7:9,10

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Dear Friends in Christ, Did you know there is a branch of scientific study called “oneirology?” I did not until this week. Oneirology is the study of dreams. An oneirologist, then, is one who personally studies dreams.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - The Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, October 18, 2020

Text: 2 Chronicles 33:1-13

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Dear Friends in Christ, “This Will Kill That” is the catchy title of a chapter in Victor Hugo’s famous novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” The book has been made into several movie versions over the years, so even if you are not familiar with the storyline, you’re probably familiar with the name. The story takes place in Paris around the year 1480.

Pastor Joel Leyrer - The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, September 20, 2020

Text: Ezekiel 33:7-11

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Dear Friends in Christ, They vary for each of us and they don’t come all at once, but throughout our lifetime we all fill multiple roles. Son, daughter, spouse, parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, employee, employer – these are just some of them. All are important. All come with a certain amount of privileges. All also comes with a certain amount of responsibility.