Pastor Joel Leyrer

Text: Matthew 27:27-31

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Dear Friends in Christ, Judging from the number of books, movies, and media mini-series devoted to the topic, we could make the case that the general population has a fascination with royalty.  Why is this? One reason might simply be the math.  In comparison to the rest of us, they are so few, and that alone makes them noteworthy.   But perhaps the bigger reason is because kings and queens and princes and princesses with all their attendant privileges and powers seem to lead the kind of charmed fairy-tale lives that ordinary people only dream of living. However, history tells us otherwise.  History makes it clear that despite their privileged positions, members of royal households are not by any means perfect.  Some are better than others, but all are flawed, sinful human beings just like everyone else.  So, while they may be regal, they are imperfectly regal.

Pastor Kyle Bitter

Text: Matthew 25:1-13

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You might remember seeing it in the news.  When the famous musician, Prince died back in 2016. You might remember that one item in the news was that even though he was very wealthy, he never took the time to prepare a will.  His estate, worth something around 200 million dollars, ended up being tied up in court for quite a while before being given to his siblings.  Shortly after that, Gallup did a survey of American adults and found that less than half have taken the time to draw up a will of their own. If that seems surprising, the numbers get even worse when it comes to advance medical directives – the documents that give relatives the authority to make important medical decisions in the event of a serious accident or sudden illness.  A poll taken in 2014 revealed that only one third of American adults have made those preparations. 

Pastor Joel Leyrer

Text: Matthew 25:31 - 46

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Dear Friends in Christ, As mentioned at the beginning of the service and reflected in our hymns and readings, our focus for today is on the Last Judgment.  If we remove Good Friday from the equation (because it is obviously not a Sunday), that makes today perhaps the most sobering, thought provoking and reflective Sunday of the Church Year. It’s also a rare forward-looking Sunday. After this sermon is over we will respond by jointly confessing our faith using the familiar words of the Apostles’ Creed. All of the things we say about Jesus in that creed have already taken place, with the exception of the last statement: “From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.”  Today Jesus takes us to the very throne room of God and gives us a glimpse of how this final phrase will play itself out. And what we learn is both comforting and concerning. As a result, it is hard to leave this portion of God’s Word without being impacted in one way or another.

Pastor Kyle Bitter

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-12

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Blessed Are The Saints of God: A couple of years ago, I had the chance to do some traveling in Europe with a friend and coworker of mine.  One of my friend’s biggest interests is art, and so when we planned the itinerary, we made sure to include stops at many of the famous art museums in Paris, Rome, and the Vatican.  Before that trip, I will admit that didn’t know a great deal about art, so I ended up learning quite a bit.  If you’ve ever had the chance to study art, you may have made some of the same observations I made.  When looking at paintings and sculpture from the Medieval and Renaissance eras, I was amazed at how much of the art was Christian in content – renditions of bible characters, depictions of entire scenes, and plenty of paintings of famous Christian people since bible times – those whom we might call the “saints” – followers of Jesus who lived before us and have since gone on to heaven.  I noticed something remarkable about the paintings and sculptures of these saints.  It seemed that a majority of them were being killed – usually in various horrible ways.  Even more strangely, it never really seemed as though realism was the final goal of artists.  Serenely smiling faces and semi-angelic expressions mute the graphic brutality that one would expect to see, and the overall effect is that these horrible events are something the artist is celebrating!