Seminary Student Berger

Sermon text: Romans 8:18-25

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This isn’t what I hoped for. Four years ago. Beijing, China. I’m about to teach my very first English lesson to 12 Chinese second graders. I’m generally good with kids and had spent hours preparing this lesson, so I was excited to reap the fruits of my labor. My kids would like me, they’d be attentive, they’d even learn something. What could go wrong. A couple hours later I was consoling myself with a giant plate of Kung Pao Chicken. My first experience at teaching was not what I’d hoped for.

Pastor Leyrer

Sermon text: Romans 7:15-25

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Dear Friends in Christ, What character traits do you most value in another person?  My guess is that genuineness and honesty would be on the top of just about anyone’s list. For good reason.  We feel most comfortable with people who are not out to impress us or put on airs or feel like they have to always have the last word; people who don’t blame others for the circumstances they bring upon themselves, but are willing to honestly own their mistakes and imperfections. 

Chaplain Steven Stern

Sermon text: Matthew 13:3-9

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In the month of June in 1937, shortly after their honeymoon, my dad and mom moved into their newly built home on 160 acres that my dad had just bought to go along with the 80 acres he had been given by his parents.  Their new home was surrounded by brand new trees about knee high and a new barn and a new well and towering over them a mountain of debt.  The land that stretched out to the south of the building place had many patches of weeds and thistles, a large number of rocks that worked to the surface every spring and had to be picked up, and standing water in every sag and low spot. My dad looked at this land and he thought this is a pretty good farm.  Not because of the weeds and the rocks and the water holes but because he thought if he tilled it and got the weeds under control, if he picked the rocks as they worked to the surface, if he tiled the water holes he could envision a time when his fields would look like this:  Fields of lush soybeans from one end of the field to the other.  Fields of corn where all the rows were green and even.  

Pastor Schroeder

Sermon text: Romans 5:12-15, 18-19

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Eat your vegetables, or you can’t have any dessert.  Get your homework done, or you can’t watch any TV.  Clean up your room, or you can’t go outside and play.  Now that I am a parent, I find myself saying the same things that I once heard from my parents.  Part of it is because, quite honestly, adding a threat to a command gets the message across a little bit more quickly; it adds some motivation for the girls to take seriously what I am asking or telling them to do.  But of course it isn’t just about eating vegetables or getting one night’s homework done, or keeping their rooms somewhat clean...It’s a whole lot bigger than that.

Pastor Leyrer

Sermon text: Romans 5:6-11

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Dear Friends in Christ, Maybe you’ve had the experience of pulling up to the gas pump and while you’re waiting for the tank to fill you watch whatever is being shown on the little video screen.  Sometimes you are treated to little snippets of news or sports or weather, but lately I’ve noticed a more educational feature called “the word for the day.”  Since it cycles every so many seconds, if your car is on empty you may have the opportunity to consider the word for the day two or three times before you’re done.  In theory, you’ve left the pump smarter than when you came.