Sermons @ TLCS Trinity Lutheran Church & Schools

Pastor Jenna explores what it means to be vulnerable, uncomfortable, and intimate in response to God's calling to serve our neighbors. 
-------------------------------------------------
Fifth Sunday in Lent The Last Supper: Risking The Loss of Friends
Jesus’ words at the Last Supper were shocking to those in attendance. His words can seem familiar, even comforting to us because we hear these words every time we have communion,. But at the moment of their utterance, they were anything but “usual.” This week we enter the scene of that last supper long enough to get a grasp of the shock that would have rippled through Jesus’ friends. Partaking of body and blood? Not kosher! A “Lord” washing feet like a servant? Unbelievable! Breaking bread with the enemy? What?! But Jesus knew his time was up. And it was time for the disciples to get the message, even if it came in a shocking way: love one another as I have loved you—by serving, forgiving, freeing, communing—becoming one with—God.

Pastor Hector speaks about how showing extravagant devotion to Jesus can be frightening because it can come with rejection and judgment, reflecting on the theme for this Sunday: Risking Rejection.
 
Fourth Sunday in Lent The First Dinner: Risking Rejection
Besides the Last Supper, Holy Week contains another important story that happens at dinner. Earlier in the week, Jesus and his followers gather for a meal, and a woman shows up unexpectedly to anoint Jesus in an extravagant show of devotion. To say she caused quite a “stir” might be understating it a bit. We imagine ourselves in the room and we see the looks of judgment and even outrage on the faces around us. Are we ourselves moved by her generosity and outpouring of emotion? Or are we uncomfortable as Jesus refers to his own death? Does our complaining or anger really serve to hide our own fear? Jesus invites us to tell this story “in remembrance of her.” What uncomfortable stories are we called to tell in our time?

Sermon for March 12, 2023 + Pastor Jenna Bergeson
Pastor Jenna unpacks what it means to risk relationship for one's beliefs by lifting up the story of the woman at the well.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Third Sunday in Lent The Teaching: Risking Challenge 
That last week, Jesus didn't “lay low.” He puts himself out there, susceptible to those who want to trap him, twist his words, get him to say something damning. He cannot turn from his vocation—he is not only a master teacher, but also a prophet and voice of the Divine. It is his ability to draw the people to his teachings that pose a threat, a challenge, to the authorities. We place ourselves in the crowd this week, to be moved and motivated by Jesus for our lives—to get a faithful perspective. What would we have seen, heard and felt? What do we do now?
 
+ SEASONAL LENT BULLETIN + https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o...
+ LENT 3 INSERT + https://docs.google.com/document/d/12...
+ GET CONNECTED TO TRINITY + https://trinitylutheranchurch.com/new...
+ GIVE TO TRINITY + https://give.tlcs.church
+ ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS + https://trinitylutheranchurch.com/news
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Texts and music reprinted and streamed under the following licenses: Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual License #SAS002250 . CCLI License #1295571; OneLicense #A706801.

Sermon for March 5, 2023 + 6:30 PM
Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo
Trinity Lutheran Church & Schools
Second Sunday in Lent - The Temple: Risking Righteous Anger
SERMON OVERVIEW
A prophetic church and a prophetic disciple cannot remain indifferent to the human tendency to make God's reign a tool for control, power, and submission of others.
 
SUNDAY OVERVIEW
Jesus’ response to a visit to the Temple in the midst of the busy, noisy, Passover “tourist season” is utter frustration turned to anger. With so much at stake, “business-as-usual” seems obscene. This can be true for us today. The routine nature of our everyday lives sometimes seems ludicrous in the face of such suffering around the world. But taking a moment inside the scene where Jesus is overturning tables in this “house of prayer for all nations” can offer us a way to see what we actually might do to reassess our own actions and make our own corner of the world (our “temples”) a more welcoming place for all people.

Sermon for February 26, 2023 + 6:30 PM
Trinity Lutheran Church & Schools
Pastor Jenna Bergeson
First Sunday in Lent The Parade: Risking Reputation
Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week was full of risk. Rather than a nice impromptu celebration, it can be seen for the carefully planned and significantly symbolic event that would rub those in power the wrong way. In a moment already filled with tension, this “victory parade” had many implications, and as we know, many consequences. We will stop the action just at the beginning of the parade to take stock of all the players, including the role the city itself plays full of pilgrims for the Passover.

Sermon for February 19, 2023 + 10 AM
Pastor Jenna Bergeson
Trinity Lutheran Church & Schools
 
Pastor Jenna unpacks the significance of Transfiguration as a bridge between Christmas/Epiphany and Lent/Easter, the moment when God reveals Godself in the person of Jesus, in a flash of light on the mountaintop: "listen to him." 
 
++++++++++++++++++ 
Transfiguration of Our Lord
++++++++++++++++++ 
Today’s festival is a bridge between the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle that comes to a close today and the Lent-Easter cycle that begins in several days. On a high mountain Jesus is revealed as God’s beloved Son, echoing the words at his baptism. This vision of glory sustains us as Jesus faces his impending death in Jerusalem. We turn this week to Ash Wednesday and our yearly baptismal journey from Lent to Easter. Some churches put aside the alleluia at the conclusion of today’s liturgy. This word of joy will be omitted during the penitential season of Lent and will be sung again at Easter.