The Lutheran Podcast
I'm Rev. Eric Wolf, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Sudbury, MA (https://www.stjohnsudburyma.org). This podcast mostly contains the sermons I preach there, though I may add more at some point. I believe strongly that the task of preaching is to engage Scripture as a mirror held up to our lives so that we can confront what we see with integrity. This image we engage helps us to understand what it means to be Children of God; gain perspective of what it means that our primary citizenship and allegiance belongs to God’s Kingdom; and discover how the love of God transforms what we see when we look at ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world that God so loves.
Episodes
196 episodes
Sometimes We Get What We Look For (Christ the King)
Today’s gospel is one in which we find some stunning decisions. Some lead to great increase and new responsibility; others lead to a no good very bad terrible day. The Gospel isn’t concerned with what we produce, but that we use wh...
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16:45
What God Has Wrought — Reformation Sunday 2023
Psalm 46 speaks of the desolations God brings to the earth, and it’s our habit to think of floods and disasters. What God desolates is the implements of war — the bow, the spear, the chariots — the M-16, the Tomahawk Missile, the tank.
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15:25
Kingdom Visions New and Old
Jesus calls us to see God’s kingdom, not as a place of easy living, but of living together in good times and in bad. What does this vision inspire in you?
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14:45
Grace May be Free, but it isn't Cheap (Matthew 18:15-20)
Note: I read the Gospel and begin the sermon from one of the pews, rather than from the pulpit. I move to the pulpit after a couple minutes. It may be impossible to know this from the audio context.What does it mean to apologize; to for...
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12:57
Not On My Watch, Jesus! (Matthew 16:21-28)
Immediately preceding this reading, Peter confessed Jesus to be Messiah, and Jesus told him "good job!" Well, essentially. This week we see a different side of Peter and a different message from Jesus, who tells Peter in no uncerta...
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17:01
A Sacred Gift (Matthew 10:40-42)
This sermon takes place the week after a challenging congregational meeting. I don't mean "challenging", as in code for "look, the roof is fire and the floor is fire and everything is fire!". I mean it in the sense that we had a couple of impor...
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13:24
Enough, but of what? (Pentecost 3)
Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, the ninth chapter. Glory to you, O Lord!35Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good ne...
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16:35
Now That's a Story (Pentecost 2)
I'm experimenting with some different things, and one of them is moving to manuscript preaching after not using them in about fifteen years, except rarely. This sermon focuses on the idea that our own stories and the stories of those around us ...
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16:35
Led Away From Temptation to Take the Hard Road to Justice (Matthew 4:1-11 Lent 1)
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” that his opinion had become that the white moderate was the biggest obstacle to the cause of justice for black and brown people. He defines them, not by their ideolo...
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19:38
A Ball of Transfigury Wigury Stuff (Transfiguration Sunday Matthew 17:1-9)
The Transfiguration is a moment that gives a foretaste of completion — not just of the Law and the Prophets, but of an old covenant as the disciples witness the birth pangs of a new one and wonder what they’ve really become a part of in followi...
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14:58
Killing in the Name Of, A Story Shared (Matthew 5:21-37 Epiphany 6)
Jesus raises the bar for what it means to love each other and to live in community by saying that words can kill, men can’t wantonly discard their wives, and putting a finer point on our accountability for what we promise and how. ...
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16:59
No More Waiting
This is a song I wrote for Christmas this year. It’s a rough recording, but love cone down is always a little rough — and even more welcome for its roughness. Merry Christmas!I’ll post the lyrics later.
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3:43
Love is Not Fragile (or What Did You Expect? Advent 3)
So often our belief and understanding of love is limited to our own fragile capacity. God’s love is not fragile. What difference can this make?
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20:09
Advent 1: Hope in All Times
We spend a lot of time looking up, forward, and backward trying to figure out what will happen in a future we aren’t guaranteed from the perspective of events and pasts we can’t change. Jesus reminds us that God is *here* with us, and knows wha...
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10:41
Grieving Club Q and a World Made Too Small by Bigotry (Christ the King 2022)
My plan for Christ the King’s sermon was much different before waking up to news of the tragedy at Club Q. This didn’t happen in a vacuum, but it the predictable result of increasingly bigoted rhetoric in our cultural, political, and even relig...
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14:05
Hope Comes After (All Saints 2022, Luke 6:20-31)
We often think hope to be a function of love. It is. Yet hope in the midst of loss isn't something that always heals. Sometimes it has a dampening effect on our healing because it feels like a gloss over our woundedness for the easing of the pr...
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8:37
The Miracle of Dignity (Luke 17:11-19)
Ten lepers were cleansed, one returned to give thanks. There’s something about being sick, either chronically or terminally, that robs a person of an identity separate from that illness. In a world where we often mistake cures for ...
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17:24
When Rich People Laugh at the Poor, An Honest Response (Luke 16:19-31)
“The Pharisees, who we’re lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.”This was their response to the poorly named Parable of the Dishonest Manager, and was the reason Jesus told this parable about Lazarus and the Rich...
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15:28
A Virtuous Dishonesty? (Luke 16:1-13)
When Jesus praises a dishonest manager, it brings about an uncomfortable moment that challenges the idea that Jesus brings morality — or at least a morality we understand. This is a chance to reconsider what true currency is, what ...
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20:14
Turning Into Pain to Heal
When we hurt, it’s human nature to shy away, to blame, to react defensively. What we see through the witness of God through Christ, in the account of God’s people worshiping another God, from the example of David who engaged in deep repentance ...
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20:44
From What to Why
“What in the world are you doing?!?” are words we often hear during times of trouble. Less frequently, we hear the question, “why?”.It doesn’t end there though, because too often we react to what happens rather than ask with true curios...
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20:37
Loving in Conflict: Hope for a Loving Community
Wherever there are people, there will be disagreements. One of the most unhealthy habits any community can exhibit is letting mean and hurtful comments in community spaces go unchallenged. Safe, loving space means the calling to let the c...
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20:37
Be Interruptible
When God shows up, it doesn’t happen at convenient moments. In every instance of God appearing is an interruption. The call to living a life of faith is also a call to be interruptible. We are called to be open to the concept of Sa...
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15:00
Imagining Hallelujah (Funeral Sermon for Roberts Apse)
Roberts was 51, and I never met him but his family made me feel like I’ve known him for years. They wanted something less traditional for music, so we settled on me playing Imagine and Hallelujah For the prelude, Amazing Grace as a...
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13:53
Warninger and Hopier: Fire that Heals, Water that Frightens
We hear words of challenge, and often stop listening when it becomes uncomfortable. Jesus says that he brings fire, but it’s a fire that heals and makes whole. How do we encounter and embrace the wholeness that comes from what scar...
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20:57