Sermons

August 2, 2026Matthew 14:13-21Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year APastor Troy E. Medlin To watch the sermon, click here.

From mustard seeds and yeast to pearls and fish, Jesus proclaims the surprisingly expansive nature of God’s Kingdom. We dare not judge a book by its cover or a seed by its size. God is up to amazing things. The key to these parables, though, is perhaps the one hiding in the middle: The Kingdom is like treasure buried in a field. The heart of the gospel is not that God can make big things out of small; it is that God makes life out of death.

The Sower shows up again in a parable; this time, there are weeds among the wheat. Shouldn’t they be pulled up? No, Jesus says; let it be. Don’t be too quick to uproot that which offends us. Instead, we are called to look in faith to Jesus. He will deal with it when the time comes. Our task in the meantime is to keep growing. Yes, there are weeds among the wheat. Our call is to be wheat among the weeds.

July 18, 2026Luke 24:13-35; Ephesians 4:11-16Memorial Service for F. Dean Lueking, Year APastor David R. Lyle To watch the sermon, click here.

July 12, 2026Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year APastor Michael D. Costello To watch the sermon, click here.

Left to our own devices, we are stuck. On our own, we simply run in place. Yet, Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners, calls our name. He invites us to find our place in his wide and spacious embrace. Here instead of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, we fall into grace and give up the game entirely. Freed from scorekeeping, we live for our neighbors and find our joy alongside them.

In these Sundays after Pentecost, we are reminded of Jesus’ invitation: to find lasting life, we must first lose it for his sake. Today, Jesus speaks of welcome—a loaded concept in a world of borders and boundaries. Yet through the waters of promise, grace alone welcomes us wholly into the eternal life of the Triune God.

Discipleship doesn’t start with a demand to “do better.” It starts at the cross, where Jesus meets us in our brokenness and breathes new life into us. Joined to his death, we are made alive. Forgiven. Found. In this new life, we discover that the difficulties of discipleship are nothing but joy. Found by Jesus, we go with his good news to the whole world.

Today, we journey to Sinai to see how God didn’t just rescue his people from suffering but entered into a lifelong covenant with them. Through Holy Baptism, we are welcomed into that same promise. Freed from sin and death, we now have access to God’s grace and a purpose: joining Jesus in his mission for this broken world.

For Youth Sunday, we celebrated and gave thanks for the many gifts our youth bring to the Grace Lutheran Church and School community. Owen, a student at Notre Dame University, proclaimed God’s Word to us in the sermon.