Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent – November 30, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Dec 2, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for November 30

Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent – November 30, 2025

Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Advent begins with an alarm clock. Alarm clocks are meant to startle. They emit loud noises that are meant to wake you up. In many cases, the sound of an alarm clock is unwelcome – especially when we are comfortable, especially when we open our eyes and it is still dark out, especially when we want to go back to sleep.

Advent begins with an alarm clock. Our readings are meant to startle. They are meant to wake us up. They are meant to rouse us out of our comfortable slumber and to draw us out of the darkness and into the light of day.

St. Paul sounds the first alarm. He says to us, “Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep!” Paul barks at our bedside like this because, he says, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.” Paul then tells us to get dressed! He tells us to “lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” He calls us to strip off the things people wear in the dark – revelry and drunkenness and debauchery and licentiousness and quarreling and jealousy – and instead to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. “Let us live honorably, as in the day,” Paul says. The new day is dawning, so act like it! Wake up! Get dressed!

I wonder how many of you, upon hearing these words of St. Paul in our epistle reading, do what I do many mornings, which is to reach over and hit the snooze button. I wonder how many of you heard it, were mildly roused, and then mentally went back to sleep.

Well, not so fast, because the alarm when off again just moments later when we got to our gospel reading, and this time it comes from Jesus himself.

Jesus is talking about the final coming of his kingdom. He clearly says that about that day and hour no one knows. Then he goes on to emphasize the importance of being awake. He says that before the final coming of his kingdom it will be like the days of Noah. People were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. In other words, they were carrying on with their daily lives. They were carrying on with their comfortable routines. There’s nothing inherently wrong with eating or drinking or marrying, of course. The problem, if you remember the story, was that the people in Noah’s day were doing all of this while being completely asleep to the reality of God. There was no one who had faith in God except one man, Noah. Everyone else was sleepwalking through life. They were in the dark, completely oblivious to God.

This is what it will be like at the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus says. People will be busy with the day-to-day activities of their lives, but they will fall asleep to the presence of God. Jesus warns that some will be caught sleeping and miss the coming kingdom altogether. “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming!”

Advent begins with an alarm clock, because this is a perennial problem. It begins with an alarm clock because human beings have spiritual narcolepsy – we are always nodding off. It begins with an alarm clock because we get so comfortable in our slumber, especially when it is still dark out.

Paul’s concerns are perennial. We can’t dismiss them. We shouldn’t hit the snooze button on them. They are not just Paul’s words, but, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they are God’s Word to us. And God sees how we prefer to stay in the dark. God sees how many people dedicate their lives to revelry, living solely for the pursuit of selfish pleasures, and only end up in the shadows of despair. God sees how many people cope with the dark by numbing themselves with alcohol and other substances. God sees how many people cast aside God’s good law, given for the sake of human flourishing, and instead make up their own rules and chase whatever feels good in the moment. God sees how many people are caught up in the quarrels and jealousies of the day, living as though the entire point of life is to dunk on your opponents. Wake up! God says. There are more important things for you to focus on. Now is the time for you to rise from this darkness. Now is the time for you to rise from sleep. The day of salvation is nearer than it has ever been, so act like it. Wake up and get dressed!

Jesus’ concerns are perennial too. Does it not seem like we are living in the days of Noah? Do we not see wickedness and violence and people doing what is right in their own eyes, ignoring God? Do we not see people sleepwalking through their lives, going about their routines while utterly in the dark about what God is up to? And we aren’t just talking about people outside the church. We aren’t just talking about those who don’t believe. Many Christians are sleepwalking through life too, living as functional atheists, going about their days without regard for what God is up to, getting so caught up in their daily activities that they fall asleep to the reality of God.

A good example of this is seen in the way worship attendance has dropped off in the last several years – a phenomenon which has been seen across the church, in nearly all denominations. It was thought that after the pandemic, everyone would flock back to church. But instead, it seems, a lot of people fell asleep, and a lot of them haven’t woken back up yet. Studies have shown that even those who were eager to come back are far less frequent worshippers than they once were. This doesn’t make me mad so much as it makes me sad. And it makes me sad not only for us, who miss their voices and their presence in the pews here in-person, it makes me even more sad for them, for what they are missing.

It makes me think of the time a few years ago when the Washington Post conducted a little experiment. They had the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell play his violin in a subway station in New York. He was playing one of the finest instruments in the world, a Stradivarius violin worth 3.5 million dollars. He played some of the most exquisite music ever written for 45 minutes. Hundreds and hundreds of people were coming and going, and almost no one stopped. He had a hat out for tips and received 30 dollars over those 45 minutes. Just days before he sold out two shows in Boston with tickets averaging 100 dollars a seat, but there in that New York subway, people were just too busy to notice. Most just walked right past him.

The experiment was conducted to study the role of perception and context in the appreciation of art, but I think it is a powerful illustration of this spiritual slumber we are being warned about today. It is so easy for people to get so busy with their daily lives that they miss the beautiful things God is doing right under their noses in the church. The church is our ark. In fact, many sanctuaries are built to look like the ribs of a large boat for just this reason. The church is the ark where God saves his people. The ark is where the beautiful music of the gospel is played. Too many people, though, can’t be bothered to stop and come in and hear it.

In his preface to the Small Catechism Martin Luther wrote that if people really believed that Jesus Christ was truly present in the Lord’s Supper, they would come running to receive him every Sunday. If they really believed he was there in, with, and under the bread and wine forgiving their sins and giving them a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, you wouldn’t be able to keep them away! The problem is, they don’t. Or they do, but they forget. They start sleepwalking through their lives, asleep to the reality of what God is up to.

Do you see why Advent begins with an alarm clock? Our faith needs to be roused, lest we fall asleep. For those who are awake, who are here to hear the beautiful music of the gospel, we need to be encouraged to keep awake. Don’t you fall asleep too! And not only that, but perhaps we need to take a cue from St. Paul and think about rousing our brothers and sisters in Christ who might be sleepwalking a bit. We don’t need to be a buzzer in their ears, but we can perhaps rouse them awake with a phone call and an invitation: “Hey, we miss you. Come and hear the beautiful music of the gospel. It’s worth waking up for. It’s worth stopping to listen to.”

Not all alarm clocks have a grating, alarming sound. Sometimes we need that, but that isn’t the only way to wake up. My wife works in the high school library and needs to be over there bright and early every school day. A few years ago, she got an alarm clock that is actually a light. It wakes her up by slowly getting brighter and brighter, mimicking the sunrise. It is just as effective as one that rings or buzzes, but it rouses her by light, by telling her that a new day is dawning.

This is what Advent is about too. The color for Advent used to be purple – it still is in some churches. The purple comes from the understanding that Advent is a sort of a mini-Lent. It is still technically a penitential season in preparation for the celebration of the festival of Christmas, but in recent decades the color has more and more been changed to deep blue. This blue is intended to lift up themes of hope, themes of anticipation. It has been said that this deep blue is meant to represent the color of the sky just before dawn.

Sometimes we need a buzz in our ears to wake us up. But God sends his light to do it too.

The light of his promise shines through Paul’s words as he tells us that salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. This is what we’re waking up to, to salvation! We’re waking up to the healing and wholeness Jesus has won for us, which we begin to receive even now. We are waking up to hope, to peace, to faith in God’s promises. We wake up to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, leaving behind the darkness and living a new life through faith in him.

The light of his promise shines through Jesus’ words as he speaks of his coming again. This is why we want to keep awake, because it is our gracious Lord and savior who is coming.

Even now we can hear the beautiful music of his saving grace. This beautiful music of his redeeming love has called us into the ark, which will deliver us into the new day he has in store for us.

So keep awake.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for Christ the King Sunday – November 23, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Dec 2, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for November 23

Sermon for Christ the King Sunday – November 23, 2025

Luke 23:33-43

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

A sign hung over Jesus as he was being crucified. It said, “This is the King of the Jews.” It was put there ironically, as a joke. Some king he was, pinned there between two criminals, naked and bleeding, soon to be dead! Most of the people below him were in on the joke. They joined in, scoffing at him, mocking him, deriding him. The word “if” came up a lot. “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one.” Or as the soldiers said, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.”

One of the criminals being crucified beside Jesus joined in on the mocking from the people below. He derided Jesus, ridiculing him with sarcasm: “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself! And get us down from here while you’re at it!”

That sign identifying Jesus as the King of the Jews may have been intended as a joke, but there was one there who understood that it was true. The other criminal somehow saw in Jesus’ innocent suffering that something divine was happening. He somehow saw that Jesus’ crucifixion was his coronation. He somehow saw in Jesus’ crown of thorns a real king about to enter his kingdom.

And so he rebuked the other criminal who was talking trash to Jesus. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” This criminal recognized that he was getting what the law demanded. He accepted his own condemnation. He acknowledged his own guilt while pointing to Jesus’ innocence.

And then he said something truly remarkable. He turned his head towards Jesus, and he said to him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Notice he didn’t use the word “if,” like so many others did. He said “when.” He firmly believed Jesus had a kingdom! As far as he was concerned, there was no “if” here, it was only a matter of when! That’s faith!

He then asked Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. This is more than just asking to be called to mind. He wasn’t asking Jesus to put a picture of him on his fridge and think about him once in a while. In asking Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom, this criminal was asking him for mercy when Jesus takes his place in his royal court. He was asking his King Jesus for pardon, for clemency in the coming kingdom. He was asking the King he knew would soon be on his heavenly throne to remember him with grace.

And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

“Today,” Jesus said. On that very day Christ’s kingdom would come to him. There would be no waiting, no delay. He wouldn’t be taken down from the cross for a second chance in which he could prove himself first. He didn’t have to come back for a hearing at a later date. “Today,” Jesus said. His grace was imminent. It was available on the very day of his asking! “Today.”

“Today you will be with me,” Jesus said. This criminal would not be alone. He would not be cast out into the outer darkness. He would not be stuck with his mouthy fellow criminal. He would not be dumped with all the other bodies piled up at the bottom of the hill. He would be with Jesus. He was going where Jesus was going.  “You will be with me,” Jesus told him.

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus doesn’t tell him he will be in Purgatory, with a sentence still to serve. Jesus tells him he will be with him in Paradise. This word can also be translated as “garden.” What Jesus is promising is a return to the Garden, a return to the paradise of Eden before the fall. He is promising a complete restoration, where he will be free from sin and its consequences, free from the condemnation of the law, free from guilt and shame and pain and weeping and death.

Jesus won’t just remember him, he will re-member him. That is, he will put him back together the way he was supposed to be. He will heal everything in his life which has been dis-membered. He will restore him to the wholeness and perfection God intended for him at the beginning of creation. This is the picture of heaven Jesus gives him with this beautiful word, “Paradise.” And if anyone questions this criminal as to why he is there, he can just point to the King and say, “He invited me! He let me in!”

My pastor during my high school and college years died from cancer while I was in seminary. We kept in touch in the years before his death, even after he took his last call to a congregation in Arizona. Once when I was down in Arizona on a trip, we met for lunch. He talked about how he endured all the ups and downs – mostly downs – of dealing with a terminal illness. He said that in his worst moments of suffering he would sing a chant he had learned, a musical setting of the words of the criminal from the cross: Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.

This didn’t entirely make sense to me at the time. He was one of the most godly, honest, upright, gentle, and kind people I have ever known, and I thought it was a little odd for him to be meditating on the words of a criminal, making them his own.

But years after he died, I came across something Martin Luther wrote about this criminal and his words. Luther wrote: “The criminal, perceiving his guilt and Christ’s innocence, trusts that Christ’s innocence will help him. He sees right into the heart of Christ, as though through a solid wall. The criminal is one of us, and we are like him; therefore, let us cry out to Christ trusting that He will say to us: `Yes, Amen!’

“The criminal is one of us, and we are like him,” Luther insists.

You don’t need to be a felon to need forgiveness. The scriptures tell us we all have fallen short of God’s law. The scriptures tell us that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The truth is we all need mercy in the court of our King. The truth is that we all suffer from sin and death. The truth is we all need to be re-membered and restored.

But this is just the first part of what Luther gets at here. Luther also says that we are also like the criminal in that we perceive that Christ can help us! We are like him in that we too see the heart of Christ in his innocent suffering for us! We see his great mercy. We see his great love. We are like this criminal in that we trust that our Lord Jesus will help us. We cry out to Jesus trusting that he will say to us, “Yes, Amen!”

Reading this snippet from Luther helped me make sense of my pastor singing the words of this criminal. He didn’t just meditate on them because he knew he was a sinner – although he certainly did and would be the first to admit it. He meditated on these words, making them his own, because he had faith that Jesus could help him.

He sang those words over and over again because he believed that the words on the sign hanging over Jesus’ head are true. Christ is indeed our King, and he is a King who can help. He is the King of mercy. He is our highest authority and our deepest hope. He is a King who suffers alongside us while promising us Paradise.

When the world looks to Jesus, it still sees that sign over his head and laughs, thinking it is all a big joke. It still scorns and derides him. King of the Jews? What kind of King dies on a cross?

But with eyes of faith, we too see that that sign is true. We see in Christ a King who helps us. We see a King who wore a crown of thorns, bearing our sin, in order to set us free. We see a King who suffers with us, so that we would know that he is with us even in our pain. We see a King who shared our death so that we might share his eternal life. We see a King who remembers us with mercy and promises us Paradise.

And so we pray, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”

And already now, our gracious King says, ‘Yes! Amen!”

Thanks be to God.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost – November 16, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Nov 17, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for November 16

Sermon for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost – November 16, 2025

Luke 21:5-19

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood is the time my dad took me to my first Mariners game. It was their first or maybe second season as a new franchise. They played in the Kingdom, which had just been completed a year or two before. I don’t remember who they played or whether they won or what we ate. What is vivid about this memory is walking up those big ramps around the perimeter of the Kingdom, looking up at the massive concrete pillars and beams, several feet thick. It was the hugest building I’d ever been in. It was like being inside a mountain. That enormous concrete structure made a big impression on me as a seven or eight-year-old kid. It seemed like it was built to last forever.

When they demolished the Kingdome only a mere twenty-three years later, I had to watch. I tuned in from our parsonage in Montana and watched the controlled demolition live. It only took a few seconds for a few well-placed explosives to do their work and poof, that entire massive concrete structure collapsed into a cloud of dust and a pile of rubble. What loomed so large both in the Seattle skyline and in my childhood memories was gone in an instant.

Things are never as permanent as we think they are.

We’re getting close to the end of Luke’s gospel now in our lectionary readings, and Jesus is in Jerusalem. We hear in our gospel reading for today that people were talking about the temple. They were admiring that spectacular structure which dominated the Jerusalem skyline. The temple was an architectural wonder of the ancient world. It was built on an enormous foundation with stones weighing as much as 40 tons each. There were massive walls covered in plated gold and towering columns of white marble. One set of doors was 75 feet high and 60 feet wide and made of solid Corinthian bronze. It seemed like it was built to last forever.

Jesus heard people talking about the temple, and he said to them, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” It was no doubt an unwelcome comment. It was a bummer of a thing to have inserted into someone’s casual conversation. It probably seemed absurd.

But Jesus was right. Eventually, the entire temple structure would be leveled. In 70AD, the Romans completely destroyed it, burning it down in a fire so hot that it cracked those massive stones, causing the structure to collapse in a heap of dust and rubble. There was not one stone left upon another.

Things are never as permanent as we think they are.

When those who had been talking about the temple asked Jesus when this would happen, Jesus didn’t tell them. He warned them that people would come along claiming to know, but that they shouldn’t listen to them. (This is still good advice today, by the way.)

Jesus then went on to describe all sorts of other things that aren’t as permanent as we think they are. He said that nations and kingdoms will be shaken by wars. He said that the ground beneath our feet, those enormous tectonic plates upon which we literally build our lives, will be shaken by earthquakes. He said that there will be times when economic structures are shaken and people will struggle to put food on the table. He said there will be times when our physical health will be shaken by disease. He said that our religious communities and even our families will be shaken by change, by conflict, by fracturing. These structures upon which we build our lives, these foundations which usually seem so firm, so sure, so certain, so strong, so permanent, will be shaken. They aren’t as permanent as we think they are.

That’s the bad news. And we need to hear this bad news, actually. We need a Lord who tells us the truth. We need a Lord who is honest with us about how things will be before his kingdom comes. That way, when we look at the world unraveling around us in so many different ways, we can say, “Ah, Jesus said there would be days like these.” Whether we’re looking at world history or current events or our own shaky lives we can be confident that none of what we see, none of what we experience, is unknown or unexpected to our Lord Jesus. He literally said there would be days like these!

There’s plenty of bad news in what Jesus says, and we need to hear it. But sprinkled in among the bad news is good news. It is easy to miss it, but it is there.

First, Jesus tells us that when we hear of these things happening, when we observe the collapse of these things we think are so permanent, we shouldn’t be afraid. “Do not be terrified,” Jesus says.

By itself, this may not be so helpful. Usually when someone tells me not to be afraid, it has the opposite effect! It has the effect of making me aware that there is a situation at hand which has prompted someone to try and talk me out of my anxiety, which then turns my anxiety up even higher!

Fear cannot be driven out by command. It can only be nudged out with a promise. We need a reason not to be afraid. And Jesus gives us a reason. He tells us that those shaky situations are not the end. They won’t have the last word. He tells us that the collapse of those things we thought were so permanent, as devastating and as final as they seem, are not the end. When our world seems to be unraveling or cracks start to show up in the foundations of our lives, it isn’t the end. God isn’t done yet!

As we deal with the fracturing of our world and our lives, Jesus also promises to help us. He tells us to not prepare ahead of time what we will say when we are attacked or maligned or ridiculed or threatened. “For I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict,” Jesus says. This doesn’t necessarily mean Jesus will whisper an awesome speech or sermon into our ears at just the right moment. It doesn’t mean he will slip us a note with the perfect comeback or argument to use against our adversaries. What Jesus is promising here is that he will be with us in every moment of trial or difficulty. He will be with us with his Word, assuring us that he is Lord and that we belong to him. It means that his Word will be the strong foundation upon which we will stand, leaving us unshaken even when everything else is collapsing. It means that our testimony before the world will be so simple and so ingrained in us that we don’t need to rehearse it. It will be part of us, part of our lives. The first Christian creed was simply, “Jesus is Lord.” These three words are so simple, and yet they say so much. They are so powerful. And we can only say them and mean it with Jesus’ help, which he promises to give us.

Jesus makes another promise, too. He promises that even though the world itself might collapse around us, not a hair on our heads will perish. This isn’t really about hair care, of course. Bald or balding Christians, take heart! This is a metaphor! This is about being known and loved so completely by God that there is no part of us that God will not redeem. This is about entrusting every last fiber of our being into God’s merciful care, even when parts of our lives seem to be falling away like hairs down the drain. It is about having every last dead cell being animated with new life through Jesus Christ.

“By your endurance you will gain your souls,” Jesus says. This is not an endurance that comes from our strength, but from his. It is the endurance of faith. It is the endurance of holding fast to what our Lord Jesus is promising to do for us here.

Jesus promises us that the future is in his hands, and so we don’t need to be afraid. It isn’t the end of things until he has the last word, so do not be terrified by what you see. Jesus promises to help us along the way, giving us words and a wisdom that the world cannot withstand or contradict. Jesus promises us that the entirety of our lives are in his powerful hands, down to the last strand of hair, and so even when everything else is collapsing, we will not perish. We will have life with him, now and forever.

Things are never as permanent as we think they are, but in our Lord Jesus and his Word we have a strong foundation which will never be shaken or destroyed. The Word of the Lord endures forever. His promises are permanent. When things get shaky, stand there.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church