Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost – November 9, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Nov 10, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for November 9

Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost – November 9, 2025

Luke 20:27-38

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

Today we are introduced to a new sparring partner for our Lord Jesus. Jesus usually goes toe-to-toe with the scribes and the Pharisees or the chief priests. Today it is the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a small but powerful group in Jesus’ time. They were religious scholars of a sort. They were the elites who ran the Temple system. They were religious aristocrats who rubbed elbows with the wealthy and the powerful. They even hob-nobbed with Roman authorities as part of the upper class. Luther called them “the smug.”

One distinct feature about the Sadducees, which St. Luke is quick to point out to us, is that they didn’t believe in a resurrection. They didn’t believe in any kind of life after death. The Pharisees did. Most Jews did. The Sadducees did not. This might sound strange to have people so embedded in a religion’s leadership who don’t believe in something so central to it, something so widely held by its adherents, but that’s how it was. The Sadducees considered themselves too sophisticated to believe in something like life after death. Believing themselves to be smarter than God, they abandoned the best part of what their religion taught!

These types of religious leaders are still with us, by the way. The current president of Union Seminary in New York made waves a few years ago when she admitted in an interview that she didn’t believe in the resurrection. She said, “My faith is not tied to some divine promise about the afterlife.” There was a prominent Episcopal priest who sold a ton of books in the Nineties who openly denied that Jesus was really raised from the dead. I even heard a high-ranking clergyman from our own denomination once say that he wasn’t too sure about life after death.

You would think that if you can’t affirm the basic tenets of the Christian creeds that you would have the integrity to go find a new job, but instead these people somehow manage to work their way into the highest echelons of various religious institutions. They are the Sadducees of our own time. This is who the Sadducees were.

These Sadducees came to Jesus with what they thought was a sophisticated argument against the resurrection. They described a scenario in which a woman was married seven times, to seven brothers in a row, before she herself died. Then, no doubt with smug grins on their faces, they asked Jesus, “In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?”

It is important to say more about this before we go on to Jesus’ response. The Sadducees were referring to what Moses had written in Deuteronomy about an ancient practice called levirate marriage. If a woman was widowed without a child, according to this practice it was the responsibility of the brother of the man who died to take in his sister-in-law, marry her, and have a child with her. This sounds completely bonkers in our time, but the function of this was to provide care and support for widows. It was less about marriage as a relationship and more about basic life insurance. A childless widow in that time had no means of supporting herself other than begging or prostitution. And so in a time where there was no life insurance, no social security, no safety net of any sort, this levirate marriage system was essentially life insurance. It was a way to provide ongoing support and protection to widows. The Sadducees thought they were so smart in citing this practice from the law of Moses as a way of ridiculing the idea of the resurrection. What if she ends up going through seven brothers? In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? This background is important to note, because it shapes Jesus’ response to them. Jesus tells them that in the resurrection from the dead, people neither marry nor are given in marriage. Which, by itself, might not be a very satisfying response.

I’ve heard people who are in happy, loving marriages say that this response from Jesus makes them sad. “Is Jesus saying I won’t be with my husband or wife in heaven?” This is especially confusing and painful and difficult for the many widows and widowers in our congregation. When this reading has come around in the past, I’ve had widows come to me in a fury, with tears in their eyes, saying, “What do you mean there’s no marriage in heaven? If I won’t be married to my husband in heaven, then I don’t want to be there!” And I get it. I do. I adore my wife, and while we technically only signed up “until death parts us,” I would love to go extra innings with her. She is the best part of my life, and I want to spend eternity married to her. I can’t imagine heaven being heaven without her there as my wife. So I understand completely.

But we need to be careful about isolating these words and jumping to conclusions.

Jesus is talking about something really specific here in this reading, so we need to pay close attention to him. Jesus is not giving a full-fledged description of heaven. Jesus is countering the Sadducees and their argument. Jesus is saying that the life insurance program which is levirate marriage won’t be a thing in the afterlife.        It won’t be needed because in the resurrection there will be no death! Jesus isn’t saying we won’t know each other. He isn’t saying we won’t recognize each other. He isn’t saying we won’t be together. Jesus is telling the Sadducees that their scenario is irrelevant, because in heaven none of those earth-bound concerns for support or protection will matter anymore.

What Jesus goes on to say should provide encouragement and hope for all of us. Jesus cites the story of Moses and the burning bush to point out that God identified himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Jesus points out that although all three of them are long dead, God speaks of them in that story in the present tense. God calls them by their name. And so they are still themselves. They are still recognized as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Jesus then says, “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

I don’t know what marriage, or any of our relationships for that matter, will look like in heaven. But we have a divine promise from our Lord Jesus that our God is the God of the living. We have a divine promise that to him, all of our loved ones whom he has called to himself are alive. We have a divine promise that we will be alive with them – still recognizable, still known by name. We cannot possibly understand what this new state of being with God will be like, but Jesus assures us that it is real, and that it will be good.

You might have heard the modern parable of the two unborn twins in their mother’s womb. The first unborn baby says to the other, “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The second one replies, “Yes, of course! Don’t you?” And the first twin scoffs and says, “No! That’s a silly idea. What we are experiencing here and now in this womb, this is all there is. What would life after delivery even be like, anyway?” And the second replies, “Well, maybe there are senses that we don’t even know about yet, senses that we don’t use here. What if our eyes open and we begin to see things we can’t even imagine yet?” The first baby says, “You’re being ridiculous. Don’t you see this umbilical cord? Don’t you know this is what is keeping us alive? It’s a scientific fact.” And the second says, “Well, maybe it will be different out there. Whatever it is, I’m sure our mother will take care of us.” The first twin starts to laugh, “Ha! You believe there’s a mother? What gives you that idea? Where is this mother now?” And the second says, “She’s all around us. In her we live and move and have our being. I believe that in life after delivery, she will be there to hold us and care for us. But even now, if you listen, you can hear her heartbeat. Even now, you can hear her voice.”

My friends, in Jesus Christ we can hear the heartbeat of the One in whom we live and move and have our being. Through the Word of God we can hear the voice of God telling us that there is indeed a life beyond this one. I can’t tell you exactly what it will be like. Our eyes haven’t yet been opened to that. There are senses that won’t be awakened until then. I can’t tell you what our relationships will be like either, but based on the divine promise we have from our Lord Jesus, I can assure you that we will recognize each other. I can assure you that we will be alive and together in ways that we can’t begin to imagine now. I can assure you that the resurrection is real, and that it will be good.

To you widows or widowers, or anyone who is in a happy, loving marriage and feels saddened by Jesus’ words, know this: the scriptures promise us that love never ends. And so all the things you currently enjoy about your spouse, or all the things you miss about them – the companionship, the closeness, the love – it will all be there in the afterlife. We will be recognizably reunited with them in heaven. The scriptures teach us that a loving marriage is a sign, a faint reflection, of Christ’s love for the church, and that reflection can only come into sharper focus in the life to come.

To those whose relationship status or relationship history is more complicated, know this: in the life to come all those complicated scenarios will be resolved by God in ways you can’t begin to imagine, so don’t worry about it. All will be sorted out. All will be perfected.

To those who feel alone, know this: in the life to come, all will be loved and held and cherished and cared for forever.

For those who are missing any loved ones, whether they are friends, parents, children, other family members, know this: because of Jesus, we have the hope of living with them forever as children of the resurrection.

Don’t let anything rob you of that hope. Don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise or try to distract you from it, even if they’re wearing a clerical collar. Our God is the God of the living. To him, all of them are alive, and one day we will be delivered into a new life too.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for All Saints Sunday – November 2, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Nov 4, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for November 2

Sermon for All Saints Sunday – November 2, 2025

Ephesians 1:11-23, Luke 6:20-31

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

On All Saints Sunday we need to get one thing straight right from the start: Sainthood is not earned or achieved; it is bestowed and received. Sainthood is a gift! It is the baptismal birthright of every Christian!  A saint is not someone who has earned the title by being exceptionally well-behaved. A saint is not someone who has achieved this status by performing a miracle and making it through a process of canonization. What the Bible teaches us is that a saint is someone upon whom Christ has bestowed his saving grace, someone who has received this saving grace through faith. Whenever saints are mentioned in the New Testament it simply refers to those who have been baptized into Christ.

There are certain people from Christian history who have made extraordinary contributions to the church. We commonly refer to them as saints. These are those spiritual superheroes who have their own days on the church calendar. This is a good thing. We should remember and celebrate them. We can learn from them. We can be inspired by them. But they are not in a separate category. Their title of saint is not exclusive to them. In the Bible the word “saint” is simply a synonym for the word “Christian.”

We see this most clearly in how St. Paul addressed several of his letters. When Paul wrote Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, he addressed all these letters to the saints. He was not writing to spiritual superheroes in these letters. If they were already spiritual superheroes, they wouldn’t need his letters! The people he was writing to were not people who had earned any status in the church. They were not people who had achieved moral or spiritual perfection. In fact, in some cases, Paul was writing to people who were deeply messed up! Have you read 1 Corinthians? Parts of it read like it could be a script for a new series called “Desperate Housewives of Corinth.” And yet, the Apostle Paul addressed them all as saints. Why? Because they were Christians. He called them saints because Christ Jesus had bestowed his gift of salvation upon them, and they had received it in faith.

In our reading from Ephesians for this All Saints Sunday we hear Paul repeatedly refer to the saints as those who have received an inheritance. An inheritance isn’t earned or achieved. It is bestowed and received. To be precise, an inheritance is bestowed and received after someone has died. To be a saint, then, is to receive the gift of what Christ has done for us through his death on the cross. It is to receive the inheritance of salvation he has won for us through his death and resurrection. Jesus bestows this gift, Paul says, through his Word, and we receive it in our ears by faith.

Christ is bestowing this gift upon us today as he speaks to us. In the gospel of Luke today we hear Jesus proclaiming blessing after blessing. This blessing isn’t just for those who heard him back then, they are for you who are gathered here today. This is a living Word being bestowed upon you to receive and believe.

“Blessed are you who are poor,” Jesus says. “Blessed are you who are hungry.”  Jesus proclaims his blessing upon those in need, whether materially, spiritually, or relationally. Jesus looks upon those who don’t have enough, whether it is money or food or hope or love, and he says to them, to you, “Blessed are you, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you, for you will be filled.” Blessed are you because God sees you. God cares about you, and in the coming of his Son, God is bestowing upon you a love that fills every emptiness.

“Blessed are you who weep,” Jesus says. This tends to be a weepy Sunday as we remember those saints who have died since last All Saints Sunday. We ache at the sound of the names of those saints who are no longer with us. They were dear friends and beloved members of our church family. They were beloved husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. In many cases, that grief is still fresh, still raw. “Blessed are you who weep,” Jesus says to us, “for you will laugh.” That laughing doesn’t have to be today. It is okay to weep. But Jesus promises us that a day is coming when death and mourning and crying will be no more, a day of restoration and reunion and, yes, laughter.

“Blessed are you are who are hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed on account of the Son of Man,” Jesus says. Jesus proclaims his blessing on all who suffer because of their faith in him. Jesus proclaims his blessing on our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who are currently being violently oppressed under an extreme form of Sharia law, with tens of thousands of them being massacred and martyred for their Christian faith. Jesus says that they, and all who suffer for their faith, can rejoice, because their suffering won’t have the last word. Jesus promises that their reward will be great in heaven.

Jesus bestows blessing after blessing after blessing. And these blessings are given to those who haven’t earned or achieved anything! These blessings are instead freely bestowed upon those who need them. They are bestowed in grace and received in faith.

There are woes too, of course. Jesus gives warnings to those who are already comfortable in this life: the rich, the happy, the well-fed and the well-liked. These aren’t inherently bad things to be. In fact, in the right context, they can be received as blessings of their own. But Jesus warns that those who are already comfortable with life as it is are less likely to see their need for a blessing from Jesus. They are less likely to receive the salvation he has come to bestow. Being comfortable now makes it very easy to be in denial about our need for the life he brings.

There was a news story that ran a week or so ago about a new study on the health benefits of walking. My wife and I are avid walkers, so it got my attention. The way ABC News described the study was to say that “walking 4,000 steps per day reduced the risk of death by 40%.” Now, whoever wrote that byline is in some serious denial, because I’m pretty sure that no matter how much you walk, the risk of death is always 100%! (If you’re curious, the story went on to clarify that it led to a 40% reduction in premature death from cardiovascular disease, which is a pretty important detail, I think.)

We may well be secure and happy and healthy now, and that isn’t bad or wrong. But it can lead to this kind of denial, this false sense of security. The reality is, we will all face times when we are poor in some way or another. We will all face times when we feel empty, when we hunger for things to be different. We will all have times when we weep at the loss of someone dear to us. And no matter how much we walk, the death rate is still 100%. And so the day will come for all of us when our name is on the list of those who have died since the last All Saints Sunday.

In the meantime, we have a word of blessing from our Lord Jesus. In the meantime, we have the promise of the inheritance our Lord Jesus has bestowed upon us through his saving death. In the meantime, we have a title which has been freely bestowed upon us, the title given to us in our baptism – the title of saint. There is nothing we do to earn or achieve this title. We can only receive it through faith, by trusting that it is ours, by trusting in Christ’s Word to us.

And when we receive this title by faith, we start to act like who we are. When we receive this gift of salvation and sainthood which has been bestowed upon us, we start to act at least a little bit like those people who have their own days on the calendar, each in our own way. Our hearts begin to soften towards our enemies. We are a little more inclined to bless those who curse us and a little less inclined to seek revenge. We begin to look forward to sharing with those in need. We start to do to others as we would have them do to us.

We don’t do this perfectly, or even particularly well. We are sinner-saints who will always struggle with this. But in fits and starts we begin to live into the identity bestowed upon us by our Lord – not because we have to, but as a grateful response to the One already did it perfectly for us. Our Lord Jesus loved his enemies, even as he was being crucified. Jesus blessed those who cursed him, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” Jesus turned the other cheek to those who struck him, and by his wounds we are healed. Jesus gave up not only his cloak but also his tunic as he was stripped bare, giving up everything, even his life, in order to save us, in order to save you, in order to make you one of his saints.

Sainthood isn’t earned or achieved; it is bestowed and received. As we receive the gifts Christ won for us on the cross, given to us in Word and Sacrament, we are strengthened for a life that, however imperfectly, begins to reflect the perfect life and the perfect love of our savior. As we receive the promise of the glorious inheritance our Lord Jesus has in store for all who believe, we also live in hope. We look with hope to the day when we can once again share some barbeque with Roger, a piece of pie with Jack, some chocolate milk with Allan, some tea and cookies with Mary, some Dove chocolates with Gisela, a cup of coffee with Bob, and some ham salad with Leona. Until that day comes, we gather with them, and with the whole company of heaven, at the table our Lord has set for all the saints as a foretaste of the feast to come.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 19, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Oct 20, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for October 19

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 19, 2025

Luke 18:1-8

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

We live in a cultural moment which is filled with doom and gloom. I’m not talking about Halloween displays, though why people “decorate” their yard with all of that ugly, hideous gore this time of year is something I will never understand. What I’m talking about is the angry, fearful, despairing, doom and gloom attitude I see so often in people. I see it in people from all walks of life, and from all points on the political spectrum. There are different concerns driving this doom and gloom, but the spiritual malady underneath it all is the same: It is a lack of hope.

In our gospel reading for today Jesus gives us both practical advice and a powerful promise for cultivating hope amidst the doom and gloom. He teaches us how we can endure in hope when dark days and hard times come.

In the verses leading up to today’s gospel reading, Jesus himself lays some doom and gloom on the disciples. He tells them that there will be dark days ahead. He tells them that days are coming when they will “long to see the days of the Son of Man,” and they will not see it. He says there will be days like the days of Noah, when there was widespread immorality and lawlessness and rejection of God. He says there will be days like the days of Sodom, when Lot and his wife fled the violence-plagued city as fire and sulfur rained down. The disciples were understandably shaken by what Jesus was saying, and so they asked him: “Where, Lord?” And Jesus replied cryptically and ominously: “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Talk about doom and gloom!

I imagine the disciples sitting there, pale and sweaty, ready to buy a bunch of canned goods and head for the hills. But then Jesus goes on – and that’s where our reading picks up for today: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

In this parable there is a judge. In the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, there are special mandates for the judges of Israel to give special attention and care to widows. But this judge, Jesus tells us, neither feared God nor had any respect for people. And so, when a widow kept coming to his court, asking for justice, he ignored her. But this widow kept coming back again and again and again. She knew what the scriptures said about how judges are supposed to treat widows. She was persistent. She didn’t give up. She knew what the judge was supposed to do, and she held him to what the scriptures demanded of him. Finally, the judge relented. He said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice so that she will not wear me out by continually coming!”

Some parables Jesus tells are allegorical, with God usually being represented by the powerful figure in the story. Other parables, however, employ a teaching method used by Jewish rabbis to make a point differently by employing contrast, moving from a lesser example to illustrate something greater. An example of this method is found when Jesus taught that just as fallen human parents know how to give good things to their children, how much more will God give good things to those who ask.

This same teaching method is being used with this parable. God is not represented by the unjust judge, as might happen in an allegory. Instead, the unjust judge is there to provide a contrast to the qualities and character of God. Unlike the unjust judge, God cares deeply for widows and others who are vulnerable or needy. Jesus is saying that if even a godless, heartless judge will relent at the persistence of this widow, how much more will a good and loving God respond to you! “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?” Jesus asks, rhetorically. “Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”

With this parable, Jesus gives both practical advice and a powerful promise for the inevitable difficult days the disciples will face. He recognizes the doom and gloom that will fall over them, but he doesn’t leave them mired in it. Instead, he tells them this parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He encourages them by assuring them that God will respond to their prayers, God will hear their cries and respond quickly, God will be there to help.

Like the disciples, we too experience dark days and hard times. Like the disciples, there are times when we long to see the Son of Man, but we have a hard time seeing him. Like Jesus said, there are days when we seem to be surrounded by immorality and lawlessness and violence. It does seem at times as though wickedness and confusion and godlessness are as rampant today as they were in the days of Noah. Dark days and hard times come on a smaller scale too. There are the many personal apocalypses people face that come with a scary diagnosis, or a lost job, or a broken relationship, or the death of a loved one – those times when life gets completely upended and the future is frightening and foreboding.

How do we respond to dark days and hard times? Jesus calls us to “pray always and not lose heart.” But what does this mean? What does it mean to “pray always”? Does it mean we should all become monks or nuns and head off to a remote monastery somewhere where we can cloister ourselves off from the world and literally pray all day long? It sounds tempting, I know! But this isn’t what it means to “pray always.”

Does praying always mean closing our eyes and folding our hands twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week? That’s not a bad prayer posture. It is how I teach our preschoolers to pray. It can help us focus. But we can’t hold that posture all day long, right? So what does it mean to “pray always?”

To pray always is to constantly keep a God-centered perspective on things. To pray always is to constantly entrust ourselves to God even when everything around us seems to be falling apart. To pray always is to constantly take all our concerns to God in prayer, trusting that God will hear us and help us. To pray always isn’t just to fold our hands, it is to open them up to God, ready to receive the future God promises he has in store for us.

The practical advice given to us in this parable is to be persistent in prayer, cultivating hope by immersing ourselves in the reality of God’s promises, day by day, minute by minute. But there aren’t just instructions for us to heed here. There is also a promise. Jesus promises us that God is not an unjust judge, unwilling to give us a hearing. Instead, God is standing by, even now, to hear our plea, to listen to our cry, and to respond. While worldly justice is a perpetual struggle, God quickly grants justice to his chosen ones. God justifies us by his grace. God makes things right with us by giving us his mercy, his love, and the promise of his coming kingdom. And so our posture towards the future cannot be one of doom and gloom. We have a God who hears us, and a promise that gives us hope.

And so, my dear friends in Christ, pray always! In a time when prayer is sometimes dismissed or ridiculed as a response to horrible events, Jesus lifts up prayer as the most important thing you can do! To pray always is to call upon the God who has promised so hear us, and the means by which we hang on to hope.

So pray always and do not lose heart. Remember that God is in control, that God will always be there to hear and to help us. There might be dark days, but God’s kingdom will come. In fact, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the glorious kingdom of God has already begun. Sin, death, and the devil, though they seem to rule the day, have already ultimately been conquered by Christ Jesus.

And so as we look to the future, we pray, trusting that God will come to make things right once and for all, to complete what he’s begun. As we look to the future, we do not lose heart, for even now he comes to us, speaking to us through his word, feeding us at his table, giving us a foretaste of the feast to come, when his goodness and grace will restore all things.

In the meantime, as Jesus’ disciples today, we don’t stay stuck in the doom and gloom our algorithms and news channels are constantly feeding us. Instead, we pray, and we do not lose heart.

Dark days and hard times will come, but we don’t run to the hills when they do. We don’t close ourselves off or retreat to our enclaves in fear.

Instead, we go out into the world to share the promise. We go out into the world to share the truth of God’s Word. We go out into the world to share hope that is in us with a world that desperately needs it.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church