by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 10, 2026 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 8
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 8, 2026
Matthew 5:13-20
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks new realities into being. Just as God the Father said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, now God the Son is speaking new things into existence.
Last week we heard Jesus say, “Blessed are you,” over and over again. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said. “Blessed are those who mourn, and those who are meek. Blessed are the pure in heart and the peacemakers. Blessed are you when you are rejected and reviled for my sake,” Jesus said. And as Christ spoke these blessings, they came to be. Jesus’ word does what it says! Just as God the Father spoke creation into existence, so too now God the Son is speaking new realities into being by the power of his Word.
Today we hear a second installment from the Sermon on the Mount, and as we pick up where we left off last week, we hear Jesus continuing to do this. “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says. This is a declarative statement. Christ has defined his hearers in this way, and so that is what they now are! “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says, echoing the Father at creation. Jesus calls this light into being and then says, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth? Throughout most of human history salt has been used as a seasoning. It is really quite an amazing substance. Salt is a flavor enhancer. It draws out the goodness of the food being seasoned. Salt also neutralizes bitterness, which is why you almost always need a pinch of it even in sweet recipes. Salt, of course, is still widely used today. It is found in every kitchen around the world, and on the table of every restaurant.
In the ancient world, salt was also used as an essential preservative. In Jesus’ time there were no refrigerators. There were no Coleman coolers. You couldn’t grab a bag of ice on your way out of the grocery store. The only way to preserve meat was to salt it. Even just a thin layer on a fish filet or a slab of lamb would keep it from rotting, preserving those important sources of protein.
To be the salt of the earth, then, is to bring out goodness. It is to neutralize bitterness. It is also to be a preservative for the sake of the world, for the sake of human society, keeping it from rotting.
What does it mean to be the light of the world? From ancient times and across cultures, light has represented truth. Many educational institutions use a torch as part of their insignia to represent the pursuit of truth. Light has long represented hope and comfort, like the first light of dawn after a long night of darkness. Light has long been a symbol of goodness and holiness and life, in contrast to the darkness of evil and sin and death. To be the light of the world, then, is to be bearers of truth and hope and goodness and life. It is to reflect the light of Christ into the darkness of the world.
And so as Jesus continues in the Sermon on the Mount, he is calling into being the new life we live as Christians.
We are the salt of the earth. As we are scattered and sprinkled throughout our communities, we bring a measure of goodness that preserves God’s world. This isn’t a goodness that comes from us, it is a goodness that Christ has given us. It is a goodness that is drawn out of us as the Holy Spirit shapes our thoughts and actions.
Sometimes we might feel discouraged as we increasingly seem to be pushed to the margins of society and the fringes of culture. We might get discouraged as we continue to see the church losing numbers and Christianity losing influence in society. But it doesn’t take much salt to make a difference. Many recipes call for only a pinch, right? It doesn’t take much salt to preserve something. A thin sprinkling, spread out, can be very effective in keeping things from rotting.
We are the light of the world. “Let your light so shine before others,” Jesus says, “that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The light of our faith is illuminated in the good works that we do. How do we know what these good works are? Do we just make them up ourselves? Do we let the world define for us which works are good? No. Jesus immediately goes on to point us to God’s law. He says that whoever breaks one of the commandments of the law, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them, Jesus says, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus specifically points us to the Ten Commandments, which he unpacks in great detail later in the Sermon on the Mount. None of these commandments are to be watered down or relaxed. They all remain in effect: We are to worship God alone, making God the most important thing in our lives; we are to use God’s name rightly, for prayer and for praise; we are to spend time in God’s Word in the fellowship of the church; we are to honor fathers and mothers and show respect to others in authority; we are to uphold the sanctity of human life and honor marriage; we are to deal honestly and speak truthfully; we are to be content and grateful for what we have.
These are the good works that give glory to our Father in heaven. And that’s really the point – giving glory to God. We are not to do those things to shine a light on ourselves, but to give the glory to God, who has given us the will to do them through the Holy Spirit.
But to bear this light is not only to bear the truth of God’s law. It is also to bear the truth of the gospel. It is to bring the light of God’s grace. It is to bring hope to those who have broken these commandments by assuring them that Christ has come to be their savior, to give them forgiveness and new life. It is to bear witness to the goodness of God, who ultimately sent Christ to fulfill the law for us. Jesus talks about the necessity of having a righteousness which exceeds that of the Pharisees, and our only hope of having that kind of righteousness is by receiving it as a gift of grace, given to us by Jesus, who has taken away the condemnation of the law for us by dying for our sin on the cross and rising to give us this new life. This is the righteousness of faith. This is also the good news of the gospel, and it is always a good work to share the light of this good news with others!
Living as salt and as light isn’t always easy. Sometimes the salt we bring stings those who have rejected God. Sometimes the light we bring hurts the eyes of those who have lived too long in the darkness. We are called to navigate this hostility very carefully, in ways that neutralize bitterness – in us, as well as in others. We are called to bring light, not heat – there’s plenty of that in our culture already!
But no matter how careful or winsome we are, not everyone will be seasoned by the salt. Not everyone will bask in the light. But as we heard Jesus tell us last week, we can rejoice when we are reviled, for that is what happened to the prophets. We’re in good company, Jesus promises, and our reward will be great in heaven.
Today Jesus declares us to be salt and light. He isn’t giving us a suggestion or an invitation, he just up and says it! By his Word he is bringing a new reality into existence. He has said that we are salt and light, and so that is what we are! Jesus is calling into being the new life we live as Christians.
With these words, the Lord Jesus has infused your life with purpose and meaning.
You are the salt of the earth. In ways that might seem very small, you bring the flavor of Christ – which brings goodness to others, which neutralizes bitterness and preserves this fallen world from going completely rotten. You are being sprinkled around in order to enhance and preserve the world God so dearly loves.
You are also the light of the world. God has lit a lamp in your heart in order to bring a ray of hope into the darkness of the world. You are a light that bears the truth of God’s law and the grace of God’s gospel.
So stay salty. And let your light so shine before others that they would see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 4, 2026 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 1
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany – February 1, 2026
Matthew 5:1-12
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
When you think of what it means to be blessed, what comes to mind? Usually, we think of ourselves as blessed when things are going well. We are blessed when we are healthy – physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We are blessed when we have enough in the fridge and in the bank account. We are blessed when we have good relationships with others, when we have people in our lives who love us. We are blessed when the people we love are happy and healthy too. Blessings are usually thought of in terms of those things which bring us joy and peace and contentedness.
And this isn’t wrong. If you asked to name the greatest blessings in my life, these are the kinds of things I would point to. They are the first things that would come to my mind. These are indeed blessings – they are gifts from God.
In the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus greatly expands the idea of what a blessing is and who is blessed. In this first part of his famous sermon (we’ll hear more of it next Sunday), Jesus announces blessings upon situations and people which were not thought to be blessed at all!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus begins. Jesus starts off by announcing a blessing on those for whom things are NOT going well! Blessed are those whose spirits are lacking in peace or joy. Blessed are those who are experiencing a poverty of the soul. Blessed are those who are down in the dumps. Blessed are those who are anxious or remorseful or ashamed.
“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus continues. Blessed are those who are grieving, those who are sad. Blessed are those who have faced loss of one kind or another.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus said. In other words, blessed are those whose lives are NOT right. Blessed are those who have been stung by a world that is not right. Blessed those who long for their relationship with God and their relationships with others to be made right.
Blessed are those, Jesus says, who are persecuted and reviled and have all kinds of evil uttered against them falsely on his account. Blessed are those who are harassed and excluded and teased and despised and lied about by others because they are Christians. Apparently being a Christian won’t always make us popular or respected by others!
These are NOT the situations or people we usually think of as blessed, are they? The poor in spirit? Those who mourn? Those whose lives are not right? Those who are hated? These are blessed? Really?
This sermon of Jesus’, the Sermon on the Mount, is not a prescription. Jesus is not saying these are things you should strive to be and do. The fastest way to ruin a blessing is to turn it into a to-do list! No one should try to be poor in spirit. No one should seek unrighteousness or broken relationships. Purposefully offending people doesn’t make you a Christian, it just makes you a jerk! This sermon is not a prescription but a description. It is a description of what Jesus is up to. It is a description of the gifts, the blessings, he has come to give.
Jesus has come to bring blessings to those who are lacking them in one way or another. Jesus has come to bring gifts from God to people who need them. And these gifts have both a present reality and a future hope.
Note how each of the blessings are in the present tense. “Blessed ARE…” Jesus says, over and over again. He doesn’t say, “Blessed IF…this or that happens. He doesn’t say, Blessed WILL BE this person or that after they accomplish this or decide to do that.” This blessing is in the present tense. Their blessing comes now! And it comes because Christ Jesus has come to be with them. Jesus came to be with the sick and suffering. He came to be with those who were plagued by demons. He came to break bread with sinners. He came to seek out the broken and the lost and the hurting. And as he came to be with them, his presence with them was already a blessing! “Blessed ARE you!” he said to them. “Yours IS the kingdom of heaven!” In Christ’s presence with them, they got to participate in that kingdom now. They could know the peace and the presence of God. What a gift! What a blessing!
But Christ’s blessings also pointed to a future hope. They WILL BE comforted. They WILL BE filled. Rejoicing WILL come, because when the blessing of Christ’s presence is made known, healing and new life is never far behind.
Some of you may be familiar with the Japanese art of kintsugi. This is an art form where something broken is repaired with gold or silver. Those precious metals are melted down and used as a glue, welding the broken pieces back together, creating beautiful rivulets where the cracks had been. The broken places are still there, but the bowl or the vase is whole again, and the scars are turned into something beautiful, something redeemed.
This is the blessing Christ has come to give to the broken. He has come to take the shards, the rough and jagged parts of our lives, and bring them together by his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, making us whole again. The marks left behind might still be there – at least for now, at least in this life – but instead of being ugly scars, they become places of strength. They become something beautiful, beautiful because they have been redeemed.
When people outside the church look at us, I think they often assume that we are a group of people who are blessed in a conventional sense. Supposedly, we are the people whose lives are going well. We are the ones who are happy and righteous and spiritually strong. Maybe that’s even what we think sometimes.
While these blessings do exist, to be sure, and while those kinds of blessings should be celebrated and received with gratitude, that’s not why we come to church. It is not what makes us Christians. We come here because we need the kind of blessings our Lord Jesus is giving here. He comes to us with the blessings we need the most. He comes to us to say: “Blessed are you who are having a rough time, because I am with you now to give you hope and peace.” He comes to us to say: “Blessed are you who sad or heavy hearted, for I am with you now, and I assure you that this grief will not have the last word.” He comes to us to say: “Blessed are you who are not right, you who sin and are sinned against, for I am here to be your savior, I am here to make you right by my grace, my free gift of forgiveness, and I promise you that everything will be made right in the end.
With these words of blessing and promise, the Lord Jesus practices his kintsugi, putting the broken parts of our lives back together. We are blessed here and now as Christ comes to us through Word and sacrament, forgiving us, renewing us, redeeming us with the beautiful rivulets of his sacrificial love, making us whole again by his grace, making even our broken parts gleam with his glory. And we are blessed with a future hope as we entrust everything that is not yet mended to him.
In receiving Jesus’ blessing, we come to be a blessing. We are blessed with mercy that we might become merciful. We are blessed with a new heart made pure by grace that we might see God, and in perceiving his presence, participate in his bestowal of blessings. We are blessed with the peace of Christ that we might share that peace with others.
But this isn’t a to-do list. It is just what flows out of us when we have been blessed by Jesus.
And you have been blessed by him! Not just in the good stuff, but in the hard stuff too. The Lord Jesus brings his blessings to all of it, every corner, every crack, here and now.
“Blessed are you, blessed are you.”
Yes, you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 25, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 25
Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 25, 2026
Matthew 4:12-23
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
If there’s a single word that makes people uncomfortable, it is the word “repent.” This word is uncomfortable for non-Christians, who don’t like the judgement implied by it, but it is also an uncomfortable word for many Christians. It makes us uncomfortable because of how it has been used by street corner preachers, who scrawl the word on signs or bark the word through bullhorns, making everyone within earshot cringe. It makes us uncomfortable because in certain mouths, the word has become an embarrassing caricature of the Christian message.
The word “repent” might make us uncomfortable, but it is not a word we can avoid. It is not a word we can dismiss. We cannot avoid or dismiss it because this word “repent” is on the lips of our Lord Jesus in his very first sermon. Last week we heard Jesus’ first recorded words in the gospel of John. Today we hear Jesus’ first sermon in the gospel of Matthew. And the first word out of Jesus’ mouth is “repent.”
The word has a history. It is used over a thousand times in the Old Testament, usually by prophets, who use it to call people to turn away from their sin and to turn back to God. So you can think of the word “repent” as a dance with two moves, each equally important. There is the turn away from sin, which involves contrition, feeling sorry for your sin – not just sorry you got caught, not sorry you have to give it up – but sorry because you have grieved God’s heart. Contrition is part of what it means to repent. But this move of contrition is supposed to flow right into the next move, which is the turn back to God, who even the sternest of prophets describe as gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love. It is to turn towards the grace and mercy of God and be changed by it – changed in heart and mind and soul, changed in a way that leads to changed behavior, a changed life.
It isn’t that the street corner preachers are completely wrong, it is that they are only doing one tiny part of that one dance move – and not very well!
To unpack this further we need to look more closely at both the setting and the substance of Jesus’ first sermon. First of all, the setting. Jesus is in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali. This region had long been known as Capernaum, in Galilee. Those were the names on the maps, but Matthew uses the ancient placenames. He uses the names found in the Hebrew Bible to draw our attention to the promises God made through the prophet Isaiah – the very promises we heard in our first reading for today. Zebulon and Naphtali were the northernmost tribes of Israel. Their sins were many. They grieved God’s heart with the way they were living. God handed them over to their sin, allowing the Assyrians to invade. As the northernmost tribes, they bore the brunt of the invasion and never really recovered. Their land became a Gentile stronghold.
But God promised that their anguish and the contempt hanging over their land would not last forever. God gave Isaiah a vision wherein the people who walked in darkness see a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them a light would shine. They would rejoice as one does at the harvest, as one does when dividing plunder – as we would say, like someone who hit the jackpot. The bar across their shoulders, the yoke of their oppressor would be broken. They would be free from their sin at last!
Jesus moved from Nazareth to this very land to begin his ministry. Jesus purposefully moved to the land of Zebulon and Naphtali, Matthew tells us, because he was the fulfillment of this promise. He had come to bring the light of God’s grace and mercy. He had come to bring the light of God’s steadfast love and forgiveness. He had come to bring an abundance of grace that would change hearts and minds, leading to changed lives.
That’s the setting. Then there is the substance of the rest of the sermon. Jesus doesn’t only say “repent.” He goes on to say, “for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” doesn’t refer only to life after death. This refers to God’s reign, God’s rule. The kingdom of heaven is God’s rule over our hearts. The kingdom of heaven is not of this world, it isn’t something we establish or organize or build here on earth. It is God’s power breaking into our lives to restore us to right relationship with him. This is the second move of the dance, restated. It is to be turned towards the God who has come near to us in Jesus Christ and who has called us into his kingdom – not only after we die, but here and now while we yet live.
This dance continues throughout our lives. Martin Luther said in the very first of his 95 theses that the entire life of the Christian is one of repentance. We are always moving from contrition to faith, from the old life to the new, turning away from sin and towards our savior, from doing things our own way to joyful obedience to God’s will. The Good News changes us – but we are not changed all at once. The dance of repentance goes on.
We see this in the lives of the disciples. We see how Jesus called Simon and Andrew, James and John. They heard the word of the Lord Jesus and were changed by it. They immediately dropped their nets and followed him. This wasn’t a “take this job and shove it” moment. They would return to fishing later. This signified that their minds and hearts and been changed by the kingdom of heaven coming near to them in Jesus, leading to a changed life of following him. They left everything in order to proclaim the Good News that would bring many into his net.
But this wasn’t the end of the story. As we see in the rest of the gospel, these same disciples often misunderstood Jesus. They often stumbled. At times, they failed miserably as Jesus’ followers. They continued to need to repent. And so the dance continued.
We see this pattern also in the lives of the Christians in Corinth. We’re going to be hearing a series of readings from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians over the next few weeks. This letter begins with Paul calling them sanctified saints. He praises their testimony and the good work God has been doing in them. They have been changed by the gospel!
But most of the rest of the letter is a compendium of the ways they have utterly failed as Christians. In our reading for this week Paul calls them out for having factions in the congregation. They didn’t keep the focus on Christ and his cross, and so they ended up divided – as still happens today. In the rest of the letter we hear about their poor worship practices, the mockery they were making of the Lord’s Supper. We hear about the ways they were being jerks to each other. We hear about sexual sin among their members. We hear about their misunderstandings and doubts about the resurrection – which is kind of the central, most basic and most important thing. The Corinthians had been changed by the gospel, but they continued to need to repent. And so the dance continued.
This is the Christian life. It is a life of ongoing repentance. And you need both moves of the dance – both the turning away from sin and the turning towards the savior. You can’t have the former without the latter. Only when they are together will it change your life.
When I was little I used to hang out with my dad in the garage when he was working on cars or other projects. He had rules in his garage. One of them was that I wasn’t supposed to mess with his dart board. He had the real darts with the sharp metal tips, and I was really little. Well, one time I messed with his dart board. A dart came loose and fell down and stuck itself into the palm of my hand. As the blood quickly started to pool, I went straight to him. Even though I knew I had disobeyed and disappointed him, I trusted that his love for me would be greater than his anger. And I was right. He took my hand in his, rushed me into the house, and took care of me. He never even raised his voice, which was unusual for my dad.
I was so touched by his grace in that moment that I still remember it roughly fifty years later. It made me love him even more than I already did. Did I immediately start obeying all of his garage rules from that point forward? No. But did I start being more careful around his dart board? Also, no. But did I slowly begin to see my father’s wisdom and begin to implement it in my life? I’m still a work in progress, but to a degree, yes. Do I want to honor my father’s love in the way that I live? Absolutely.
When Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” he is telling you to bring your bloody messes to him. He is telling you to bring your disobedience to him without fear. He is calling you to turn away from sin and towards your savior so that he can graciously bind up your wounds.
This great love of our savior can’t help but change your heart, and your mind, and your soul. And it can’t help but at least begin to change your life. Not all at once, usually. But our Lord is patient. His love for us is greater than our sin. And so the dance continues.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 18, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 18
Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany – January 18, 2026
John 1:29-43
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“What are you looking for?”
These are the first words we hear Jesus speak in the gospel of John. It is a deep, probing question, posed to two of John’s disciples. “What are you looking for?”
The same question could be posed to us. What are we looking for in life? What are we looking for from God? What are we looking for when we come to church?
Perhaps these disciples of John were looking for a Messiah who would come and clobber their enemies, someone who would lead them in a political revolution against Rome. Perhaps they were looking for someone who would take away all of their suffering, a wonder worker who would give them miracles on demand. Perhaps they were looking for someone who would provide them with material blessings. Perhaps they were looking for a teacher who would explain to them exactly what they had to do to get right with God. After all, they did call Jesus “Rabbi,” which means “teacher.”
If these were the things they were looking for, they were going to be disappointed. They were going to be disappointed because Jesus’ primary mission was something else. Their own teacher, John the Baptist, got it right. John knew why Jesus had come. John knew what he had come to do. John knew what kind of Messiah Jesus would be. When John saw Jesus coming towards him, John declared, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” And John didn’t just say this once! The next day, as he was with these two disciples, when Jesus walked by John again exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.”
Perhaps it isn’t so obvious to us what it means for John to call Jesus the Lamb of God. We might think of a lamb as one of those cute fuzzy creatures from nursery rhymes. Mary had a little one, right? But to a first century Jew, there was a lot more to it. For these disciples of John there was a whole set of Biblical references and ritual practices they were familiar with which had a lamb at the center.
First, there is the story of Abraham and Isaac. God tested Abraham’s faith by commanding that he sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham took his son up to the top of a hill. A blissfully ignorant Isaac asked: “Father, here is the fire and the wood, but where is the burnt offering?” And then came Abraham’s wonderfully faithful reply: “God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” And sure enough, before Abraham had to do the horrible deed, an angel intervened. Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket, and sacrificed the ram instead.
Then there is the Passover, a story and eventually a ritual meal which was and is at the center of Jewish life. As part of God’s rescue plan for the Israelites enduring slavery in Egypt, God told them to sacrifice a lamb and to sprinkle its blood on the door frames of their homes. When the angel of the Lord came down that night to deliver God’s wrath on the evil Egyptians, he would “pass over” the homes that had been marked by the blood of the lamb, saving them from death and delivering them into freedom and new life.
There was also the whole sacrificial system, first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple, where God gave his chosen people a way to make atonement for their sins. They could sacrifice a lamb as an offering to God. This sacrificial offering brought them back into right relationship with God. Not only that, but the flesh of the lamb was then roasted on the altar and then shared between the priests and the people as a holy barbecue, where a forgiven and holy people ate and were nourished together in God’s presence. In so doing, they were renewed and restored and strengthened.
Then there is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this holy day the priests of Israel would confess all the sins of the people over a goat and then send that goat out into the wilderness. This scapegoat took on the people’s sins and then carried them away, symbolizing forgiveness and new life.
When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and called him the Lamb of God, he was conjuring up all of these Biblical stories and all of these sacred rituals with lambs at the center. John was saying that Jesus is that Lamb, and that he has come to take away the sin of the whole world.
Jesus is the one whom God has provided as a final sacrifice. Abraham didn’t need to sacrifice his son because God’s son was going to sacrifice himself. Just as that ram was caught in a thicket, Jesus would soon be wearing a crown of thorns. Jesus is the one whose blood causes God’s judgement to pass over us, saving us from death. Jesus came to offer himself to make atonement for us once and for all and invites us to be nourished and strengthened by his body and blood. Jesus is the one who came to be the last scapegoat, taking the sins of the whole world upon himself in order to carry them away. John summarizes all this simply by pointing to Jesus and saying, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
“What are you looking for?” Jesus asked these disciples. Their biggest problem wasn’t their political enemies. Their biggest problem wasn’t their failing bodies or their grocery bills. Jesus cares about those things. We see his great compassion in dealing with the sick and the poor. But Jesus had come to address a bigger problem. The biggest problem they faced was the sin that separated them from God. Jesus had come to take that sin away. And so John called him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
What are you looking for? What are you looking for in life? What are you looking for from God? What are you looking for when you come here to church?
Recently I’ve been following the work of religious sociologist Ryan Burge, who just published a new book this past week called “The Vanishing Church.” Burge warns that churches are becoming increasingly polarized. We not only have red and blue states, he argues, but we are increasingly having red and blue denominations, and red and blue congregations. This is happening because people are looking for a Jesus who will clobber their political opponents. This is wrong.
In other corners of Christianity, Jesus is sought after as a means of bringing health and wealth. This is called the prosperity gospel, and the idea is that if you have faith in Jesus, he will give you all the earthly blessings you are looking for. This is wrong.
Still others look to Jesus primarily as a teacher of good behavior, as an example to follow, as a pillar of morality for us and for all of society to aspire to. I won’t say this is wrong exactly. There is a kernel of truth to it. But it is woefully inadequate. When this is what you’re looking for in Jesus you don’t get Christians, you get Pharisees.
When we come to Jesus looking for these things we are setting ourselves up for disappointment, because none of that is his primary mission. It is not why he came.
We have all kinds of problems, to be sure. Politics these days is a hot mess. Health problems can bring us to our knees, and money problems can keep us up at night. Right living is a worthy pursuit, and something we always struggle with and need to pay attention to.
But Jesus knows what our biggest problem is. Our biggest problem is sin – our rebellion against God, our lack of trust in God, the turned-in-on-self thoughts and actions that separate us from God. All our other problems are downstream from the problem of sin.
Whatever you might have come here looking for today, what you get is what you need the most. You get a Messiah who has come to clobber your real enemy, which is the devil. You get a savior who gives you more than temporary healing, he saves you from death itself. You get a redeemer who loves you so much that he was willing to sacrifice himself for you, in order to give you his blessings of forgiveness and peace and hope.
I don’t know what you were looking for when you came here today, but here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, including all of yours, so that you might live a new life with God, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 11, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 11
Sermon for Baptism of our Lord Sunday – January 11, 2026
Matthew 3:13-17
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In recent weeks we have seen how water has the power to destroy. The great atmospheric river of 2025 brought flooding to our neighbors in the Skagit Valley and across western Washington, and while the flood prevention systems held up remarkably well there, there was still a lot of damage to homes and businesses. Things were worse up north in Whatcom County, where powerful flood waters from the Nooksack River lifted an entire home up off its foundation and carried it along until it collapsed into itself, totally demolishing it. Further up into the mountains we saw how tremendous amounts of water destroyed huge chunks of Highway 2, splitting the concrete and sending long stretches of entire lanes tumbling down the mountainside. To be sure, water has the power to destroy.
Water also, of course, has the power to bring life. In fact, you can’t have life without it. That’s true for human beings, who are 60 to 70 percent water, and can’t live more than a few days without it. And so that same atmospheric river brought life for us as it filled up our aquifers, giving us the water we need to live. Water is what keeps things green and makes the trees around here grow so tall. Irrigation on the other side of the mountains is what makes our state such a powerhouse producer of life-giving foods such as apples and potatoes and wheat and hay. To be sure, water has the power to bring life!
In the Bible, God used water to destroy sin. The story of Noah’s ark is often thought of as a children’s story – just look at those cute animals, lining up two by two! When you look deeper, however, you can see that the story is actually pretty dark. It is the story of a deadly flood, sent by God to destroy sin. But the same water that destroyed also brought life. Those floodwaters carried the righteous Noah and his family along until dry land appeared, signified by the appearance of a dove. When that dove appeared, it was a sign that they were delivered. They were rescued. They were saved. They were given life. And those two by two male and female pairs of human beings and animals alike all disembarked to be fruitful and multiply, repopulating the earth with life.
We see God using water in a similar way through the ministry of John the Baptist. John offered a baptism for repentance and the forgiveness of sin. This was a baptism which echoed the Great Flood as sin was destroyed and drowned through ritualized repentance, with people being submerged in the muddy waters of the Jordan River. This was also a baptism which also signified a new beginning, a new start, a new life, as the repentant came up out of those waters to live differently, to live in righteousness, to live in right relationship with God. John the Baptist used water just as God did in the Great Flood – to destroy and to give life, to drown sin and to grow righteousness.
John’s ministry was for sinners, and so it was a little confusing when Jesus came to him asking to receive his baptism. In fact, John didn’t want to do it. St. Matthew tells us that John “would have prevented him” from receiving this baptism. John said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Why would Jesus, the sinless Son of God, need to be baptized? What did he possibly stand to gain? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? That’s what John thought.
But Jesus insisted. And he insisted for a very important reason that is important for all of us to understand. Jesus said to John, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus wanted to be baptized by John because it was the first step in fulfilling all righteousness. This is what Jesus had come to do. He had come to make things right once and for all. Jesus had come to destroy sin once and for all. Jesus had come to bring life to all. This was his mission. This is what it means for him to “fulfill all righteousness.”
The first step in doing this was for Jesus to come near to sinners, meeting them where they were. Jesus didn’t “need” to be baptized with John’s baptism of repentance, strictly speaking. He had no need to repent! There was no sin in him!
But Jesus didn’t do it for himself. He did it for us. He did it because going down into that muddy water would show us that he had come to take the sin of the world upon himself in order to destroy it, breaking its curse. He did it because coming up out of the water would show that he had come to deliver his people into a new and eternal life. He did it because it illustrated how he had come to fulfill all righteousness.
So, John relented. He baptized Jesus. And as Jesus came up out of the water the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove. That’s right, a dove – the very same bird that brought assurance and peace to Noah and his family, the very same bird that signified a new beginning and new life.
And just in case this sign, this symbol of a dove wasn’t obvious enough, there was also a voice from heaven which said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” God the Father saw his Son receiving John’s baptism, and it made him happy! It made God the Father happy because it was fulfilling all righteousness. Everything prefigured by the Great Flood was being fulfilled. Everything promised in John’s preparatory baptism was being fulfilled. Jesus had come to make things right between a sinful humanity and a holy God. Jesus had come to destroy sin and bring life, and God the Father was pleased by it all. God the Father put his blessing over it as the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus like a dove.
Our middle son lives down in Fife now, not far from the Puyallup River. There were areas down there where dikes failed, resulting in flash flood warnings. Of course, as a protective dad I had to text my son, telling him to make sure he never, ever drove into any standing water. And of course, as a newly independent twenty-something, he had to push back a little. I could sense him rolling his eyes as he texted me back that he would never do anything that dumb.
But the thing is, it isn’t always as obvious as that. Those waters can be deceiving. From a certain perspective, it can seem like it isn’t too deep. It can seem like it won’t be a big deal, like you can make it through. That’s when people get stuck in the water. That’s how people drown.
This is what sin is like too. It can seem like it isn’t a big deal. We see others go into it full steam ahead and seem to be fine, and so it doesn’t seem so threatening. On a surface level it seems like we can handle it. That’s how people get stuck. It happens all the time. That’s how people drown.
My sister-in-law lives up in Lynden, so we were keeping tabs on the flooding up there too, and on Hannegan Road, which is a major thoroughfare in the area, there was breaking news about a water rescue underway. A family of six ended up stuck in a submerged vehicle in the rapidly rising floodwaters. Floodwaters can be filthy with silt and debris and sewage, but those first responders jumped right into the water to save them. They went into those dangerous and dirty waters to rescue this family that was at risk of drowning.
In going into muddy waters of the Jordan River, this is what Jesus has done for us. He insisted on receiving John’s baptism so that he might come to us where we are. He has met us in the floodwaters in order to rescue us from everything that threatens to sweep us away from God, everything that threatens to pull us under. As we find ourselves trapped, both by our own foolish decisions and the world’s great deceptions, he comes to save us. He jumps right into the muck of our lives in order to pull us up into a new life with him.
The Baptism of our Lord foreshadows what Jesus would go on to do for us on the cross, where he fulfilled all righteousness by going down into death for us in order to destroy sin and death once and for all, and then rose again to lead us into eternal life.
The Baptism of our Lord also foreshadows our own baptism into Christ, where God uses water to destroy and to give life. When we are baptized into Christ, St. Paul tells us, we are joined to his death and resurrection. God destroys our sin through Christ’s forgiveness and gives us life through his resurrection.
Because of Christ’s saving work, the same dove that appeared to Noah now hovers over us, bringing us assurance and peace. We have been rescued! We have been redeemed! When we come up from the waters of our baptism, the same Spirit of God that descended upon Jesus like a dove descends upon us, so that we too can live as God’s beloved sons and daughters, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 6, 2026 | Sermons
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Sermon for the Epiphany of our Lord – January 4, 2026
Matthew 2:1-12
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Follow the crowd.” I’m not sure anybody really thinks this is good advice, and yet, we all seem to do it over and over again in one way or another.
“Follow your heart, or your gut, or your instinct.” This is the theme of just about every romantic comedy and every Disney movie ever made – many of which I enjoy very much. It seems to be the guiding principle of our age. Sometimes following our heart, or our gut, or our instinct, is helpful. Other times, not so much.
“Follow the science.” This isn’t as simple or easy as it sounds. While science is affirmed in the Lutheran Christian tradition, it is seen as a good way to deepen our understanding of God’s creation, and as a tool for serving our neighbors, it doesn’t take too much looking to see that science is always a work in progress. For instance, for a while the science said eggs were bad for you. Then the science said no, only the yellow part is bad for you. Now the science says, actually the whole thing is good for you. It makes it hard to know what to believe.
Follow the crowd. Follow your heart, or your gut, or your instinct. Follow the science. These are the guideposts that often influence our lives. These are the guideposts which seem to have influenced the magi as well.
The magi followed the crowd, at least in a way. In their journey from the east, probably Persia, they are sure to have followed major thoroughfares. We often see the magi depicted as traveling across a barren desert alone, but it is more likely that they followed trade routes, which were safer and faster and teeming with people.
The magi followed their heart, their gut, their instinct. They knew they were headed to Israel to worship a newborn king, and their gut led them to Jerusalem. That seemed to be the right place to go. It’s the big city. The temple was there. The current king resided there. Their heart told them that surely this is where they would find the newborn king.
The magi followed the science. “Magi” is where we get the word “magic,” but these magi were not magicians who did card tricks. They weren’t pulling rabbits out of hats. These were astrologers. They were the scientists of their age. They looked to the skies above and made complicated calculations which they believed could guide them. And when they saw a new star at its rising, signifying for them the birth of a new king, they followed it.
These magi, or wise men, followed the crowd. They followed their heart, their gut, their instinct. They followed the science. And where did these guideposts lead them? It led them to Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. It led them to Herod, not Jesus.
It was not until they heard a word from scripture that they found what they were looking for. Herod consulted with the chief priests and the scribes about where the Messiah was to be born, and these students of the Word came back with a passage from Micah, chapter 5:
“‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
Herod, with a dark ulterior motive, shared this word with the magi, and now the wise men showed true wisdom as they trusted this word. The star now alighted over Bethlehem, and they followed it to Jesus. Overwhelmed with joy, they entered the house. They saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they knelt down in homage and worshipped him, offering him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In writing about the detour of the wise men to Jerusalem, Martin Luther wrote:
“Why did the star not take the Wise Men straight to Bethlehem without any necessity of consulting the Scriptures? Because God wanted to teach us that we should follow the Scriptures and not our own murky ideas.”
There are many kinds of knowledge, many types of intelligence – and God can use them! God DID use them to draw these eastern astrologers to worship his Son! These guideposts at least got them in the vicinity! But what ultimately got these wise men where they were trying to go was the scriptures, the word of God.
So too for us, there can be ways to pursue knowledge that is helpful. You can be smart as a whip and ask a lot of questions. Christianity is not anti-intellectual! But to be truly wise is to follow the scriptures and not our own murky ideas. The scriptures lead us to the deepest spiritual truths about ourselves and our world.
Today these very scriptures lead us to the Christ child, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
The scriptures lead us to the newborn king, who was given a tribute of gold by the wise men, which was a common way to honor a king.
The scriptures lead us to the one who is our great high priest, our great intermediary between a holy God and a sinful humanity. The wise men gave Jesus frankincense, which was burned by the priests in the temple as their prayers and sacrifices rose up to God.
The scriptures lead us to the one who is our savior, to the one who would give himself for us as an atoning sacrifice. The wise men gave Jesus myrrh, which was a fragrant ointment used to prepare bodies for burial.
Our own murky ideas can lead us astray. But today we join the wise men on their course correction as the scriptures lead us to Christ, who is our king, our priest, and our savior.
Let us join the wise men in worshipping him. Let us join the magi in offering our gifts.
And let us commit in the new year ahead to following the scriptures, that we might continue to know the overwhelming joy he brings.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
