by Jeffrey Spencer | Mar 8, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for March 8
Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent – March 8, 2026
John 4:5-42
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nutritionists will tell you that most Americans don’t drink enough water. This is significant because dehydration can impact many different areas of your life. Water helps you digest your food. Water helps your joints stay properly lubricated. Water regulates your body chemistry and your body temperature. Not getting enough water doesn’t just impact a person physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Even very mild dehydration can lead to crankiness, anxiety, poor memory, or feeling tired. Water trickles through every part of our lives, and when we don’t have enough, it can impact every part of our lives. Our bodies try to fend off dehydration by sending us a signal: We get thirsty.
It was thirst that brought together Jesus and the Samaritan woman who met him at the well. It was about noon, John tells us – the hottest part of the day. Jesus had been traveling on his way back to Galilee from Judea. He was thirsty, and so he made a pit stop in Sychar and stopped at Jacob’s well. The disciples went into town for food while Jesus lingered at the well. When a woman of Samaria came to the well with a bucket in hand, Jesus asked her for a drink.
We need to pause for a moment here to note just how unusual and awkward this scene was. First of all, it was taboo in both Jewish and Samaritan culture for two strangers of the opposite sex to be alone together. We hear the disciples freaking out about this a little later in the story. What is sometimes mocked today as “the Billy Graham rule” was the accepted cultural norm for both Jews and Samaritans.
That’s about the only thing these two cultures agreed on, however. John notes here how Jews didn’t share things in common with Samaritans. Samaritans were regarded as unclean. They were despised by most Jews. There’s a whole lot of history behind this. In a nutshell, Samaritans were seen as traitors to the Jewish people because they had intermarried with the Assyrians. Even worse, they were seen as idolaters because they had adopted many of the Assyrian religious practices, twisting Bible passages to fit their new situation and justify it all. The Samaritans had their temple on Mount Gerizim while the Jews had theirs on the temple mount in Jerusalem, and never the twain shall meet.
So, it was highly unusual and awkward for a Jewish rabbi and a Samaritan woman to be alone and chatting it up at the water cooler! But thirst had brought them together.
Jesus asked the woman for a drink. She was taken aback, for obvious reasons. When Jesus told her that he has living water to give, this sassy Samaritan pointed out that he didn’t even have a bucket. “Where do you get that living water?” she asked. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Jesus offered her something more than H20. Jesus wasn’t talking about physical thirst at this point. He was talking about something deeper. He was talking about spiritual thirst. “Sir,” she replied, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” She was still thinking about literal water. She was still thinking about her parched throat. She was thinking about how nice it would be to not have to keep making this water run every day. But Jesus put his finger on her deeper thirst, her spiritual dehydration.
“Go, call your husband and come back,” Jesus said to her. “I have no husband,” she replied. “You are right in saying you have no husband,” Jesus continued, “for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” Jesus sure can be blunt, can’t he?
It is hard to know the circumstances around why this woman would have had five husbands in her past. We certainly want to be fair to this woman, but we also need to be truthful about what the scriptures say about her. Whatever might have happened with her first five marriages, Jesus notes that the man she is with now is not her husband. There is a strong implication here that she is participating in the intimacies of marriage without the promises of marriage. No matter how common this might be – then or today – it is a violation of the sixth commandment, and she seems to have been a willing participant in it. Later she tells the crowd that Jesus “told me everything I have ever done.” We shouldn’t take away the agency she claims for herself by hastily painting her as a victim. She herself seems to acknowledge that she has done things for which she is not proud. She has also come to the well at a very odd time of day. She came at noon, alone, which strongly suggests she was avoiding the crowds of women who typically went on their water run first thing in the morning, when the sun wasn’t so hot. Maybe she had been ostracized by the community. Maybe she was avoiding the sideways glances and glares from the other women.
That’s a lot of “seems” and “sounds like” and “maybes,” but they add up to the consensus view that this woman has some level of scandal hanging over her, a scandal that Jesus pokes at with his blunt statement about her many husbands and her current living arrangement.
Her response is telling too. She doesn’t want to talk about it! She quickly changes the subject to theology. Jesus doesn’t press the issue. Instead, it is at this point that something truly remarkable happens. As their conversation unfolds, Jesus discloses to her the truth about himself. When she mentions the Messiah, telling Jesus she believes the Messiah will come sort things out in due time, Jesus says to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” While Jesus has hid this truth about himself from so many others up to this point, he tells this scandal-plagued Samaritan woman who he really is! He tells her that he is the Messiah, the one who has come to save. This is an important part of the conversation, because it shows us that Jesus hasn’t come to condemn her, but to save her. He has come to save her from her spiritually dehydrated life. He has come to bring her water that quenches a deeper thirst, the thirst to worship God in spirit and truth, the thirst to be in right relationship with God through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus has come to give her this water as a gift! He has come to give her living water welling up to eternal life.
When she hears this, she leaves her bucket lying on the ground and goes back to the city. She goes to the very people she had been avoiding. She says to them, “Come and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” It is posed as a question, but there is a thirst that has clearly been quenched here. As the story ends, we are told that many came to believe because of her testimony. She is part of them once again, as together they came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is truly the Savior of the world.
We used to have a sweet black lab, and one of the funny memories we have of her is from a time we took her to the beach. She was having a blast splashing around in the water, and then, apparently, she was thirsty, because she stopped and started to drink the salt water. She lapped up about three gulps from Puget Sound before shaking her head and gnashing her teeth at the salty taste. She went back to running around in the water for a few more minutes and then decided to take another drink! It was still salt water, of course, and so she reacted the same way.
We all have a deep spiritual thirst, whether we recognize it or not. And when this thirst becomes chronic, when we become spiritually dehydrated, it impacts every aspect of our lives. It impacts how we think and feel. It impacts our relationships with others. It impacts our relationship with God. It impacts whether we have hope in our lives, whether we have peace.
Oftentimes we try to alleviate this thirst by lapping up salt water – things that seem like they will help but only make the problem worse. We drink from wells that only make us more dehydrated: wells of sin, wells of self-righteousness, worldly wells that promise much but never quench that deeper thirst.
Today our Lord Jesus comes to us through his living word to offer us living water. He comes to invite us to drink deeply of the water he brings in order to quench this deeper thirst. He is not deterred by sin or scandal. He is not put off by your salty mouth. There is nothing about you he doesn’t already know. In fact, that is why he has come – to quench your thirst for forgiveness, your thirst for healing and restoration, your thirst for community, your thirst for a God you can know and love and worship in Spirit and truth. He has come to give you a new life, a life welling up with a hope and a peace and a love that begins to flow into every part of our lives. The water he gives becomes in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life, and it is given, Jesus says, as a gift.
This water not only hydrates our souls; it also wets our lips, making them ready and eager to tell others what we have experienced here. We too can set down our buckets, refreshed and restored by Christ’s gifts, and go out to tell others about the One who knows everything we have ever done and doesn’t turn away from us, but instead reveals himself to us as Messiah and Savior, giving us living water and a new life.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Mar 3, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for March 1
Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent – March 1, 2026
John 3:1-17
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus was in the dark. He was literally in the dark as he came to Jesus by night, but he was in the dark spiritually as well. He had a sense that there was something special about Jesus. He had seen, or at least heard about the signs Jesus was doing, and he knew that such signs couldn’t be done apart from the presence of God. But beyond that, he was in the dark. Even with all his advanced learning, even with his theological degree from Pharisee school, even with his status as a teacher of Israel, he was in the dark about the kingdom of God.
As Nicodemus struck up a conversation with Jesus, Jesus zeroed in on this right away. Jesus didn’t beat around the bush. Jesus knew Nicodemus was in the dark, and so he got right to the heart of the matter. “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus said to him, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Nicodemus didn’t get it. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” he said. It is hard to know if Nicodemus was being sarcastic or if he’s just stubborn, but his reply suggests that what Jesus had said about being born from above was absurd to him. “Can one enter the womb a second time and be born?” Am I supposed to somehow get back inside my mom’s tummy? Behind this ridiculous framing of things was the assumption from Nicodemus that there was something he needed to do. He was trying to turn this into something he could control. And so, Nicodemus was still in the dark.
But instead of backing down, Jesus doubled down. He said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
“How can these things be?” Nicodemus replied.
“Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” Jesus said in return. Nicodemus was still in the dark.
In describing how one comes to see the kingdom of God, Jesus used the language of birth.
I don’t know what it was like when you were born, but when I came into the world, my mother did all the work! I’ve also watched babies being born. I’ve seen it three times, and each time none of those babies did a darn thing! It was their strong, brave mother who did everything!
That’s how it is with birth. That’s how it is when we are born. It is the mothers who do all the work. They do all the breathing, all the sweating, all the painful pushing. The babies are simply carried along by their efforts, until they find themselves blinking their newly opened eyes at the bright new world.
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that this is how we come to see the kingdom of God. It is God’s work. God does all the carrying. The Spirit does all the breathing, all the blowing. The Son of Man does all the painful parts until we are delivered, until we are born into faith, until our eyes are opened to the bright new world God is ushering in through his Son, Jesus Christ.
When this still doesn’t seem to convince Nicodemus, Jesus says to him: “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
In one of the confirmation workbooks I’ve used with our confirmation students in the past there is a page with three pictures. One picture shows someone climbing up a ladder. The next shows someone standing next to an elevator, pushing the up button. The next shows a person at the bottom of a ravine, with a helicopter hovering over it and a rescuer descending on a rope. The students are asked to select the picture which best describes the biblical view of salvation.
The answer of course, is the third picture. Salvation is not something we climb our way into by our own efforts. It is not something we select or choose or summon by pushing the right buttons so that God will come save us. Salvation is more like being at the bottom of a ravine, completely helpless, and having God descend to us in the form of a rescuer, a redeemer, a savior.
Once again, the point is that God does all the work. Salvation is something we receive. We do not ascend. No one has ever ascended, Jesus tells Nicodemus. Instead, Jesus descends. He descends to us to bring us out of the darkness of that ravine and into the light of the kingdom of God.
In yet another attempt to help Nicodemus understand, Jesus points to a story this biblically literate Pharisee would have known very well: You know, Nicodemus, how the people of Israel were all dying in the wilderness from snake bites? Remember how helpless they were in the wilderness because of their sin? Do you remember how they were rescued? Do you remember what God did? God told Moses to put a serpent on a pole, and that anyone who looked upon the snake would live. God sent his Word from above in order to rescue them. That’s what I’ve come to do in a much bigger way. I’ve come from above to bring life. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Once again, it is God who does all the work. God does the saving. God delivers his people into life. God brings people into the kingdom. All there is for us to do is to open our eyes to God’s saving work. All there is for us to do is to is look upon him whom God sent and believe in him, trust him, have faith in him, and we will see the kingdom of God. We’ll be in it! We won’t be in the dark any longer!
In the Large Catechism, Luther writes that the church is the mother who conceives and bears every Christian through God’s Word. It is in and through the church that God does his work of delivering people into the kingdom.
The church is indeed every Christian’s mother, and the baptismal font is the birth canal. Jesus commanded his church to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and it is through this sacrament that we are born from above. It is in Holy Baptism that we are joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection, marked with his cross forever. It is in Holy Baptism that Christ descends to us individually to rescue us and deliver us into the kingdom. This is all God’s work. The only thing we do is the same thing we did when we were born the first time: we simply open our eyes to what he has done for us. We simply open our eyes to the new reality he has brought us into.
Even after we are born from above, we still sometimes find ourselves in the dark with Nicodemus. We understand there is something special about Jesus, but we lose sight of the kingdom of God. We want to turn it into something we can control, which is about as effective as trying to control the wind.
Even after we are born from above, there are times when we find ourselves at the bottom of a ravine, completely helpless. We fall into pits of anger, or anxiety, or despair, or regret, or shame. We fall into difficult, painful circumstances which are so far out of our control that all we can hope for is for some help from above.
Even after we are born from above, we sometimes find ourselves dying in the wilderness, snakebit by our sins. We come face to face with our own brokenness, and we know that salvation is going to have to come from outside ourselves.
This is why we keep coming back to our mother. We gather together in the bosom of mother church so she can tell us the story of our birth from above. We gather together in her lap so she can remind us that by God’s carrying and the Spirit’s breathing and the Savior’s painful pushing, we have been delivered into the kingdom of God, now and forever.
If the world feels dark to you today, just open your eyes to the kingdom which God has delivered you into.
If your life feels dark, just open your eyes and look upon the One who was lifted up for you. Look upon him with eyes of faith. Look upon him, trusting that he has come to rescue you.
You have been born from above, so open your eyes to the bright new day that Jesus has made possible, and live in the light of God’s great love for you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 24, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 22
Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – February 22, 2026
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Humanity has a long track record of giving in to temptation. In fact, this failure goes all the way back to the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. We heard about their failure in our first reading for today. After God created them from the dust of the earth, God placed Adam and Eve in a garden, the Garden of Eden. It was literally Paradise, which is what “Eden” means. They had everything they needed. They didn’t have to work. They didn’t have to worry. They didn’t even have to wear clothes! God provided everything they needed in that garden, giving them only one simple command: “You can eat freely from any of the trees in the garden except for one – except for that one in the middle. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will die.”
Enter the serpent. The serpent came to Adam and Eve to tempt them. The temptation came in the form of a question: “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden?’” It was a temptation to doubt God’s Word.
Yes, that’s what he said,” Eve replied. Eve even quoted God word for word. So far, so good. But the serpent wasn’t done! The tempter then said, “You will not die! God was just saying that because he knows that if you eat of that fruit your eyes will be opened and you will be like him!” Eve thought about this. She looked at the fruit, which looked really tasty. She especially liked the idea of this fruit making her wise, god-like. So, she took it and ate. Adam was there too, and also ate.
The temptation wasn’t merely for some tasty fruit. Adam and Eve weren’t merely tempted to indulge in a forbidden pleasure. That was part of it, to be sure, but the temptation went deeper. They were tempted to dismiss the Word of God. They were tempted to follow their own course. They were tempted to be their own gods. They fell to this temptation, and with that bite, everything changed. Humanity has never been the same. As St. Paul writes in our epistle reading for today, Adam and Eve’s sin has infected everything ever since.
Our gospel reading from Matthew takes us into the wilderness with Jesus, where he spent forty days and forty nights facing temptations of his own. For anyone with even a basic familiarity with the Old Testament, if you hear the words “wilderness” and “forty” as the setting for a story, you can’t help but think of Israel and the forty years they spent in the wilderness. And you should! This story of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness provides crucial context for understanding Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness.
After God rescued his people, delivering them out of slavery in Egypt, bringing them safely through the waters of the Red Sea, they entered the wilderness. And it was in the wilderness that they faced a series of temptations. The first temptation came when they got hungry. I think we can all sympathize here. Most of us aren’t at our best when we’re hungry. God’s people certainly weren’t. As their stomachs growled, they began to growl too! They grumbled against Moses, their leader. They grumbled against God. They foolishly started to pine for the days they spent as slaves, where, in their highly selective memories, supposedly the food was better.
Their grumbling was bad enough, but in their hunger they were tempted to turn away from God. Things weren’t going exactly as they wished, and they grew impatient with God. Moses told them that one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Well, they weren’t having anything to do with that. They were tempted to doubt God’s promises, God’s goodness, God’s Word, and they did. They failed.
The temptation to doubt God’s Word grew even stronger when the water ran out. When that happened, Israel dared to challenge God: Are you going to take care of us, or not? Are you going to give us water? Did you deliver us out of slavery only to let us die out here in the desert? They wanted God to prove himself right then and there, on their own terms. They dared to test the God who had parted the waters of the Red Sea in order to save them. Moses warned them, saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” But they did just that. They fell to this temptation too. They failed.
When Israel entered the Promised Land, they faced yet another temptation. At that point they had the Ten Commandments, the first of which was: “You shall have no other gods before me.” But there were other options now for them to consider, other gods to flirt with. There were the gods of their neighbors, gods who demanded less and seemed to promise more. And if you read the Old Testament, you know well that just about every time a new god was dangled in front of Israel, they worshipped it! Any shiny new idol that caught their eye became their god! Another temptation, another epic failure.
These stories provide the essential backdrop for Jesus’ time in the wilderness. Like Israel, Jesus was hungry. Seeing an opportunity, the devil came at him with a temptation: “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” But Jesus answered using the same words Moses spoke to Israel: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As with Israel, Jesus was tempted to have God prove his promises. “Throw yourself down from this mountain peak,” the devil demanded. “Let God prove that he will save you!” And again, Jesus answered using Moses’ own words: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Finally, the devil invited Jesus to fall down and worship him. Jesus replied by saying, “Away with you, Satan!” And then Jesus cited the First Commandment: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
Do you see what is happening here? Where God’s people failed, Jesus succeeded. Where God’s people stretching all the way back to Adam and Eve gave in to the temptations of the serpent, the deceiver, the tempter, the evil one, Jesus successfully resisted. Jesus beat the devil at his own game, leaving him nothing to do but slither away in defeat.
We are now in the season of Lent. Lent is our own forty-day journey in the wilderness. As we heard on Ash Wednesday, this is a season in which we contend against evil. It is a season in which we wrestle against the temptations in our lives. It is a season of spiritual warfare as we take more seriously our own battle against the devil and his lies.
Jesus’ own forty days in the wilderness is instructive for us. He teaches us some moves we can use in this ju-jitsu match against the tempter. Jesus models for us how important it is for us to know God’s word and to hold fast to God’s promises. He teaches us that God’s word strengthens us more than bread ever will. Jesus teaches us that living by faith and living by proof are two different things. Jesus teaches us the urgency of obeying the First Commandment to have no other gods, especially not the god of self. This is so important! As Adam and Eve found out, being your own god doesn’t lead to Paradise – it leads to death.
Jesus gives us an example to follow. We can find strength and courage knowing that he is by our side in this battle. But there’s something even better going on here. As important as it is to learn from Jesus and resist temptation and contend against evil, something deeper is going on here in Jesus’ encounter with the devil. There in his own wilderness, Jesus has done what humanity could never do. Jesus has done what Adam and Eve and Israel and you and I could never do. Jesus walked in perfect faithfulness. Jesus walked in perfect righteousness. Jesus resisted every temptation. Jesus succeeded at everything a fallen humanity has failed at, and he goes on to share his victory with us.
This is precisely what Paul is saying in our second reading for today. Paul talks about how death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses throughout all of humanity – but that now Christ has come to be a new Adam, bringing us a new beginning, bringing us new possibilities, bringing us new life. Paul explains that just as Adam’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so Jesus’ act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. Just as by Adam’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by Jesus’ obedience the many will be made righteous.
Humanity’s long track record of giving in to various temptations includes you. It includes me too. It includes every human being who has ever lived except for one. And the good news of the gospel is that this one man, Jesus Christ, has sent the devil running. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus scored a win for humanity – for you and me – by resisting every temptation. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus defeated the evil one – first in the wilderness, and then, more decisively through his death and resurrection. Because of Jesus’ act of perfect obedience, we have been saved. Because of Jesus’ righteousness, all has been made right between us and God. Through him, we receive forgiveness and a new life.
With this new life comes new strength, so that when the tempter comes whispering in our ear, all we have to do is mention the powerful name of our Lord Jesus, and we can watch that snake slither away like the defeated enemy he is.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 17, 2026 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 15
Sermon for Transfiguration of our Lord – February 15, 2026
2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Every Wednesday morning here in our sanctuary I have a couple pews filled up with preschoolers who are here for chapel. The first thing I do at the beginning of every chapel service is light the candles – and as I light them, I tell the kids that we light these candles to remember that Jesus is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. They see and hear and experience this light and those words every Wednesday of the school year, and my hope is that through this ritual, this repetition, they will remember the truth being conveyed. My hope is that as their lives unfold and they encounter darkness – which they inevitably will at some point – that they will remember that Jesus is the light of the world, and that his light is more powerful than any darkness they will ever face.
Peter and James and John experienced the light of Christ in a particularly profound way. These three were invited by Jesus to go on a hike with him, and when they reached the top of the mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them. That is, he changed. He was transformed. He underwent a metamorphosis, which is the literal Greek word used here. The divinity of Christ was revealed as Jesus began to emanate light. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became dazzling white. And in that light, these three disciples caught a glimpse of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
As this bright, dazzling light emanated from Jesus, suddenly two others were there. Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared. These two were no strangers to mountaintop experiences. Moses famously went up a mountain to receive the law of God. Elijah climbed the same mountain, where he too had an encounter with God. These two mountain men represented the law and the prophets. They represented what we often call the Old Testament. They represent a continuity between what we read in the Old Testament and what we read in the New. The two testaments are joined together on this mountaintop in this pivotal moment in salvation history. What was written in the Old Testament is not being replaced; it is being fulfilled. Moses and Elijah are there to hand the baton to the Son of God to finish what they started in bringing about the salvation of the world.
Peter recognized the significance of this moment. He proposed to mark the occasion with the building of tabernacles, or booths, or dwellings. He was essentially suggesting the building of shrines. He wanted to build a museum on the mountaintop, where people could come catch a glimpse of the glory he had witnessed. But that isn’t how this will go. Jesus has more to do. This is just a glimpse, and it is just for them – at least for now.
While Peter was still laying out the specs of his project, God’s voice thundered from a cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him.” This voice knocked all three of these disciples on their backsides. They cowered in fear. But then there was this beautiful moment, this wonderful moment of grace. Jesus came and touched them. What a kind thing to do! What a loving gesture. Can you imagine how reassuring that would have been, how comforting? Human touch is such a powerful thing, and now the God who took on human flesh through his Son touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Peter and James and John saw the light of Jesus is this particularly profound way. They saw his glory as he was transfigured on the mountaintop. They caught a glimpse of his divinity, his true identity as God’s Son. They saw that he was indeed the light which no darkness could overcome.
Initially they were told not to say anything about what they had seen until after Jesus had been raised from the dead. This glimpse was just that – a glimpse. It was a sneak preview of a greater glory to come with his resurrection. But eventually their non-disclosure agreement expired. Eventually they were allowed to talk about it, and in our epistle reading for today we hear Peter describe what he saw and explain what it means.
First, he tells us that they are not passing on mere stories when they share what they saw on that holy mountain. These aren’t cleverly devised myths. They aren’t fables. They aren’t metaphors or archetypes. These things really happened, and they were eyewitnesses to it! Jesus really was transfigured before them. He really did shine like the sun. They really did see his glory.
Second, Peter explains that this means they have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. That is, what they saw with their own eyes confirms everything promised about the savior in the Old Testament. It confirms everything Jesus himself said. It confirms everything Jesus promised. It confirms that it is all true! In glimpsing this glory, they have it all more fully confirmed. You can believe it, Peter is saying. You can trust it!
And then Peter tells us what we should do with this information. Listen carefully, because this is beautiful, and it is important. Peter writes, “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” Pay attention, Peter is saying. Keep this word close. Keep this glimpse close. Treat it like a lamp. Tend to it like a lamp shining in the darkness, because that is what it is. Keep it lit. Keep your eyes on it. Tend to it. Let it be a light shining in your darkness.
Peter and James and John were the only disciples who got to experience firsthand this glimpse of glory they saw when the Lord Jesus was transfigured before them. Remember, there were nine other disciples. What these nine other disciples had to go on was their word. This is what Peter is asking us to do. He is asking us to believe his eyewitness testimony. He is asking us to trust that what he saw really happened, and that it truly revealed the glory of Christ. He is encouraging us to be attentive to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place.
This isn’t nothing. What did God the Father tell Peter and James and John on that mountaintop? God the Father said, “This is my Son…listen to him!” Even these three eyewitnesses to the Transfiguration were called to hear a word and trust it. And so are we.
This past Wednesday, right after I finished preschool chapel I went to Regency Memory Care to be with a member of our church who is in hospice. Her daughter was told that her mother didn’t have much longer and so she asked me to come, and so off I went, straight from chapel. Her mother was unresponsive, but I read scripture to her. I prayed the commendation of the dying over her. Her eyes remained closed, her breathing labored. She showed no sign that she heard me, or even knew I was there. I’ve been in these situations before and I always operate under the assumption that the person can hear me, even if I’m not sure – and I was anything but sure that day.
Then I decided to hold her hand. And the moment I took her hand, she firmly squeezed mine back. She held on to it. It was as though she was saying, I heard you, and I want some more of that! And so, still holding her hand, I just started reading verse after verse of Christ’s promises. Christ’s glory was revealed through a Word. What I had taught those preschoolers earlier that morning proved once again to be true. Jesus is the light that no darkness can overcome.
You would do well to be attentive to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place. We might not be eyewitnesses to the spectacular Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus on the mountaintop, but we do catch our own glimpses of his glory. We catch a glimpse of his glory in the shimmering waters of Holy Baptism, where we encounter Christ and are marked with his cross forever. We catch a glimpse of his glory in bread and wine, his true body and blood, given to us to renew us in his grace, his forgiveness. We catch a glimpse of his glory when we hear his promises, promises like, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age;” promises like, “I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, there you may be also;” promises like, “No one will snatch you out of my hands;” promises like, “I am the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in me, even though they die, will live;” promises like, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
We catch a glimpse of his glory as his living Word comes to us today. Our Lord speaks to us through this Word. He says to each of us, “Get up, and do not be afraid.”
Listen to him. Be attentive to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place. Trust it, for it is all trustworthy. It is all true.
Jesus is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
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
