Finding Peace - sermon Oct 15, 2023

Peace is found in connections with others and the earth, by allowing ourselves to be open to experiencing their pain and joys. By Pastor Lars Hammar

Pastor Lars in the woods at McCarthy Beach State Park

 

Diagram 1 - “The Buffered Self” - the self that is protected from outside influences, and limited in experience

 

Diagram 2 - “The Spiritual Self” - the self open to experience, being affected, and more connected and at peace than the Buffered Self

Live Grace - sermon June 25, 2023

The third in a three-part series exploring the new Lord of Grace mission statement, focusing on the first line: Love God - and celebrate God’s Love for us in vibrant and creative worship.

Our mission at Lord of Grace Lutheran Church

Love God
Open our hearts and minds
Live Graciously toward all

June 11, 2023. By Pastor Lars Hammar

#NOTE - the volume was really low getting recorded, so you might need to turn it up a bit.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 12: Getting Caught up in the Way of Jesus

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part twelve - Finally getting to some examples of what it looks like to be Christian in a godless world, we are called to get caught up in Jesus’ way.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 11: Living in a Godless World

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part 11 - What is the difference between the Christian life and the pagan life? It isn't getting things from the gods, or turning to them for favors. It's that the Christian suffers with the God who grieves with us.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 10: The Working Hypothesis

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part ten - In the boldest terms yet used, Bonhoeffer says that people must learn to manage our lives without God, and not expect God's actions, yet know that it is before that weak God who demands us live without him that we stand.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 9: Emergency Exits

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part nine - As science and secularism continue to make people content to live their daily lives without any reference to God, Christian theologians have been trying to find space for God in things beyond people's lives, or in trying to create angst about sin and death in order to provide a cure for. But Bonhoeffer notes that these "emergency exits" have failed to make inroads, and dishonest to the Gospel.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 8: Re-imagining Redemption

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part eight - After deconstructing the popular idea of "redemption"in Christianity, Bonhoeffer begins to re-imagine what the word might mean in a world where people no longer believe in a literal hell with an eternal punishment that they need to be rescued from.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 7: On Redemption

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part seven - Christian theologians have emphacized redemption as a rescuing from this world to the next, but, Bonhoeffer argues, that goes against the Old Testament, and ultimately Jesus. The Christian has no escape from earthly difficulties.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 6: On keeping people in immature faith

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part six - Philosophers, psychologists, and unscrupulous pastors try to create anxiety and worry in happy people's lives in order to induce them to need them, equating faith with an immature stage of personal development.

By Pastor Lars Hammar

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity - part 5: On Secularity and Science

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While in the Tegel Prison in Berlin awaiting trial for participating in a plot to kill Hitler, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to contemplate a future for Christianity and the church in a world with science, secularism, and world wars. His idea were formulated in different letters to his pastor friend Eberhard Bethge and compiled with all his prison writings in Letters from Prison.

Part five - Bonhoeffer reflects on how the secular world no longer operates with God as part of the equation, and people no longer turn to the question of God when dealing with problems.

By Pastor Lars Hammar