Second Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, June 26 was the second Sunday after Pentecost, and my (Vicar Brett) last Sunday as vicar of Christ Lutheran.  This blog will be maintained by Vicar Evan when he begins August 1.  The sermon is based on the gospel text, Matthew 10:40-42.  Click below to read the sermon.

Pentecost Sermon

For Pentecost, the sermon was perhaps a little different.  It's based on this video from some professors at Luther Seminary - which you can view at the bottom of the sermon.  Click below to read the sermon.

Pentecost is Coming . . .

This Sunday, June 12, is the festival of Pentecost, one of the highest days of the church year.  You can read the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. 

A prayer as we approach Pentecost:

Perplexing, Pentecostal God,

you infuse us with your Spirit,

urging us to vision and dream.
May the gift of your presence
find voice in our lives,
that our babbling may be transformed into discernment

and the flickering of many tongues

light an unquenchable fire of compassion and justice. Amen.

(The prayer is taken from here.)

Ascension of Our Lord

Ascension of Our Lord (obs) – Acts/Luke – 6/5/11 – Emmanuel Luth., Lancaster – Vicar Brett Wilson



When I was a little girl I had a big backyard. I loved to lay down in the grass, or lean way back in a swing, and look at the clouds move against the blue sky. I was brought up going to Sunday School each week, and taught that Jesus is always with me and looks down on me, and loves me. And having a vague idea from cartoons or somewhere that God is in the sky, I decided Jesus was up there too. So I can remember as a kid spending fair amounts of time in the backyard trying to see Jesus in the clouds. I mean, if he stands on the cloud, maybe sometimes he gets close enough to an edge, and if I just were to look at the right angle, I'd have to glimpse the top of his head!  I must've been a weird kid, hours spent in this search. . .

In retrospect, maybe I got this idea from hearing the readings on one Ascension Sunday. Acts reads, “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”