Dave Buerstetta on striving to do justice and love others while walking humbly with God
I’m just skating right past my failure at producing posts on the regular this month and just going with a flurry of activity. Hope you’ll bear with me as I think there are at least a couple decent nuggets of goodness to be found. I got to preach the first and last Sundays of Advent, …
Yes, indeed. For now at least. Due to the previously-arranged preaching schedule, the previous Sunday was my first opportunity to offer a sermon during our stay-safe-at-home time here in Illinois. So, yes, I spend the first few minutes talking about just how weird that feels. Probably too much time on that. But I strive to …
From 8th grade through the end of high school, I was always in a school where one of my parents was a teacher. That’s probably the main reason I never skipped a class in those years. Fast forward to college and, well, that record didn’t last. But I didn’t skip many or often because I …
Continue reading ‘She Who Laughs Last…’ a sermon on Genesis 18
This is probably a bit odd, but despite the sermon title, I never did make a connection between the temptations Jesus faced in chapter 4 of Matthew’s* gospel and any of the recent TV shows that play on that theme. Boy howdy, did I make a slew of other references and winks, though. ‘Cause, you …
Continue reading ‘Temptation Wilderness’: a sermon on Matthew chapter 4
Brevity. Not a quality for which many pastors are known. At least not when we’re in preaching mode. We tend to like to talk. A lot. The truth is (at least in my experience both listening to sermons and giving them), a short sermon that is also a good sermon is much more difficult to …
Continue reading ‘We’re Related to…Them??’: a sermon on Matthew 1
I know it’s New Year’s Eve, but let’s get in the WABAC Machine and set it for…one week ago. Way back when it was Christmas Eve. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Christmas Eve is kind of a big deal in (most) Christian churches. It certainly is in our congregation. Christmas Eve at Woodridge United …
Continue reading ‘Now for Something Completely Extra’: a Christmas Eve sermon
The fourth and final Sunday of Advent happened the day before Christmas Eve.* So it was already a challenge to separate Sunday’s message from one to give the next day. Add on the bonus level challenge of the same scripture reading as Christmas Eve (Luke 2:8-20)…and the result is one confused preacher. Fortunately, I had …
Continue reading ‘Everybody Move’: a sermon on Luke 2 & ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’
If that title suggests to you that this sermon might be trying to do too much…well, I probably can’t argue with you. It’s probably not my best. Still, though, I thought the conclusion was actually pretty good. Poignant, even. I’m not sure my congregation agreed. Maybe it was too on the nose? (If so, just …
Continue reading ‘Time to Go!’: a sermon on Mary’s song, Joseph’s census, & ‘Children, Go’
To paraphrase one of our great musician-philosophers, “Infinite war, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” But in the whole of human history, what has been more constant than war? Further, many of us were taught history, both of our country and of the world, through a series of wars. War seems to define us. …
Continue reading ‘Infinite War or Excelsior!?’ a sermon on Isaiah 36
Yesterday, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi walked into Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 people as they worshipped. This terrible, tragic, heart-breaking, hateful, and hate-filled act must be renounced — especially by Christians. Our faith has for too long and too often been used to justify violent anti-Semitism. I hope resistance to such …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 