Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

A Life Laid Down

Dear friends in Christ, today we lay to rest a dear woman, a sister in Christ, a grandmother, mother, and friend: Janice Wagner. And this is a day marked by a number of mixed emotions. There are remembrances about her life: her time as a teacher, her love of her family, and her deep Christian faith. And with all of this is a grief, a sense of loss, that, as St. Paul notes, is characterized for us Christians as one with hope.
Janice led a hard life and had more than her share of hardships. Toward the end she struggled with her declining health and the loss of her beloved daughter, Terra. And this great suffering might tempt us to dismiss our loss of her as a good thing, since it brought to a close her grief and pain. But a woman like Janice also leaves a hole in our lives because she is a great gift to us from God our Creator. And for this reason it is good and right for us to grieve her, to miss her, and to soothe our loss with memory and recollection.
But if this is all we have, then we do not have any real hope in all of this. Memory fades. Recollections only give us what was, they do not give us what is or will be. And, despite all the good intentions of well-meaning people, those who have departed before us do not live in us, our hearts, or any other such thing except in the form of memories. But these are not the person, no matter how much we might wish them to be.
This all seems very hopeless. Death is not something that we have the power or ability to roll back or do something about. And yet, St. Paul tells us that we Christians do not grieve as those without hope. And how can he say something so bold, so seemingly foolish in the face of a great enemy like death? Because of Christ Jesus, the Lord, the One who has overcome death and defeated sin and overthrown the rule of the Devil.
To find our more, listen to this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Peace

     Today marks the Feast of Pentecost, one of the principle and most important celebrations in our liturgical, that is church, calendar. This day commemorates that giving of the Holy Spirit to the Christian Church. And as you may have noticed in the last few weeks, we have spent some time working through readings in John’s Gospel that focus on Christ’s own promises and teachings about the Holy Spirit. To keep it brief, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come and be present in and among His Christians, that is, in His Church.
    What is interesting about this reading and those we have read from chapters fifteen and sixteen in the last few weeks is that they record what Jesus taught on the night of His arrest, that is, on Maundy Thursday. In other words, this all takes place back in Holy Week. Jesus, knowing that He is going to be betrayed by Judas, wants to prepare His disciples both for His death and His ascension. He wants to assure them that even though He will be take from them, they are not abandoned or cut off form God. He wants them to rest assured that they will be kept in God’s good grace. Therefore, He promises them that the Holy Spirit will come.
     Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!
 

Resist

We human beings are prone to overestimating our own abilities. Specifically, I mean in spiritual matters. That is to say, individual humans may be prone to self-doubt in skill, ability, competency, social abilities, and the like, but even relatively un-confident people tend to be rather assured of their own spiritual knowledge and insights. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing if the spiritual insights and knowledge that one possesses are true. But the unfortunate side effect of this is that we have something of a hard time being under authority of others in spiritual matters.
What I am trying to say is that we have an inborn assumption that our spiritual insights are good and trustworthy. But this is not what Jesus says. He tells us her we need a Helper, One who will come and give us the truth. In other words, we cannot simply trust our own ideas and perceptions about spiritual things; doing so ends in confusion at best and unbelief at worst. We need to have a Guide, an Advocate, a Helper. We need to be led and sustained in truth and faith.
This is why Jesus here promises us the Holy Spirit.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Ascension of the Lord

It is unfortunate that the Feast of the Ascension is seen as such a minor thing in the eyes of many Christians. This day commemorates the great, historical reality of our Lord’s return to the right hand of His Father, that is, to His being returned to the heavenly realm of His Father and seated therein with all power and authority of the Father. In other words, Jesus went back to that great heavenly realm and there is given all honor, authority, and power, both that which is rightfully His as God and that glory which is due Him for His great sacrifice on behalf of us sinners.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Advocate

Our Gospel reading today records Jesus speaking to His disciples about what is to come. He’s preparing them for His departure, that is, His arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and ultimately, His ascension. And in the middle of this emotional farewell, Jesus says something that must have sounded absolutely strange to them: “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.”
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Grief and Joy

“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” These words were spoken by our Lord Jesus at the Last Supper, on the very night He was betrayed by Judas into death. While it is easy enough for us to catch what He is referencing, that is, His death and resurrection, it was rather more confusing for the Twelve who originally heard this saying of the Lord.
Have you ever received news that left you puzzled? Maybe it was a message that didn’t make sense until later due to gaining some insight or perspective: a phone call, a diagnosis, a surprise announcement. Jesus' words to His disciples were just like that. “A little while,”He says, “and you will not see me… and again a little while, and you will see me.”
And so, in this frank conversation before going to the cross, Jesus prepares His disciples, and even us, for the Christian life. Specifically, He is warning us about our inevitable grief and the triumph of joy at the end.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Good Shepherd

There’s something deeply comforting about the image of a Jesus as a Shepherd. Maybe that’s why the Twenty-Third Psalm is one of the most beloved passages in all of Scripture: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” It brings to mind green pastures, quiet waters, safety, and peace. But Jesus doesn’t just call Himself a shepherd. He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. And then He says something no ordinary shepherd would ever say.
Listen again to Jesus, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  Now think about that for a moment. Imagine you're a shepherd. You’re guarding your flock and along comes a wolf. What’s your job? To protect the sheep, yes, even to kill for them. To die for them? Not really. Because if the shepherd dies, the sheep are in even more danger. A dead shepherd leaves the flock scattered and vulnerable. A good earthly shepherd tries to survive the attack, not become a martyr. But Jesus says, “I lay down My life for the sheep.” Not as a last resort. Not accidentally. Rather, intentionally.
Find out more about our Good Shepherd in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Keys to the Kingdom

On that first Easter evening, the disciples were hiding behind locked doors. The tomb was, and is, empty. The women were saying, “He is risen!” And yet fear had the upper hand. They were afraid of the Jews, afraid of what the future held, afraid that they might be the next to be strung up on a cross. They doubted the Resurrection and the promise of the Lord. And so they were afraid.
And Jesus came and stood among them. The grave could not hold Him; locked doors certainly couldn’t keep Him out. “Peace be with you,” He said. Not a scolding. Not a lecture. Peace from Himself, who is the antidote to their fear.
And then He did something that might seem surprising: He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” This is what we call the Office of the Keys.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

He is Risen!

Early in the morning, before the sun had fully risen, Mary Magdalene walked in grief to the tomb. Her heart was broken. Her hope, buried. Her world, shattered. The man who had delivered her from darkness, the one who had healed her, taught with truth and authority, loved her in spite of her sin, and forgave her was gone. She came to that solemn place, the tomb of her Lord, to mourn.
But what she found rattled her. The stone, the large one that sealed the entrance and that was sealed with official mark, the one guarded by Roman legionaries, was rolled away from the entrance.  She ran. She told Peter and John. They ran. They looked. They saw the linen cloths and the empty space where Jesus’ body once lay. But they did not yet understand, so they went home. Mary, however, stayed.
She stood outside the tomb, weeping. She looked again. She saw two angels. They asked her why she was weeping. “They have taken my Lord,” she said, “and I do not know where they have laid Him.” And then, turning, she saw a man she thought is the gardener. He also asked her, “Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” And then came the turning point of the entire affair.
He said her name: “Mary.” And just like that, everything changed for her.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Despair

Good Friday is a day of contrasts. Light and darkness. Justice and injustice. Life and death. Victory and defeat. Tonight we heard the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John. We heard the details of our Lord’s betrayal, His suffering, and His death. And among the many people in that record of the history of our salvation, Peter, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, Mary, John, one figure stands out next to the Lord Himself: Judas the betrayer.
John tells us that Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. But John doesn’t paint the traitor as a venomous creature of pure evil. Instead, the Evangelist, that is the writer of a Gospel, reminds us that Judas walked with Jesus. He was among the Twelve. He saw the signs. He heard the Word. He reclined at the same table. And on that last night, Jesus dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas. Judas, who would betray Jesus was afforded the gift of being in the Lord’s presence in the inner circle of the twelve Apostles.
To find out more, check out this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!