Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

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!

The Table of the Lord

There are some things in life that are so sacred, so weighty, so important that they demand reverence and careful attention. Standing at the bedside of a dying loved one, holding a newborn child, witnessing the vows of marriage; these are things that we instinctively know should not be treated casually. They are important. So important, in fact, that someone who is glib, irreverent, or careless in these things would be quickly and rightly condemned.
This evening, St. Paul teaches us in First Corinthians chapter eleven to consider one of the most sacred things in the life of the church: the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Here, at our altar, in this blessed Sacrament, heaven meets earth. Christ Himself comes to serve His people His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. And because this is a holy thing, a literal giving of God Jesus Christ to us, we must approach it in a way that honors Him, benefits our neighbor, and preserves the unity of His body. That is why we practice what is often called “closed Communion.” This is not a way of excluding people out of arrogance, but as a way of loving them deeply, by treating Christ’s gift with the reverence it deserves. Let me explain.
To find out more, listen to this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Holy Wednesday

Luke records our Lord’s first words while hanging on the cross, “Father, forgiven them, for they do not know what they do.” Even in the midst of His agony and suffering, He declares absolution; He pronounces the forgiveness of sins upon those who crucified Him.
Though He declares that everyone is forgiven and that He receives the wages for our sins, no matter how heinous our sins are, this forgiveness is not received by all. This is because it is received through faith, by trusting in Jesus as the Son of God, the very Messiah Who came for this precise purpose: to forgive sins.
To hear more, listen to this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Torn Curtain

If you’ve ever stood before a locked door that you desperately needed to get through, one for which you cannot find the key, you know the feeling: the frustration of being kept from what’s on the other side. It is easy is such situations to be helpless, frustrated, and to feel powerless. This is the condition of us human beings before God. We are barred from Paradise. We cannot open the door; we are unable to enter the presence of God. The way is locked, and we do not have the key. This is the reality of what sin does to us. Worst of all, our sinful selves enjoy that the way is barred, even going so far as to delight in our sins and to justify and rationalize them.
Suffice it to say, the door is locked and there is no way for us to God. And if we are honest, we must admit that the locking of this proverbial door is entirely our fault. We are guilty, both by nature and deed. And, as such, we deserve nothing good, only guilt, shame, and punishment. And no matter how hard we try, we cannot force that door open. No few people have tried. We human beings have tried being good, rather, good enough. We have tried meditation and religious rites concocted to appease God. We have tried moral perfection and cultivated charity. None of these have cracked the door even a sixteenth of an inch.
But today, the pen of the holy Evangelist Mark brings us to the moment when the door is opened. At the death of Jesus, something extraordinary happened: “The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” With that miraculous act, God declared: “The way to Me is now open!” Christ’s death brings us access to His Father, not by way of punishment or wrath, but by grace, salvation, and everlasting blessing.
To hear the rest, listen to this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Lifted Up

Christ our Lord said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” The evangelist then tells us that Jesus did this so as to show us by what kind of death Jesus was going to die.  To be lifted up is to be exalted, to be honored and praised by man.
And Jesus will be exalted, but only in jest. But Jesus also knew that His lifting up would not be in vain. And Jesus told His disciples that when He is lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself, that is to say, that the many would know Him as He who was lifted up. Jesus’ exaltation came when He was lifted upon the cross, having been crucified by the Jews whom He came to save, and at the hand of the Greeks, those who are Gentiles.
It is for this reason, and others, of course, that the apostle Paul has written, “We preach Christ crucified.” But Paul did not end the thought there. No, he continued, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The King

What a scene it must have been! Crowds surging through the streets of Jerusalem, waving palm branches, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" It's a scene of excitement, of anticipation. We celebrate this each year on this day, Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.
The people gathered had heard of Jesus. They had seen His miracles, perhaps even witnessed Him call Lazarus from death and the tomb. News about Jesus spread like wildfire. Here was a man who had power over death itself! Surely, they thought, He was the King who would free them from Roman oppression. Surely, He was the Messiah they had waited for. They were, of course, right, but not in the way they expected.
Find out more about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND.

Walking in the Light

The Apostle John gives us a simple, though profound teaching in our reading tonight: "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."[2] God is light. It’s not just that He gives light, or that He lives in light, He is light. Perfect purity. Perfect truth. Perfect holiness. In God, there is no hidden agenda, no shadowy motives, and no secret sins swept under the rug.
But when we hear this, our first instinct often is to step back. Because we know, if we are honest, that we have plenty of shadows in our lives. Sins, mistakes, things that are shameful. The list is long and cuts deeply into the very core of our being. And light like the Light that is God, light that exposes everything, can be uncomfortable as it illumines those things we seek to keep secret and hidden in shadow.
Find out more in this sermon on confession and absolution!

Who is Your Father?

The boundaries between Christ and Satan are rather defined. Jesus’s own words reveal this basic truth. In our Gospel reading from John today, Jesus is engaged in a conversation with those Jews who had believed in Him[2] and things get heated. In this passage, Jesus isn’t just defending His identity—He’s revealing a deep spiritual reality: that there are only two kingdoms. And these kingdoms are neither political kingdoms, nor economic systems, rather they are spiritual kingdoms. These are the kingdom of the Devil, and the Kingdom of Christ. Every single person belongs to one or the other. It doesn’t matter much if a person has an awareness of this; to be absent from Christ’s Kingdom is to be in the Devil’s.
This is a challenging passage, not because it’s hard to understand, but because it’s so clear. Jesus draws a hard line and says, "You are either with Me or you are not." As I mentioned a few weeks ago when Jesus says similarly to this in Luke, we humans love the idea of shades of gray in spiritual matters, in truth, and in morals. Gray makes us feel like we are in control, gray gives us the illusion of autonomy, that we are in charge of our fates. Gray deludes us into thinking that we have a handle on reality and all the facets of it wish to manipulate to our own ends. But Jesus, God Himself, does not tolerate such thinking. And here, He notes quite simply that we are either children of our Father in heaven or children of the Devil.

Baptism, Our Adoption

Today we reflect on the profound gift of baptism, which unites us with Christ and marks the beginning of our life in Him. Our readings from 1 Peter 3:18-22 and Matthew 28:16-20 highlight the significance of baptism, not just as a ritual, but as the saving act of God and the very foundation of our Christian identity. Furthermore, the wisdom of the Large and Small Catechisms deepens our understanding of baptism’s role in shaping our faith and daily walk with Christ.
Baptism is something many of us experience in infancy, but its impact is lifelong. It is not just a one-time event, but a daily reality that calls us into a life of faith, repentance, and renewal. Throughout this sermon, we will explore how baptism connects us to Christ’s death and resurrection, how it is central to the mission of the Church, and how it transforms our daily living.