Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

Two Masters?

Every one of us has a relationship with money and possessions. Some of us have a lot, some of us have a little. Some are comfortable, others feel pressed on every side. But no matter our position, Scripture repeatedly reminds us: wealth is both a gift of God and a dangerous temptation. It can provide food for the hungry, or it can become a false god that robs us of faith in Christ. It can give great blessings, or it can lead to great anxiety. Today’s readings teach us how to manage wealth properly, that is,  as something to be received in trust, to be used in love, and to be kept from becoming an idol.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!
 

3P1S Episode 19: Digital Addiction? Examining Christian Discipline in a Digital World

When the world is obsessed with screens, speed, and virtual presence, does the church have anything else to say? Does the Christian have any reason not to live with his head buried in a screen? What discipline is needed by today's Christians to live soberly in this often screen-fatigued world?
 
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Fellowship in the Light

When our Lord Jesus prayed on the night before His death that “they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,”He was not speaking figuratively. This was not a clever metaphor or a mere turn of phrase. It is the will of our Lord Jesus that Christians, those who bear His name, should be one.
And what is meant by this unity? Nothing less than that they share in all things. That is, that they would have very things of Christ without division, without rivalry, without conflict. His prayer is for a unity among Christians that reflects the eternal unity between the Father and the Son.
But as we all know, this is certainly not the case at present. The Church seems fractured. There are divisions between the East and the West, Romans and Protestants, Lutherans and the Reformed, liberals and conservatives, confessionals and missionals, the Missouri Synod; the Wisconsin Synod; and the myriad of other Confessional synods. Christ’s Church seems broken into irreconcilable pieces.
And yet the Scriptures remind us that unity is not optional. Christian fellowship is necessary. It is the very will of Christ that His people be one.
Find out more in this sermon preached at the 2025 Calov Conference from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Christ on Campus

The installation of a pastor is always a day of joy, but today’s occasion has a unique flavor. Here at the University of North Dakota, we are setting apart a servant of Christ to minister in one of the most challenging and most fruitful fields: the university campus. It is here that young men and women are being trained for their economic vocations, questions of life and meaning are raised with intensity, and future families will be formed. Today, God places His man in this place, not with the wisdom of the world, but with the Word of Christ, crucified and risen to come to these young men and women.
Find out more in this sermon preached for the installation of the Rev. Christopher Durham as the chaplain of Wittenberg Chapel at the University of North Dakota.

St. Matthew, Apostle

Today is the Feast of the Commemoration of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. Today’s Gospel reading gives us a brief account of how our Lord Jesus called Matthew into His service. Jesus walks by the tax booth. He sees Matthew sitting there, doing his work. And He says two words: “Follow Me.” And Matthew gets up and follows Him. No hesitation. No negotiation. No résumé presented to prove worthiness. Just a call and a response. Such is the power of the Word of God.
While we Christians are accustomed to thinking about God’s Word as powerful and active, it is good for us to stop for a moment and thing about who Matthew was. He was a tax collector. A collaborator with the Romans. A man despised by his fellow Jews as a cheat and a traitor. In brief, he was the last person you would expect the Messiah to want in His inner circle. Yet Jesus called him to Himself.
Find out more about St. Matthew in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Folly of the Cross

The older I get, the more I find that the evil and suffering of this world weighs heavy on me. Friends get cancer. Drunk drivers cross lines and destroy families. Children are murdered attending at school, even while going to chapel services. Political figures are assassinated. Injury. Illness. Suffering. Turmoil. Death. This seems to be the constant state of the world and we always seem to be teetering on the edge of falling into a great pit, brimming with chaos and evil of every sort, entirely powerless before it
And when we feel trapped and powerless, we seek solutions. What can we do in the face of such terrors?
Find out in this sermon for Holy Cross Day from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Ephphatha, Be Opened!

When was the last time you were really frustrated by not being able to communicate? Maybe your phone broke and you couldn’t call when you needed to. Maybe you were in a noisy crowd and no one could hear you. Or maybe you’ve visited someone in the hospital who had lost their ability to speak; it’s painful for them, and it’s painful for those who love them.
In today’s Gospel, we meet a man who has lived his whole life in that kind of frustration. He cannot hear. He can hardly speak. He is trapped in silence. And Jesus, with one word, opens what was closed. “Ephphatha—Be opened!” Immediately, he can hear. Immediately, he can speak.
But the miracle is more than about one man’s ears. It’s about the condition of all humanity under sin. Sin closes our ears to God’s Word and ties our tongues so we cannot confess His name rightly. And Christ comes to open our ears and loosen our tongues, so that faith may live in us and praise and right confession may live on our lips.
Find out more in this sermon for the 12th Sunday after Trinity from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

3P1S Episode 18: What Should You Expect from Church?

In episode 18, we are tackling the topic of expectations!  What can you expect from your church?  In a world shaped by consumer preferences, it’s easy to treat the Church like another service provider—judging it by comfort, programs, or entertainment. Yet the Church’s true purpose is to deliver Christ through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. Pastors are called to shepherd, not entertain, and members are called to be sheep, not consumers. Though life together in the Church can be messy, Christ is present with forgiveness and grace, forming His people in faith, sending them into their vocations, and uniting them in true fellowship. At its heart, the Church exists not to mirror culture or sell experiences, but to give the crucified and risen Christ for the life of the world.
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Jars of Clay, Treasures of Jesus

Today we remember St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not the most famous of the Apostles. In fact, in the Gospels we only hear his name mentioned in the lists of the Twelve. Few of his words are recorded in Scripture. In fact, he does not stand out from the Twelve like Peter or John. But Church history tells us that Bartholomew carried the Gospel far and wide, perhaps as far as Armenia, appearing before the king of that nation, and that he died a martyr, giving his life for Christ, being flayed, that is skinned, alive.
In the Scriptures, Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, gives a great confession of Jesus, calling Him the Son of God and the King of Israel. But Bartholomew does not have much else that we can say about him biblically. It would be fair to say that, despite his great confession on the occasion of his conversion, there is little else that can be said with absolute certainty. It is fitting, then, that on his day we hear readings that speak of wisdom, of weakness, and of the strange greatness of the kingdom of God.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

The Radical Grace of God

The so-called Parable of the Unjust Steward, when viewed from man’s perspective, makes no sense whatsoever. A manager wastes his master’s possessions, and when this is discovered, the master tells him that he’s going to take the management away from him. The steward goes to work to pad his landing. There’s a twist right away. The master didn’t have him turn in the books right away, which gave the manager time to follow through on his shrewd plan. He has all of his master’s debtors come in one by one and slash their bills to a fraction of what they owed. And then the ultimate surprise: the master doesn’t throw him in prison; rather, he commends him for his shrewdness.
This parable makes no sense when viewed from the perspective of men. 
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND which was preached by the Rev. Mark Chepulis, president of the North Dakota district of the LCMS.