Trinity 18, 2026

October 26, 2026 by Christopher Esget in Sermons

Theologians enjoy abstract questions. But theology is not abstract. It’s darkness and light. Joy and despair. Life and death. Drowning and emerging.

Theologians ask Jesus an abstract question. “What’s the greatest commandment?” They had numbered them, you see. The Books of Moses had 613 commandments. 365 positive, 248 negative. And then comes the question: How are they ranked? Which one’s most important?

This level of abstraction is folly. The problem isn’t the ranking. It’s the doing….

Trinity 18, 2023

October 10, 2023 by Christopher Esget in Sermons

There are many congregations, but one church. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church finds its expression in local assemblies. That’s what the word church means: assembly. Today’s Epistle reading is a letter to one of those local assemblies: “To the church of God that is in Corinth.”

We tend to think of Christianity in individual terms, a private faith, a personal experience or decision. Certainly the individual is involved, but Paul writes to Corinth as he does to all the other local congregations: collectively…

Identity Politics & Identity Theology

November 28, 2019 by Christopher Esget in Sermons

Identity politics threatens civil discourse. Identity politics rips at the fabric of our society. Identity politics is finally dehumanizing, because it teaches people to find their identity in non-integral characteristics, instead of at the core of what it means to be human….