I SEE YOU! JUNE 22, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
We humans are good at applying labels to each other. Short, fat, black, white, loser, winner… We drop bombs on “enemies,” we feed (or chastise) the “hungry. We apply a label and we think we know a person. When Jesus encounters a gentile, demon-possessed, man who is as good as dead (he lives in the cemetery), Jesus sees none of the labels. Instead, he restores the man to his standing as a human, a child of God. Christ sees you for who you are, not for the labels you bear. And he sets us free.
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UNBEARABLE: JUNE 15, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Jesus once said, “You cannot bear it now.” We usually think of the unbearable as pain—and rightly so. But what if the unbearable isn’t only sorrow? What if it’s also joy too overwhelming to carry, love too deep to explain, grace too beautiful to hold? Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31 | Romans 5:1–5 | John 16:12–15
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THE SPIRIT IS NO GHOST: JUNE 8, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Pentecost is a festival that celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. For years, English-speaking Christians referred to the third person of the Trinity as “The Holy Ghost” (some still do). This always made me think of Casper when I was a kid. The Holy Spirit is not, however, an apparition, a paranormal anomaly. The Holy Spirit is the very being of God that is given to all who call on the name of the Lord. It is the indwelling image of God poured into us by grace. It stands against the spirits of the age that tempt us to greed, violence, despair, selfishness, and division. The Holy Spirit...
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CALLED BOTH WAYS: JUNE 1, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
We live in the tension between ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ and ‘Come and see’ - crying out for Christ’s return while extending Christ’s invitation to a thirsty world. The church is called to be both bride calling out to Christ and wellspring offering living water to all who thirst. What does it mean to live faithfully in the in-between time, when the promise of ‘soon’ stretches across centuries and the prayer for unity meets our human divisions? Acts 16:16-34 | Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 | John 17:20-26
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LYDIA’S LEGACY: MAY 25, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Scripture does not tell us much about Lydia, but we have enough to know that she begins the story as one who is always the outsider. A woman in a man’s world, a person of wealth and means, an immigrant, a gentile among Jews. Then she hears the gospel and is baptized, and all these identities are replaced. She becomes a child of God, “marked by the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.” She becomes the leader of the church at Philippi. How does this transformation happen? How does it happen for us?
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NO MORE TEARS: MAY 18, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
The Book of Revelation reveals the gift of a New Jerusalem as a symbol of the fulfillment of God’s reign of peace, justice, and love. In that gentle reign there will be no more tears. That is good news in a world where there is much to make us weep. The struggle is that God’s new Jerusalem transforms and redeems the old one. What if we like the old one, the old ways, the old ideas? The tears will continue to flow if everything stays the same; if we long for what once was. How do we imagine and allow ourselves to live in a city where there are no more tears?
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DEFIANT DOXOLOGY: MAY 11, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
They stood in silence and whispered a risk: “Jesus is Lord.” Not a slogan. Not a ritual. A choice that could cost everything. What kind of faith dares to speak when power says to stay quiet? This week, Revelation doesn’t give us dragons or end times charts. It gives us a vision—a multitude, a Shepherd, and a God who sees every tear. Acts 9:36–43 | Revelation 7:9–17 | John 10:22–30
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ON THE WRONG ROAD: MAY 4, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Ever been on the wrong road, headed the wrong way? Worse yet, even been on the on the wrong road and not know it? Peter and Paul are on the wrong road in the scriptures for this day. No map, GPS, or self-help will straighten them out, turn them around or get them headed in the right direction. Only an act of resurrection can do that. Thankfully Jesus intervenes to alter their courses – as he does with us, every day.
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BEYOND EASTER MORNING: APRIL 27, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Last week was Easter — but the story isn’t over. For resurrection people, Easter never ends. After the crowds thin and the music fades, a quieter question remains: Is it still true? Is resurrection still real… even now? Like Thomas, we find ourselves reaching out — hoping to touch what our hearts dare to believe. Acts 5:27–32 | Revelation 1:4–8 | John 20:19–31
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THE EIGHTH DAY: APRIL 20, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Christians have come to worship not on the seventh day (Sabbath) but on the eighth day, a day that signifies new creation. When the women came to the tomb of Jesus, they were prepared to anoint a dead body. They expected nothing new, so they brought spices and cloth, grief and despair. They had no expectation that a new creation had dawned in the resurrection of Christ. The eighth day brought hope and is a day we celebrate every week as we gather, hear the bread, share the meal, and send the risen people of God back into the world to be the risen Christ.
info_outlineIn today's Gospel, we delve into the Annunciation, a moment often overlooked in Protestant circles. Mary, a humble teenager from Nazareth, questions the angel Gabriel's surprising message. Yet, Gabriel points to God's unwavering faithfulness, echoing a history of divine promises fulfilled.
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 | Romans 16:25-27 | Luke 1:26-38