TIRED: SEPTEMBER 14, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
I don’t think I’m alone in being tired of the state of the world. What will address the warfare, violence, hatred, and just general meanness of this world? In a world where power, winning, material success, being number one, are the way we see things and what we strive for, there seems little hope of changing things. On this Holy Cross Day we are reminded that the way of the cross seems foolish in a winner-take-all world, but that foolishness has the power to save.
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THAT’S GONNA LEAVE A MARK: SEPTEMBER 7, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Being a disciple of Jesus is more than being a member of a church. There are costs to placing Jesus at the center of life to the exclusion of other things. Being a disciple leaves marks, and it begins with the cross affixed to our foreheads in baptism.
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TABLES ARE NEVER NEUTRAL: AUG. 31, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
A grandfather's coffee cup, a splash of milk, and a kitchen table full of chaos. Sometimes the most profound truths about God's kingdom hide in the most ordinary moments. If you've ever felt like you're scanning the room with your plate in hand, wondering where you belong, turns out your place was never in question. Proverbs 25:6-7a | Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 | Luke 14:1, 7-14
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SABBATH CELEBRATION: AUG 24, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
Keeping the sabbath is often seen as an obligation. In this age, a time-worn, quaint vestige of a more religious culture. For Jesus, sabbath is not an obligation. It is a celebration of the freedom we’ve been given to be the people God calls us to be instead of filling the roles others give us. To observe Sabbath is to be fully human.
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FIRE: AUG. 17, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
When Jesus announces that he has come to bring fire upon the earth and division to families it is a little off-putting, don’t you think? Is he announcing punishment or is there a message of grace and good news buried somewhere in the midst of the perceived threat? We should always be aware that baptism into Christ is a baptism that puts to death the claims of this world and ushers in a radical new way of living. We are marked with the cross of Christ!
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THE HOLY THIEF: AUG. 10, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
What if Jesus isn’t guarding the locks but breaking them open—freeing us from the prisons we didn’t even know we were defending? Genesis 15:1-6 | Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 | Luke 12:32-40
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WHAT HOLDS YOU? AUGUST 3, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
We build, we store, we cling. But beneath all that effort—what’s actually holding you? Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23 | Colossians 3:1-11 | Luke 12:13-21
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TEACH US TO PRAY: JULY 27, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
When Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray, he gives them the Lord’s Prayer (or Our Father). He then instructs them with parables that assure them of God’s attention and desire to give us what we need (not always what we want?). Prayer is about a relationship with the living God, not getting favors. Throughout scripture we can find God’s people asking for things in prayer only to have God answer with something else. God teaches us to pray by example.
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THE SACRED RHYTHM: JULY 20, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
When "crazy busy" becomes your default answer to "How are you?", maybe it's time to learn a different way to breathe. What if the story of two sisters arguing is about more than just dinner prep—and what if Jesus' response changes everything about how we serve? Genesis 18:1-10 | Colossians 1:15-28 | Luke 10:38-42
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THIS JOURNEY: JULY 13, 2025
Holy Trinity Ankeny
What if eternal life doesn’t begin at the destination, but in the ditch? What if the most important part of the journey isn’t where you're going—but what interrupts you along the way? Deuteronomy 30:9–14 | Colossians 1:1–14 | Luke 10:25–37
info_outlineHave you ever felt like life is more valley than mountaintop? Elijah did too. He stood against kings, called down fire from heaven, and yet, he found himself alone, exhausted, and ready to give up. But it was in that dark valley, not on the mountaintop, where God met him with the most tender, sustaining grace.
1 Kings 19:4-8 | Ephesians 4:25—5:2 | John 6:35, 41-51