This sermon was offered to Bethany Lutheran Church in Minot, ND on the Third Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2025. We also celebrated the installation of the Rev. Dave Myers as senior pastor.

A livestream video of the service is available here.

Sisters and brothers, friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus who comes among us still – our hope and our joy. Amen.

It is so good to be with you this weekend Bethany and Deering Lutheran Churches. I’m so grateful for Pastor Dave, for your staff and elected leadership, and for the many ways you live out the mission and ministry God is calling you into each day. You are a blessing to this church for which I am very grateful.

Yesterday, many of you participated in one of the most unique Bethany Lutheran Church ministry traditions – the lutefisk and meatball dinner! I apologize for not being able to be with you for that event. This bishop with a German-Russian heritage would have loved to enjoy some meatballs and lefse with you yesterday. An event like a church lutefisk dinner brings together community, history, and just a touch of courage.

I mean, come on, only the church could take something as polarizing as lutefisk and turn it into a fantastic time of fellowship!

And maybe that’s a good image for us to have today – God showing up in places we don’t expect God to be, among people we don’t expect God to pay any attention to, doing things we could never have thought of on our own.

 In our gospel reading today, John the Baptist, whom we heard from last week, calling us to repent and prepare the way of the Lord, now finds himself in a prison cell. John had preached boldly, prepared the way, baptized large crowds of people, and proclaimed that the Messiah was coming.

And now, sitting in Herod’s prison, he wonders, “Are you (Jesus) the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

It might just be one of the most honest questions we can find in Holy Scripture.

And if you and I are being honest with ourselves, it is a question that we’ve asked at some point in time along our journey of faith. After all, it is the question for those of us who are trying to prepare the way, but can’t yet see the fullness of the promise of the Way.

Note how Jesus responds. In much the same way he always seems to respond.

He doesn’t use guilt, shame, judgment, or scolding. No lecture.

Jesus sends a message to John with what he needs most: a word of witness.

“God and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Jesus doesn’t answer John’s question by saying, “Yeah, I’m the one. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”

Rather, he answers by saying, “Look where God is moving. Look at what God is doing!”

Look at the wounds being healed.

Look at the lives being restored.

Look at the good news taking on flesh in real human beings.

And today, Bethany and Deering, you hear that same word.

Your congregations have known seasons of hope and strength. You have also known seasons marked by division; times with more questions than answers; times of uncertainty as you walk through pastoral, membership, and staff transitions; times when you wonder if God does have a future in mind for Bethany Lutheran Church or Deering Lutheran Church on the prairies of North Dakota.

 You’ve weathered challenges – some unique to your congregations, and some shared by congregations across this synod and church.

When I first met with your congregation at the beginning of the most recent transition, I told you that I spend about 75% of my time working with congregations doing mediation and conflict management. Oftentimes, it requires more than 75% of my time as your bishop. You aren’t alone during challenging seasons.

It’s important for us to remember that installation days like the one we celebrate today are not celebrating the employment of a new pastor. They are gospel moments.

After all, a pastor is called to be in a relationship with a congregation. And a congregation is called to be in relationship with a pastor.

You didn’t hire Pastor Dave, and he didn’t hire you.

The installation of a pastor is a day when the church celebrates that God is still active here. God is still calling leaders. God is still drawing this community of faith forward in mission and ministry.

Pastor Dave, your call here is not to be the Messiah. Bethany and Deering already have a Messiah. Your call is to help God’s people keep watch for the signs of the kingdom.

To point the people God has called you to walk with in faith to the places where Jesus is healing, restoring, raising, and renewing.

To stand with God’s children in hope when questions arise.

And to walk with them in joy and sorrow as God’s grace breaks open in unexpected ways.

And, Bethany Lutheran Church, and your sister church in Deering…your call is just as holy.

The installation of a pastor is also the installation of a faith community.

You have been in a relationship with Pastor Dave for a while now. But today, your relationship begins anew.

Today is an affirmation that you make before God, promising to pray, support, encourage, dream, and serve together.

Today is a reminder that ministry and mission is always shared; it is never carried by one person. Today is an invitation to not only look at your history, but at the unfolding future God is shaping among you, right now, today.

The signs of the kingdom are here, if we are willing to open our eyes and hearts to see them.

The signs of the kingdom are here in the warmth of a lutefisk and meatball dinner that is welcome to everyone, even a sometimes-grumpy German-Russian.

The signs of the kingdom are in the ministries you lead within the walls of these congregations, sending people out to bless and serve your neighbors in Minot and Ward County, across the nearly 160 congregations of the Western North Dakota synod and the nearly 9,000 congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and alongside nearly 80 million Lutheran Christians who we are in communion with through partnerships like the Lutheran World Federation, ELCA World Hunger, Global Refuge, Lutheran Disaster Response, Lutheran World Relief, and many others.

The signs of the kingdom are in children and adults who gather to hear the good news of Christ Jesus proclaimed each week with faithful persistence to and for a world hungry for mercy and meaning.

These are examples of the good news Jesus sends back to John in today’s gospel reading.

This is the good news that comes to Bethany Lutheran Church today.

This is the good news that comes to Deering Lutheran Church today.

This is the good news we declare over Pastor Dave Myers as he begins a new chapter of his ministry among you today.

The Messiah has come.

The Messiah continues to come.

The kingdom is breaking in.

And you and I – together – get to be witnesses of this good news.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, as we continue along our Advent journey this year, keep asking bold questions. Keep looking for Jesus in surprising ways. Keep trusting that God is at work in ways that are deeper and wider than we can yet imagine.

And may the joy promised this day, the joy of John’s question met by Jesus’ healing, root itself deeply in these congregations, deeply in your pastor, and deeply in the ministry and mission you share in Christ’s name.

Blessed is anyone, Jesus says, who takes no offense at him.

Blessed is anyone who trusts that God is still acting.

Blessed is Bethany Lutheran Church and Pastor Dave Myers in this new season of life together and call in mission.

Thanks be to God. Amen.