The sermon will be based on the text from Mark 10:35-45 please read the note from Pastor Woodhouse regarding his sermon below:

What a great blessing it is that the Festival of Saint James falls so early in my tenure as your pastor at St. James Lutheran! As we remember the life of the saint after which our congregation is named, however, perhaps it is important to remind ourselves what role the saints play in our Lutheran faith.

Lutherans do not look at saints in the same way that the Roman Church does, for example. While we can have faith that the saints do indeed live with God in anticipation of the resurrection of the dead and the new creation, we do not invoke saints as mediaries that will pray for us and petition God on our behalf. Jesus Christ Himself is our advocate and our God, and we need no one else to act as our representative; we can take our prayers directly to God Himself.

But saints can still play a role in our faith lives, even if we do not worship them or pray to them. We can look upon them as examples of a faithful life, and we thank God for their steadfast service of Him and service of their neighbors. But we do so remembering that ‘saint’ simply means one who is holy and redeemed by Christ, and therefore we are all saints, covered by Christ’s righteousness and eagerly awaiting our reunion as a community of all believers in the presence of our God.

Therefore, as we celebrate the life of Saint James, we also celebrate our own lives as saints of Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church!