Agricolae

About Agricolae

Sermons from Pastor Mark Brown

Publisher

Agricolae

Category

religion & spirituality · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 May 2025

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

77 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   A Wedding Garment

   101126 Sermon (https://www.agricolae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/101126-Sermon.docx)Download (https://www.agricolae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/101126-Sermon.docx) Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14 The parable we pick up today often gets lumped in with those of the end time or eschatological parables. And being about the Wedding Feast is certainly has some of those shade. But how this one is told it has much more to do with the impact of the gospel in this age. The parable is about two things: 1) the invitation and summons to the feast and 2) the wedding garment. And how this sermon thinks about that division is grace alone and faith alone. And I’d assert like all the longer parables you really need to identify the part that causes offence to hear it. The offence in the first part is in the change and reminder of the grace. You have to accept it. In every generation there are those who take the invitation – the grace – for granted. They assume it is theirs, they presume upon God, because of their name or lineage or learning or some other part. But the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who respond to the summons. Now is the wedding feast. Come. And the Kingdom is for those who show up. Who accept the grace at its calling. The second offence point is both easier and tougher. It is the wedding garment. The unlimited grace of God is on offer, but it can only be received in one way – through Christ, through faith. There are all kinds of reasons people might show up at a wedding, even crash a wedding. But you don’t get to crash the eschatological banquet in your way, wearing your clothes whatever they might be. You have to have the wedding garment. Which is faith in Christ alone. This is the distinction summed up in the aphorism “many are called, but few are chosen.” The grace of God is available to all. The call of the gospel is universal. But there are many who want it their own way. The chosen wear the righteousness of Christ.

2. 

   9 Oct 2026

   The Horror

   Yes, I spend too much time watching TV. And yes, I know it is not a favorite genre. But Halloween approaches. And horror happens to be the genre that speaks to fears and anxieties we can’t always express. And in doing so walks on profoundly Christian ground – you might even say Holy Ground. And we happen to be in the midst of something of a golden age of Horror film. First of all I’m not talking about Freddy or Jason or the jump scare schlock that 16 year olds used to like to use as the excuse to get close at a drive-in. Some of that stuff does still get made, but that version of horror was never a real fright. Neither am I talking about a monster of the week series about hunting Bigfoot or the Mothman or a Chupacabra. I’m thinking about movies like the recent Backrooms, Obsession, the Nosferatu remake or maybe the start of this It Follows. Likewise the works of Mike Flanagan like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and his series TV vision of Carrie. Now Pastor, what the heck could a nice Christian find in any of that? Well, the first thing I’d say is that a recognition that there are more things in creation than are dreamt of in our philosophy is dawning on people. Nosferatu makes it rather explicit. Everyone associated with poor Ellen Hutter either dismisses her thrall to the Vampire or tries to treat is with the most advanced scientific technology that cutting edge Germany could offer. When all that technology has to offer fails. And when they go outside of pure technology reaching for occultist psychology, it too fails. What do they do? What is the only thing that kills the vampire and prevents the fall of the entire area? Ellen’s willing sacrifice of herself, her blood, holding the vampire until the Sun rises. There is power in the blood. Backrooms has something of the same theme. People stumble upon a strange parallel world of hallways and rooms that look like abandoned offices or the backrooms of a zombie mall. It’s all the parts of the world that our scientific buffered selves (thank you Charles Taylor) have cut off and say don’t exist. But just because we’ve put them in the buffer, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In that movie they all get lost in the backrooms. It is an interesting question whether the moral would be keep up your personal buffers, or something like the backrooms can’t grow and cause such fright and obsession if we kept ourselves more porous – the phrase Charles Taylor in a Secular Age uses to contrast with the buffered self. There is this thing called the uncanny valley. Most fakes ended up on the wrong side of it. You could tell they were fake although the closer they were the more nervous you became. Think the pod-people from the Body Snatchers. But AI seems to have crossed that uncanny valley. Even a year ago it was still easy to say “that’s AI.” Today? Have you tried chatting with one? I can see why there are people who think it has a soul. And since we have exiled the vocabulary and structure – good theology – with which we could talk about such things, we get the horror. Our anxiety and fear about things we don’t have the words to describe anymore. The artists are struggling to recover the words or as the internet joke about sex and marriage goes – recreate them from first principles. And it always starts in horror. When you all of a sudden realize that you are naked in the middle of a dark garden and something is walking in it. Last thought about this. Horror artistically is like repentance is to faith. It is the first step. And you don’t know what comes next. Does that thing walking out there seek to destroy me? Or does it love me? Key horror themes. Some horror ends on Holy Ground when you are saved by an act of love. When God shows up in whatever form he takes. In some the characters choose poorly and the monsters do eat them. As Paul says – work out your faith with fear and trembling.

3. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Service and Mission

   100426MBsermon (https://www.agricolae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/100426MBsermon.mp3)Download (https://www.agricolae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/100426MBsermon.mp3) Biblical Texts: Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, Galatians 2:1-10, Mark 10:35-45 The Sunday was given to LWML – Lutheran Women’t Missionary League. The texts for the day were not the typical lectionary texts, but were chosen by the organization. And if you listen, I’m not exactly sure why. You could pick better texts. But they do contain the themes of LWML – service and mission. Which honestly are the same theme. Service is very often what mission looks like in the local context. And the LWML as a collection of people is usually what most embodies Christ’s words in the gospel lesson. That whoever would be great among you must be a servant. So the sermon definitely intended to make that point and acknowledge the work done by the local LWML. But you can’t just throw Ecclesiastes into the reading list without addressing what The Teacher is saying. So the sermon starts out grumpier than normal because it reflects the chosen texts. But I think it has a deep point. God has put eternity in our hearts. But God has also answered most of The Teacher’s complaints about this in the person of Christ. And if you want to feel eternity now you have to lose yourself in service. Or as The Teacher put it take joy in the toil and good that is before you.

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