Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

Every one of us has a relationship with money and possessions. Some of us have a lot, some of us have a little. Some are comfortable, others feel pressed on every side. But no matter our position, Scripture repeatedly reminds us: wealth is both a gift of God and a dangerous temptation. It can provide food for the hungry, or it can become a false god that rob...

When our Lord Jesus prayed on the night before His death that “they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,”He was not speaking figuratively. This was not a clever metaphor or a mere turn of phrase. It is the will of our Lord Jesus that Christians, those who bear His name, should be one.

And what is meant by this unity? Nothing less than that they share in all things. That is, that they would have very things ...

The installation of a pastor is always a day of joy, but today’s occasion has a unique flavor. Here at the University of North Dakota, we are setting apart a servant of Christ to minister in one of the most challenging and most fruitful fields: the university campus. It is here that young men and women are being trained for their economic vocations, questions of life and meaning are raised with intensity, and future families will b...

Today is the Feast of the Commemoration of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. Today’s Gospel reading gives us a brief account of how our Lord Jesus called Matthew into His service. Jesus walks by the tax booth. He sees Matthew sitting there, doing his work. And He says two words: “Follow Me.” And Matthew gets up and follows Him. No hesitation. No negotiation. No résumé presented to prove worth...

The older I get, the more I find that the evil and suffering of this world weighs heavy on me. Friends get cancer. Drunk drivers cross lines and destroy families. Children are murdered attending at school, even while going to chapel services. Political figures are assassinated. Injury. Illness. Suffering. Turmoil. Death. This seems to be the constant state of the world and we always seem to be t...

When was the last time you were really frustrated by not being able to communicate? Maybe your phone broke and you couldn’t call when you needed to. Maybe you were in a noisy crowd and no one could hear you. Or maybe you’ve visited someone in the hospital who had lost their ability to speak; it’s painful for them, and it’s painful for those who love them.

I...

In episode 18, we are tackling the topic of expectations!  What can you expect from your church?  In a world shaped by consumer preferences, it’s easy to treat the Church like another service provider—judging it by comfort, programs, or entertainment. Yet the Church’s true purpose is to deliver Christ through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. Pastors are called to shepherd, not entertain, and me...

Today we remember St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not the most famous of the Apostles. In fact, in the Gospels we only hear his name mentioned in the lists of the Twelve. Few of his words are recorded in Scripture. In fact, he does not stand out from the Twelve like Peter or John. But Church history tells us that Bartholomew carried the Gospel far and ...

The so-called Parable of the Unjust Steward, when viewed from man’s perspective, makes no sense whatsoever. A manager wastes his master’s possessions, and when this is discovered, the master tells him that he’s going to take the management away from him. The steward goes to work to pad his landing. There’s a twist right away. The master didn’t have him turn ...

“Beware of false prophets.” This is a simple command, yet it is one that is not received well in our present age. Indeed, Jesus tells us here to identify and avoid those who preach falsely, yet faithful pastors are often attacked by well-meaning parishioners who find Jesus’s words here to be insensitive. But this instruction is not optional.  Jesus does not say “if” false prophets come. He says ...

            “They had nothing to eat.” Simple words to convey a simple reality. Food is an essential part of life in this world. Indeed, if we go too long without nourishment, we will become faint. With enough time we will eventually expire. This reality is simple because it is so immediate. Infants know hunger as well as adults. Thankfully, many, if not most of us here this morning, have not ha...

Jesus says that He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. Not an iota, not a dot, not a single stroke of a single letter of these holy texts will pass away until all is fulfilled. He does not explain them away or minimize them, in fact He intensifies them. It is not enough, says the Lord, to withhold your hand from striking in anger. You must also restrain your speech and even your tho...

Dear friends in Christ, today we have set before us the task of laying to rest our dear sister Esther Orn. She was, and is, a great and precious gift to you from God the Father, shown that you have made it a point to come here today to see this done. That is to say, it is normal and right to mourn someone that God has put into our lives. Even though this world of ours would tell us that there i...

Picture the scene: Jesus standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the crowd pressing in, hungry to hear the Word of God. He steps into Peter’s boat, pushes out a bit, and from that humble fishing vessel preaches to the masses. Then, He tells Peter to do something absurd: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter is tired. He’s fished all night and caught nothing. But...

Before us stands a simple yet profound truth: God desires the salvation of every sinner. Our Lord Jesus says that He came to seek and to save the lost. And that includes you and me. Left to ourselves, we are indeed lost in sin, sorrow, suffering, and death. We are misled by the foolishness of this world and trapped in the limits of our own broken lives. No one enjoys being lost, and yet it is ou...

Mary arose and went with haste. That is how our Gospel reading begins. She had just received the announcement from the angel Gabriel: that she, though a virgin, would conceive and bear the Son of the Most High. She asked, “How can this be?” and the angel pointed her to a sign: her elderly relative Elizabeth had conceived in her old age. “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

St. Peter and  St. Paul are two names known to every Christian, or, at least, should be. After our Lord Jesus, these two men are among the most important figures in the history of the Christian Church. Such is their importance that these two men were given the title “pillars of the Church,” due to their strong faith and great work of preaching the Gospel to multitudes of people.