From the Bishop

This summer, congregations across the ELCA are invited to join in a study process as we in the ELCA reconsider portions of the social statement, entitled Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, which was adopted at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. A 16-person task force is...

In April 2024, the ELCA Church Council issued a social message entitled “Gun-related Violence and Trauma.” You can read the message here. This message, which has been helpful to me personally, moves the discussion beyond a gun rights verses gun control dichotomy. It...

Sermon for the 2026 Synod Assembly Ephesians 1: 15-23; Luke 24:44-53 St. Andrew’s, Mahtomedi 5.15.26 Grace and peace to you in the name of the Living God. AMEN. The words of the Second Lesson this morning come as a letter, a correspondence from St. Paul – or a student...

Sermon for the Spring Ministerium 2026 Luke 4:16-21 St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, St. Paul Grace and peace to you in the name of the Living God. AMEN. Jesus never imagined that two thousand years later we would still critique his first sermon. Did he fiddle...

Dear Friends in Christ, When news of the war with Iran broke on February 25, I posted a brief word on social media, encouraging us to pray attention to the events in the Middle East. In the week since tensions and military strikes have continued. That is the reality...

Sermon for Conference Assemblies 2026 Matthew 17:1-9 Christ the King, New Brighton Grace and peace to you in the name of the Living God. AMEN. When I moved to Minnesota in 2001, I learned that the phrase “ice out” referred to the first day when there was open water...

Dunrovin Retreat Center, Marine on St. Croix Mark 4:35-41 With the retreat theme, “Discipleship in Risky Times,” this homily was preached by Bishop Lull at the First Call Theological Retreat on January 5, 2026. Grace and peace to you in the name of the Living God....

This Advent I have been singing to myself the Cameroonian hymn He Came Down (ELW 253), which is one of the loveliest hymns for the Advent season. It might also be a wise hymn choice for Christmas Day in those congregations with a service on December 25th. Amid the...

Bishop’s Theological Conference 2025 Arrowwood Resort, Alexandria Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 15:4-13 Bishop Patricia Lull For the reading of the Gospel, I had the conference attendees read with dramatic flair the line – “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from...