What do you say?

Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on his final Sunday at Holy Trinity + Sunday, September 27, 2026

What do you say? It’s a Craigism and it confuses about half of you when I ask you that, so I stopped asking the question. What do you say is like a friendly hello. A variation of how are you? or what’s up? You can say whatever you want. You can say what is on your mind.

Mind you, mind is a key word in our texts today.

So ask me: what do you say today, Pastor Mueller? What’s on your mind?

For one thing, I recognize what a long goodbye this has been. I needed it. Maybe you did too. To prepare. To face both loss and anticipation. To make space within for all the transitions before us.

When I mentioned the long farewell to someone at HTLoop last week, it reminded them of the so-called “Minnesota long goodbye.” You announce your imminent departure 30 minutes or up to three hours before you plan to leave. You glance at the time, “well, I should get going, is it 8:00 already?” At which point your host offers you more dessert and a cup of coffee.

Over snickerdoodles and Sanka, a whole new conversation begins, which leads to a short video of a graduation party. Someone suggests going to the basement to check out a new sump pump. You think to yourself: I may be here all night!

As you finally venture out into the frigid Minnesota winter air, your host gives you a paper sack with peanut butter sandwiches in case you get hungry on your ten-minute drive home. Finally, the moment of goodbye comes. And then someone brings up a whole new subject, like a recent election or how the Vikings did last Sunday And before you know it you are given a toothbrush, still in its wrapper, a guest towel so you can wash up while your hosts put clean sheets on the pull-out couch in the basement!

Well, I hope these months haven’t felt that long!

You may wonder, how was the date for this service chosen? No home Cubs game! But we didn’t even think of checking for neighborhood festivals. Of course, I checked the readings for the day. I couldn’t help myself. A parable about two sons changing their mind, not on anyone’s list of favorite parables. And then one of the greatest passages in the New Testament, beautiful words from Philippians, including the famous “Christ hymn” about Jesus’ self-emptying on the cross. And our call to have the “mind of Christ.”

Writing from prison, Saint Paul has deep bonds with the community at Philippi. He calls them his joy, his crown. He joyfully remembers them in his prayers. He longs to see them again.

He has suffered the loss of all things, yet for him, Christ is everything. At the heart of it all are these words. Make my joy, complete, Paul writes. Be of the same mind, having the same love that was in Christ Jesus.

And Paul says words that could almost sound political these days. But they are right there in the Bible. Words for this time of transition. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit. Look to the needs of others first. Think of them as better than yourselves. Empty yourself as did Jesus. Let go of power and grasping. Have the mind of Christ. In other words, have an orientation toward service and the common good.

What’s on my mind? My hopes for this beloved community. That you have the mind of Christ. That as you live out the mission of Holy Trinity, at the center will always be Christ crucified and risen. Holding two things at once. Loss and gain. Cross and resurrection. Sorrow and joy. Death and life.

As we will sing in a few moments, we behold divine beauty in weakness, in powerlessness, in vulnerability, in all that it means to be human.

What else is on my mind? That you remain open and open minded. YWe have created a community in which you don’t need to leave your mind at the door. Here you can struggle with what it means to be a person of faith in our time and place.

Both brothers in today’s parable change their minds. One says yes, then no. The other no, then yes. I have been tempted a few times to change my mind . . . and remain here until my eighties. After all that is what presidents, supreme court justices and senators seem to do these days, right?

To repent, to change your mind in the biblical sense means to make a new start, to turn in a new direction, to reorient yourself. To move from discussing faith as an ideal, to getting on with it. To get on with our mission of being a people of welcome, justice, and healing in the world.

Mind, yes. And heart. I’ve heard it said that most people don’t remember what the pastor says in the sermon, but how it makes them feel.  

As I was reflecting on what is on my mind and heart, I remembered one of my favorite stories from an Easter Day sermon. I found it in my well-organized files. Easter Sunday, 2005.

Because of Winn Dixie is both a children’s book and a family movie about a girl named Opal and her dog. For both children and adults, it acknowledges how sorrow and suffering touch everyone in real life.

Opal’s mother left her when she was three years old. One of her friends lost a five-year-old brother in a drowning accident.

One of the adult characters tells a story of a man named Littmus W. Block. Littmus went off to war and when he returned, he discovered that everything from his previous life was gone. Not a member of his family was still alive. So he started a candy company. After so much sorrow, he longed for something sweet. Thus, he created “Littmus Lozenges.” They tasted like root beer and strawberry and another flavor that couldn’t be identified. Littmus made a fortune because he manufactured a piece of candy that tasted sweet and sad at the same time.

When one woman tasted it, she said: “It tastes sweet. But it also tastes like people leaving.” Opal’s father eats a candy and says to Opal: “It has a peculiar flavor … it almost tastes a little melancholy … it makes me think of your mother.” Tears roll down the face of another man who eats a piece. It reminds him of being in jail. And a little girl spits the lozenge right out and says it tastes like not having a dog.

At one point Opal realizes that life is like a Littmus Lozenge. How the sweet and sad are all mixed together and how hard it is to separate them out.

At the end, Opal throws a big party. And you can taste her joy.

People of Holy Trinity, you have made my joy complete.

Come again to this table. Taste again the goodness of God. Taste Christ crucified and risen. Taste the memories and the hopes. Taste the ending and the beginning. Taste the gratitude. And taste the joy. Amen.