Sermons & Newsletter Articles

Leave the Cookies for Santa. God Wants All of You.

When I was in seminary, we learned how to become detectives as it related to scripture. We were taught to ask questions about the author’s intended message, and to gain insights into how his own readers would have heard and understood it. And generally speaking, we explored the texts according to five categories, or...

In the End is the Beginning

Year C Jeremiah 33:14-16 Psalm 25:1-9 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36 May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth… If I had to guess, I’d say that most of you have seen the movie Forrest Gump… or Saving Private Ryan… or Slumdog Millionaire…  or perhaps even Annie Hall…  or Gandhi…  or one of those other...

Which Kingdom Do You Mean?

Year C Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 Psalm 93 Revelation 1:4b-8 John 18:33-37 May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth… The Gospel is hard…  the Gospel is difficult…  the Gospel is so totally at odds with our American experience that fitting it into our lives may feel like forcing a square peg...

Stone by Stone

Year C Daniel 12:1-3 Psalm 16 Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25 Mark 13:1-8 May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth… “Grandmother, what big eyes you have!”“The better to see you with, my dear.”“And Grandmother, what big teeth you have!”“All the better to eat you up with.”And the wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood… We just heard...

Waiting for Sainthood

Year B Wisdom 3:1-9 Psalm 146 Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44 May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth… I only recently became aware of something called a “mash-up”…  but apparently they’ve been around for a long time…  friends of ours invited Joel and me over to see a movie that only someone with a vivid...