Sermons & Newsletter Articles

Pebbles and Mountains

Lent 1 Year A Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Today’s Hebrew Scripture… about Adam and Eve and the serpent… brings to mind ideas about sin… and perhaps original sin… but neither the word sin… nor any synonym for it… appears in Chapters 2 or 3… and Chapter 3 doesn’t talk...

Awareness

As we navigate our way through Lent, I invite us to consider all the things we do, but to pay particular attention to those for whom we do them, and to carefully dig down past the typical reasons towards any underlying reasons there may be for doing them. I invite us to be more...

You Are But Dust

Ash Wednesday Year A Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 103:8-14 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6,16-21   There’s a movie from 2007… which tells a tale of friendship… betrayal… secrets… redemption… and reconciliation…  and woven into the soundtrack… is a song called Supplication… whose lyrics I believe… reflect the penitence of Lent… I’ve referred to them before…...

Drifting or Anchored

The Transfiguration Year A Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 99 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9   The summer after I graduated from high school… in 1971… I went to Israel for eight weeks… it was my parent’s idea… and I went with about 90 other college students… who I think were all Jewish… because the trip...

Limits and Minimums

Epiphany 6 Year A Sirach 15:15-20 Psalm 119 1-8 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37   Hello… my name is Mike… and I am a sinner… no matter what I do… or don’t do… I am a sinner… not because I want to be… not because of Original Sin… but because I am separated from...