Archives: Sermons

  • Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost

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    I know the David story—the darkness, the redemptive element—is seemingly the text we might focus on. It’s not where I’m focusing us this week. Instead, I’m arrested by this metaphor: “The Bread of Life.” Metaphors are a big deal. Although people abuse language in all kinds of ways, it is never to their benefit. As…

  • Fifth Sunday After Pentecost: Conquering Giants

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    When you look on line there are many different lists of things people fear: Fear of: Fears that Get in the Way of You Succeeding Fear of: What would be on your list of fears? Because we all have them don’t we? We all have areas of our lives that if we are not careful…

  • Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

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    When I was a kid, we used to get Highlights magazine every month. Does anyone else remember these magazines? They were magazines just for kids. They would have some simple stories, and they had puzzles and games for kids to do. Each month my favorite puzzle was the hidden pictures puzzle. An adult version of…

  • Third Sunday After Pentecost: Failure as Opportunity

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    1 Samuel 8 is a turning point in the history of Israel and also a train wreck of failure. This chapter fundamentally changes the nation of Israel, they go from a gathering of tribes with a version of a theocracy lead by divinely appointed judges to a monarchy. This changes not only the leadership structure…

  • First Sunday After Pentecost

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    Good Morning! Did you notice the change in the color of the altar cloths and cross hanging? It is green because we are in ordinary time. I never liked the term ordinary time, because I thought it meant plain, unexciting, boring. But in some research I did this week, I found out that Ordinary Time…

  • Pentecost: The Valley of Dry Bones

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    The vision of the valley of dry bones is probably the most well known passage in Ezekiel, and like the rest of Ezekiel it is wild. Not as wild as him shaving his head with a sword, ch. 3, but still real wild. There are so many great things that we can see in the…

  • Seventh Sunday of Easter: Why is Celebrating Pentecost Important?

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    This morning we are going to talk about why celebrating Pentecost is such a big deal, about how we can prepare ourselves to experience Pentecost again, and about how we can begin to anticipate the new work God wants to do among us. In the Acts passage we read this morning, we have gone backwards…

  • Fifth Sunday of Easter

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    I feel that we often come back to music in the sermon. Last month I preached and talked about how punk gave me a lens to understand the world. And then last week Traci, who wasn’t here when I preached, talked about punk and how music helped express what she was feeling. But here we…

  • Second Sunday of Easter

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    Before we get to the main theme for this morning I want to address the Gospel reading briefly. The story that is told is about Jesus appearing to the disciples following his resurrection, specifically when he appeared to Thomas following his expressions of doubt. Thomas has become known as “Doubting Thomas.” Not exactly the most…

  • Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost: The Shema

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    Deuteronomy 6:4–9 No Old Testament topic is more likely to put a majority of a congregation to sleep faster than a sermon about “The Law.” Perhaps genealogies, but who really preaches about those? As soon as you mention the law people get this blank look, but inside they are either dreading that they did not…