Sermon Archive (Page 8)

7 Pentecost, Proper 12 – July 24, 2022 Luke 11:1-13           Our passage from Luke’s gospel today begins with Jesus “praying in a certain place.” When he has finished praying, one of his disciples asks, “Lord, teach us to pray…” . In response, Jesus offers a three-part teaching, including a model prayer, a parable about prayer, and some sayings about prayer. But isn’t it interesting that one of Jesus’ disciples asks about how to pray? The disciples weren’t ignorant or…

5 Pentecost, Proper 10 – July 10, 2022 Luke 10:25-37           The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most well-known of Jesus’ parables. This can make it difficult to really hear what Jesus might be trying to tell us, today. So, let’s try our best to re-imagine this story in different ways this year. I was reminded that by the time Jesus told this story, the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans was ancient, entrenched, and…

4 Pentecost, Proper 9 – July 3, 2022 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20           Jan Richardson tells the story of a church trip to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Alaska. It held an exhibit entitled A World of Maps. These maps were unlike any she had ever seen. Artists from across the United States had taken the familiar forms of cartography, stretching and pushing and translating them into a fascinating library of landscapes. There were altered maps, painted maps,…

Trinity Sunday – June 12, 2022 John 16:12-15           So, today is Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the three and one. Trinity Sunday asks us to embrace an idea, a theological abstraction, a doctrine. The Trinity is Christianity’s most unique, defining, incomprehensible and awesome mystery.  It is the revelation of who our Creator God is – an infinite Being existing in eternity as three co-equal, infinite Persons, consubstantial yet distinct. Clear as…

Pentecost – June 5, 2022 Acts 2:1-21 and John 14:8-27 Happy birthday!  It’s the feast of Pentecost and it’s also known as the birthday of the church.      It’s a birthday story like no other, full of wild details that challenge the imagination. Tongues of fire. Rushing winds. Accusations of drunkenness. To put it bluntly: God showed up fifty days after Jesus’s resurrection and threw the world an unforgettable party. There is another unforgettable story of a birthday. The birth of…

7 Easter – May 29, 2022 John 17:20-26           So, here we go again. Another school shooting, additional violence. It stirs up anger, deep sadness, confusion, all sorts of emotions, because here we go again. Nothing’s changed. In our Thursday service, we prayed for radical ideas – because let’s face it, our system is broken on so many levels.  And for this to stop, we need to go about things very differently, we need a multi-faceted approach. And so, the…

6 Easter – May 22, 2022 John 14:23-29           Today’s reading from John’s gospel is rich and complex. Jesus speaks of love and peace and the Holy Spirit. In this case, love is not the romantic, affectionate kind of love. It is not about emotions. It is what in Greek is called agape love. It is a loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. In short, this…

4 Easter – May 8, 2022 John 10:22-30           Jesus’ identity is in question in our gospel passage for this morning. This is the only time in John’s gospel that Jesus is asked directly whether he is the Messiah. “Tell us plainly”.  And Jesus’ answer is less than clear.  Instead of saying, “I have told you that I am the Messiah,” he responds, “I have told you.” What, Jesus? What have you told us? But then, Jesus goes on and…

Easter 2022 Luke 24:1-12 Alleluia, Christ is risen!  Happy Easter! I think most of us love hearing the story of Jesus’ resurrection, of Jesus conquering death. The story of God’s love for us. But what does it mean for our day-to-day living? Does it really make a difference to us that Jesus rose from the dead? I have been reading a book entitled “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make us Whole”, researched and written by Susan Cain. It resonates with…

5 Lent – April 3, 2022 John 12:1-8 In our gospel story today, Passover is less than a week away, and Jesus and his disciples have returned to Bethany where they are visiting in the home of their friend Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. John almost goes out of his way to remind us that this is after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. He’s setting the stage for this story, right? A dinner is being given…

4 Lent – March 27, 2022 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Today’s gospel story is so rich and there are several directions we could go. Over the years, I’ve focused on the point of view of the younger son, I focused on the older son’s point of view and I’ve focused on the extraordinary love of the father. This year, I am focused on how we just might be a combination of both sons. Because the reality of our world is that…

1 Lent – March 6, 2022 Luke 4:1-13 So, we begin the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday…remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return….we hear these words as we are marked with ashes on our foreheads. It is done to remind us of our Creator God. It is done to remind us whose we are. And this first Sunday in Lent we hear the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Just before this passage, keep in…