Sermons by Sherry Deets (Page 10)

19 Pentecost, Proper 22 – October 3, 2021 Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16 Our readings this week pair a familiar portion of the creation story in Genesis with Jesus’s teaching on divorce in the Gospel of Mark.  The gospel brings up divorce and yet also, in the same narrative, talks about the little children coming to Jesus.  So, the readings offer us a broader vision. They speak to all human relationships, to the ways in which we see, treat, protect, and harm each other.  If…

18 Pentecost, Proper 21 – September 26, 2021 Mark 9:38-50 So, this week let’s look at the similarity in our first reading from Numbers and the gospel that we just heard.  In our first reading the Lord “took some of the spirit that was on [Moses] and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, the prophesied. But notice that Eldad and Medad stayed in the camp. But the Lord caused the spirit to rest…

16 Pentecost, Proper 19 – September 12, 2021 Mark 8:27-38           Today Jesus asks the question, ‘who do people say that I am’?  And Peter responds with “You are the Messiah”.  A perfect, A-plus answer, right? The whole gospel story in a nutshell, right? Wrong.  Or, at least, not quite.  Because after this, the story Mark tells gets really weird. Instead of praising Peter’s prophetic answer, Jesus tells him to keep his mouth shut, and launches into a grim description of…

15 Pentecost, Proper 18 – September 5, 2021 Mark 7:24-37          We just heard two interesting stories about a child, someone’s daughter, and a deaf man — both were suffering from ailments that isolated them from society.  And the story of the Syrophoenician woman, the mother, is an unusual one, because Jesus insults this unnamed woman — he calls her a dog. But she persists, even with the insult, and then Jesus has a critical shift in awareness. Because she…

14 Pentecost, Proper 17 – August 29, 2021 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Sometimes our insight into Scripture can be enhanced by hearing a story from another source. In considering today’s Gospel, let’s look at the message through a Zen Buddhist story told about Nan-in, a teacher who was active a hundred years ago in Japan. It seems that one day, Nan-in received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.  Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full,…

Proper 16 – August 22, 2021 Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 and John 6:56-59           Today marks the end of John’s long discourse on the bread of life.  I have to admit that this year, after having just discovered that I am gluten intolerant, the concept of bread takes on whole new meaning. So, this year more than any other, I “get” the spiritual meaning behind what Jesus is saying. Bread was considered daily sustenance, and the physical body needed bread to…

11 Pentecost, Proper 14 -August 8, 2021 1 Kings 19:4-8 and John 6:35; 41-51           Jesus tell us “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  We heard about Jesus as bread, as manna, last week too and it is Jesus’ metaphor for daily sustenance. We talked about the need for our spiritual bread,…

10 Pentecost, Proper 13 – August 1, 2021 John 6:24-35         Last week we talked about the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus’ view of opportunity or abundance, rather than scarcity. The disciples had viewed the situation as impossible, and Jesus suggested possibility. The crowds then ate the multiplied bread and their physical hunger was satisfied, but they were apparently so focused on feeling full that they missed what was really happening at that free lunch. Jesus, in today’s story,…

9 Pentecost, Proper 12 – July 25, 2021 John 6:1-21          The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the most iconic stories in the gospels. In fact, it is the only miracle story to appear in all four of our gospels. It is termed iconic because it is a multi-dimensional story. An icon is a doorway into a deeper mystery. This story is iconic because it points to something deeper than just an amazing feat. This story illuminates our…

Service of Light – July 11, 2021 Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:17-45 I’ve said this before, but for many of us, it has been an extremely challenging pandemic with loss and change. And now, as things are opening back up for us, we are entering into a liminal space – living between what was, for the last 18 months, and what will be; and we aren’t sure what “will be” looks like. It’s important to acknowledge and recognize that some…

6 Pentecost, Proper 9 – July 3, 2021 Mark 6:1-13          So, this morning Jesus travels back to his hometown; and we’re presented with the story of how his hometown people had difficulty believing in him. In fact, they took offense. What’s that all about? Jesus enters the synagogue of his boyhood, and begins to teach in the tradition of the rabbis.  At first, things seem to go very well; his townspeople receive his words with astonishment and curiosity, saying: …

3 Pentecost, Proper 6 – June 13, 2021 Mark 4:26-34           This morning we’re hearing the parable of the mustard seed. Eugene Peterson, somewhere, has called parables “narrative time bombs” and that is certainly what today’s parables are.  They are meant to undermine our assumptions of what we think are the “givens” and even the “realities” that we accept without question and offer us a vision of something different. In Greek “parable” comes from two words: para, meaning “beside,” and ballein,…