Sermons by Sherry Deets (Page 26)

By The Rev. Sherry Deets Easter Sunday – March 31, 2013 Luke 24:1-12 Christ is risen! Alleluia! Parker Palmer wrote an Easter meditation entitled: An Upside-Down Easter Meditation. I love it. His focus was on the words that were the title of a book: Threatened with Resurrection. Threatened with Resurrection. Those words had a huge impact on his life at a time when he was suffering with depression – which he called a death-in-life experience. The title jarred Palmer into…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 5 Lent – March 17, 2013 John 12:1-8 Like last week’s story of a father offering an extravagant gift of love, our gospel story for today is another story of an extravagant gift of love. As Jesus and his disciples are going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover festival, they stop to have dinner in Bethany at the home of Jesus’ good friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. This event marks a turning point in Jesus’…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 4 Lent – March 10, 2013 Luke 15:1-3,11b-32 This parable, often called the Prodigal Son, is one of my favorites from Luke’s gospel. But to focus only on the prodigal son, misses the full meaning of this parable. The man had two sons, not just one; and the man, the father, is an amazing example of a father’s love in this parable. I’d like to walk us through the parable, pointing out some of the…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 3 Lent – March 3, 2013 Luke 13:1-9 While we read this story from Luke this morning in isolation, it doesn’t occur that way. In fact, we are entering an ongoing conversation midstream. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, teaching his disciples and the crowds as he goes. In chapter twelve he has told several potent parables on money and foolishness and always being prepared. He concludes by suggesting that those listening are not…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 2 Lent – February 24, 2013 Luke 13:31-35 Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, tells in one of her sermons about a window in a small chapel at the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. The window is divided into sections by an iron grillwork and, at first appearance, looks like a stained glass window. But it is not stained glass. It is clear glass, and it looks out onto the city of Jerusalem. Below…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 1 Lent – February 17, 2013 Luke 4:1-13 So, today, this first Sunday in the holy season of Lent, we heard from Luke about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. I wonder if temptation is one of those things we have a hard time talking honestly about in church. We tend to jump to the cultural racy topics of sex, power and drugs, or we move to a more traditional view and get all full of…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 4 Epiphany – February 3, 2013 Luke 4:21-30 So in the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel, when those who thought they knew him because they had known him his whole life said of Jesus, “Is this not Joseph’s son,” the answer is no, actually, this is not Joseph’s son. This person you thought you knew is God’s son. And that changes everything. When Jesus read the passage from Isaiah about bringing good news to the…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 2 Epiphany – January 20, 2013 John 2:1-11 You know what they say: timing is everything. Whether it’s telling a joke, making a dramatic entrance in a stage show, or popping the question, timing is everything. When the timing is right, people laugh at your joke, gasp at your entrance, or smile radiantly in response to your proposal. And when the timing is off, they are just as likely to gasp at your joke, smile…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets Christ the King, Proper 29 – November 25, 2012 John 18:33-37 Our scripture today from John’s gospel is called “the trial before Pilate”. It might better be called “Pilate on trial”, because Pilate knows that Jesus should not be on trial. Pilate likely considers himself the most powerful, most in-control person in Jerusalem. He is “the local representative of the greatest world power of that time.” In his encounter with Jesus he brags about the…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 25 Pentecost; Proper 28 – November 18, 2012 Mark 13:1-8 If our passage from Mark today feels different, looks different, and sounds different, that’s because it is. Both Daniel and Mark are presenting us with what is called apocalyptic writing. In a nutshell, apocalyptic literature stems from a worldview that believes that everything happening on earth represents and correlates with a larger, heavenly struggle between good and evil. It therefore reads into earthly events cosmic…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 24 Pentecost: Proper 27 – November 11, 2012 Mark 12:38-44 Today, in our gospel story from Mark, Jesus offers us the widow as a model of faith. He warns us against the corrupt scribes for their selfishness and crime. In doing so, he presents us with characters of two types. The corrupt scribes are concerned with gaining power over other people in order to enrich themselves. The widow, on the other hand, surrenders power over…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets All Saints’ Sunday – November 4, 2012 John 11:32-44 On this All Saints’ Sunday we hear the gospel story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It is a challenging story. It challenges our faith. Are we able to accept the raising of Lazarus as an historical event or was it just fiction? No scientific data can support the metaphysical possibility that Jesus brought the dead man, Lazarus, back to life. Neither does the gospel…