Sermons by Sherry Deets (Page 6)

5 Epiphany – February 5, 2023 Matthew 5:13-20          “You are the salt of the earth…” “You are the light of the world.” We are in the church season of Epiphany and Epiphany is a word which itself means “appearing” or “showing forth”. Epiphany is a season that invites us to consider what it is that God longs to manifest in us and through us, and also to wrestle with what gets in the way of this. Jesus is using…

4 Epiphany – January 29, 2023 Matthew 5:1-12          See if you can finish this sentence: “I’ll be happy when….” There must be a thousand possible endings for that sentence. “I’ll be happy when….” o I’ll be happy when I grow up and move away from home. o I’ll be happy when summer comes and I don’t have to go to school. o I’ll be happy when I fall in love and get married. o I’ll be happy when I…

3 Epiphany – January 22, 2023 Matthew 4:12-23          This is a rather eventful passage from Matthew this morning. It starts out a bit ominously, with John in prison and Jesus withdrawing to what was considered the backwaters of Capernaum in Galilee – it was Gentile territory.  This means that Jesus, beginning his ministry, does not go to some holy place, to some religious center. Instead, he withdraws to Galilee, heathen Galilee, a place where, according to Jewish belief, pure…

2 Epiphany – January 15, 2023 John 1:29-42          Our gospel lesson today makes some striking claims about who Jesus is and how his disciples, and therefore us, can relate to him. The first question Jesus asks in John’s gospel is “What are you looking for?”.  And then he invites his new disciples into relationship with him. He invites them to follow him further to find what they are looking for.  “Come and see” he says. Looking.  Seeing.  Finding.  Our…

Epiphany – January 8, 2023 Matthew 2:1-12          Jan Richardson is an artist, writer and United Methodist Minister. She published a retreat for Christmas and Epiphany and I was struck, as often happens with Jan Richardson, by some of her writings. I’ll share some of those with you today. She speaks of artist friends who have a special practice at the beginning of a new painting. “They take a few quiet moments with the canvas. Before reaching for a paintbrush,…

4 Advent – December 18, 2022 Matthew 1:18-25          This morning we hear about Jesus’ birth from Matthew, through the perspective of Joseph. We don’t hear much about Joseph in the scriptures, he is the would-be husband of Mary, a quiet, unassuming descendant of the House of David. As Matthew tells the story, the God-fearing carpenter wakes up one morning to find that his world has shattered.  His fiancée is pregnant, he knows for sure that he is not the father,…

3 Advent – December 11, 2022 Matthew 11:2-11          So, today we hear that John the Baptist is in prison.  Imagine John’s cell was dark and dank, because most prison cells are. He paced back and forth, fettered less by his chains than by his misgivings. Allowed at last to see one of his followers, he sends the man to carry a message — a single question, really — that will settle his doubts once and for all. All that…

2 Advent – December 4, 2022 Matthew 3:1-12                So today, in Matthew’s gospel, we are introduced to John the Baptist. This odd fellow in the wilderness, preaching about repentance. In doing so, Matthew is orienting us to the story to come. And it is a story of repair. Confession and repentance loom large in John the Baptist’s prophetic language. John knows no one can repair things without first conducting a thorough exploration of what’s wrong. John insists…

1 Advent – November 27, 2022 Matthew 24:36-44          Our Advent Season begins with Jesus taking us back to the story of Noah and the Ark. It’s a favorite children’s story. But it’s important to notice that Jesus is not doing this to comfort us – he’s doing it to warn us, and to wake us up. Just as the story of Noah once did. Like the people in Noah’s day, or the men in the field and the women…

23 Pentecost, Proper 28 – November 13, 2022 Luke 21:5-19          So, this morning we hear that “some were speaking about the temple”.  Now, the temple, in Jerusalem, was beautiful. It had recently been refurbished by Herod the Great. And apparently, the work had been done very well. The rebuilding project had taken eighty years to complete and included new foundation walls through which Herod had significantly enlarged the temple. It was huge. Sparing no expense, he had employed the…

All Saints Sunday – November 6, 2022 Luke 6:20-31          Today, in our church calendar, we celebrate All Saints Sunday.  All Saints is an occasion to celebrate and revisit the faithful people who have gone before us – it’s not just about those who have been canonically designated as saints.  It is more so about those people whose lives provide inspiration for us. Saints, who are not models of perfection, but real people who opened themselves to the ways that…

21 Pentecost, Proper 26 – October 30, 2022 Luke 19:1-10          Crowds follow Jesus nearly everywhere he goes, now. They parade behind him and in front of him, crushing in close or watching from a safe distance. They are curious and want to hear, touch, or maybe just see what happens when others interact with this man people say has come from God. Do you every wonder what essence does he emanate? What do they sense in him, what do…