Sermons from March 2008

By The Very Rev. Sherry CromptonMarch 30, 2008 Read: John 20:19-31 Today is often referred to as “Doubting Thomas” Sunday. And many of us think, “poor Thomas”. It’s an unfair label to put on him. Except that it is a clear biblical example of the fact that we can doubt, we can question, and Jesus remains by our side wanting us to develop a deeper faith. To believe. So, why do I, and many others, believe it’s an unfair label…

By The Very Rev. Sherry CromptonMarch 23, 2008 (Easter Sunday) Read: John 20:1-18 Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! Happy glorious Easter! In Bible study someone commented on how wonderful the detail is in our story from John this morning. It allows for us to truly “see” what happened, it’s vivid and it’s real. And, in the detail we see in the first 11 verses, that the word “tomb” occurs 9 times and after verse 12 it is not mentioned again.…

By The Very Rev. Sherry CromptonMarch 21, 2008 (Good Friday) Read: John 18:1-19:42 “Then he bowed his head and gave up his Spirit”. It’s Good Friday. The day we are called to stand at the foot of the cross with Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. We are invited to experience our own impotence. Our inability to stop the dying. “The Word became flesh and lived among us,” as the Gospel of John declares. (John 1:14) In a…

March 16, 2008 (Palm Sunday)Read: Matthew 26:14- 27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54 [One of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the…

By The Very Rev. Sherry CromptonMarch 9, 2008 Read: Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-45 Close your eyes and look around you. You are dropped into the middle of a deep valley full of bones. The bones are dry..very dry..bleached white from the hot sun. There are a lot of bones. Dry bones everywhere. You feel a sense of hopelessness. Now you are at the graveside of someone you dearly love. He died. He has been dead now four days and…

By The Very Rev. Sherry CromptonMarch 2, 2008 Read: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and John 9:1-41 There’s something here about outside appearances. Samuel would choose a new king based on different ideas about what makes a good king, what makes a good leader, than God would choose. And then, of course, in our story about the blind man…it becomes comical how all those people around him cannot see. They cannot see this blind man in his new role, in his new…