Sermons from July 2011

By The Rev. Sherry Crompton July 31, 2011 Genesis 32:22-31 Last week we heard about Jacob falling in love with Rachel and working 7 years to be able to marry her – if you didn’t know the whole story, you might think Laban was the only scoundrel in the story. Up until today’s story from Genesis’ chapter 32, Jacob has pretty much been an unrelenting scoundrel — swindling his brother, Esau, for his birthright and then cheating him of his…

By The Rev. Sherry Crompton July 24, 2011 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 In a series of parables in this morning’s gospel, Jesus tells those committed to him about the kingdom of heaven. With vivid word pictures, he shows them, and us, that the kingdom of heaven is indeed “at hand” or among us. He shows them that the kingdom is there for them, and us, to seek. He shows them, and us, that the kingdom is seeking us. A well-known approach to…

By The Rev. Sherry Crompton July 17, 2011 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 In the parable today, Jesus tells the disciples two things; first, that in the Kingdom of Heaven, people should probably not be judging one another. And secondly, in the kingdom of Heaven, God’s fair and just judgment will come about in the end. You and I live in a world where judgment and criticism are a way of life. A day never passes when we do not make a…

By The Rev. Sherry Crompton July 10, 2011 Matthew 13:1-9,18-23 In Jesus’ parable of the sower, a man scattered seed over all his property, but how the seeds grew depended more on the condition of the soil in various locations than on the diligence of the sower. The seeds that fell on the path were snatched up by birds before they had a chance to germinate. The seeds that landed on rocky soil sprang up rather quickly, but soon withered…

By The Rev. Sherry Crompton 3 Pentecost – July 3, 2011 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Jesus challenges us, this Independence Day weekend, to wonder about how free we are. Despite the national freedoms that we celebrate, he reminds us that we are often bound by commitments and dysfunctions that keep us from responding to him, to Jesus. Do we have the freedom and daring to reach for the good yoke that he holds out to us?I remember being told once that…