Sermons from 2011 (Page 2)

By The Rev. Sherry Deets September 25, 2011 Matthew 21: 23-32 In our gospel today, Jesus and the Pharisees are exchanging trick questions. The Pharisees ask Jesus where he gets his authority to teach and heal, and they’re hoping to trap him to saying something stupid. And Jesus asks a trick question of his own, having to do with John the Baptist, and any answer the Pharisees offer will back them into a corner, so they play dumb. It is…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets September 18, 2011 Matthew 20:1-16 Be honest. When you heard the reading of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard just now, did your heart leap for joy? Were you thrilled when you heard that the workers who’d toiled and slaved all day long in the hot sun were going to get the same day’s wages as those who’d worked only one hour? I doubt it! Let’s face it, this is not one of…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets September 11, 2011 You may have heard the story of the woman who spent the first day after her divorce sadly packing her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases.1 On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things. On the third day, she sat down on the floor in the dining room by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar,…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets September 4, 2011 Matthew 18:15-20 So…Matthew wants everything to be perfect, and that includes his church. Conflicts have arisen among some of the members of Matthew’s congregation, and he just can’t stand it. He wants everything to be perfect and in order, and conflict, if nothing else, is a messy business. I can imagine him lying awake at night, thinking about how to deal with the problems he’s encountering among the fellowship. He remembers what…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets August 21, 2011 Exodus 1:8—2:10 What if I were to tell you that what you do this week could change the world? Would you believe me? Could you imagine it so? Smile politely but secretly scoff? What you do this week could change the world. Two women once made a decision … they took a chance, and changed the world. It was, simultaneously, a small gesture and heroic act. They actually disobeyed. And because of…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets August 14, 2011 Matthew 15:10-28 Brian Stoffregen hit the nail on the head when he said that Matthew 15 is all about ritual purity: Who’s clean? Who’s not? What makes them that way? On the one side we have the Pharisees carping and complaining that Jesus’ disciples didn’t wash their hands before they ate. On the other side, we have this poor Canaanite woman begging Jesus to heal her daughter. It’s an age-old question: Who…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets August 7, 2011 Matthew 14: 22-33 Last week, we heard in our gospel reading, about Jesus feeding the 5,000. This week we hear another miracle – Jesus walking on water. There are so many facets to this story and in the times before, I have focused on Peter and how he takes the risk. He gets out of that boat and believes that he can walk on water because Jesus is there. As soon as…

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…