Sermons from 2013

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 4 Advent – December 22, 2013 Matthew 1:18-25 We’ve come to the darkest part of the year. Yesterday was the shortest and therefore, darkest, day of the year. We have come as well to a dark time for that young man Joseph that I just read about. He does everything he needs to do in preparation for his wedding. Then what he never imagined would happen, happens. His fiancee is pregnant. He knows he is…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 3 Advent – December 15, 2013 Matthew 11:2-11 We might call it a “Dorothy” moment. We pull the curtain back to find that the person we trusted, the one we depended on, the one who raised our hopes, has let us down. We endured the dangers and journey of the “yellow brick road” because we believed someone’s advice or teaching or wisdom. But then we find out we don’t really know someone we thought we…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 2 Advent – December 8, 2013 Matthew 3:1-12 This is the second Sunday of Advent. Advent is that four-week period, or church season, in which we prepare for the coming of the Lord. We prepare not only for his coming as a baby at Christmas, but we also prepare for his coming into our lives today. In today’s gospel we hear about John the Baptist. John appears in the wilderness of Judea proclaiming, “Repent, for…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 1 Advent – December 1, 2013 Matthew 24:36-44 And so we begin the church Season of Advent today. Advent is considered a time of waiting: expectant waiting. Waiting with anticipation for something new, something different, new life. Much like a woman waiting to give birth – think of Mary, pregnant with Jesus – a time of waiting for new life. We don’t usually have baptisms in the Season of Advent, but this Sunday the lessons…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 27 Pentecost, Proper 29 – November 24, 2013 Luke 23:33-43 So, this is the last Sunday in the church season of Pentecost and it is called Christ the King Sunday. The Biblical titles of Jesus Son of God, Messiah, and King have been so thoroughly absorbed as words for church and worship that their simple, earthly force is largely lost. Jesus’ crucifixion, however, did not occur on an altar between two candles, but outside the…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 26 Pentecost, Proper 28 – November 17, 2013 Luke 21:5-19 The Temple, that most Jewish of places, the place where God touched the earth and held it still and safe. The Temple was stunning. The Temple was huge. The Temple was overwhelming, as befits the building that honors the God who alone is God. And the Temple was beautiful because Herod, that Roman stooge who styled himself as King of the Jews, had spent massive…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 25 Pentecost, Proper 27 – November 10, 2013 Luke 20:27-38 The Sadducees were only one segment of the Jewish community in the time of Jesus. Generally speaking, they were the old aristocracy, with ties to the temple priesthood. They were the religious and social conservatives who, unlike other Jews, accepted as Scripture only the five books of Moses: Genesis through Deuteronomy. They denied not simply the resurrection of the dead, but spirits and angels as…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets All Saints’ Sunday – November 3, 2013 Luke 6:20-31 The gospel for this All Saints’ Sunday comes from the Sermon on the Plain that Jesus preaches in Luke’s Gospel. The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel may be more familiar, but what Luke gives us appears more provocative: it is a series of blessings followed by a parallel series of woes. Blessed are you who are poor, who are hungry, who…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 23 Pentecost, Proper 25 – October 27, 2013 Luke 18:9-14 In this week’s Gospel lesson, we are confronted with two very stark images of sinners. The first, a Pharisee, bases his definition of sin on whether or not he keeps the law. For him, righteousness is keeping the law, sin is breaking the law. He prides himself on knowing and observing the law, so he does not consider himself to be a sinner. By his…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 22 Pentecost, Proper 24 – October 20, 2013 Luke 18:1-8 Today’s parable of the widow’s persistence is introduced as a parable about prayer and not losing heart, then moves into a story about justice, and ends with a question about faith. It begins with the introduction of the judge who neither fears God nor respects people. The un-respected people are represented here by a widow whose relentlessness is so bothersome to the judge that she…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 21 Pentecost, Proper 23 – October 13, 2013 Luke 17:11-19 Kermit the Frog said, “It isn’t easy being green.” Others say, “It isn’t easy being poor … or being a person of color … or being uneducated … or being a person with a disability … or …” Well, you get the idea. It isn’t easy being on the outside. Most of us have experienced that truth at some point in our lives. We haven’t…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 20 Pentecost, Proper 22 – October 6, 2013 Luke 17:5-10 Last week I talked about God logic. That God’s logic isn’t our logic. God doesn’t play by our rules. God said through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts and my ways higher than your ways.” Our Gospel lesson opens with a plea from…