Sermons from 2014 (Page 3)

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 5 Lent – April 6, 2014 John 11:1-45 The Lenten journey, which has taken us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death last Sunday, now leads us to the dry bones of Ezekiel and the tomb of Lazarus and the gift of life out of death. This morning’s gospel story began a few weeks earlier. The brother, Lazarus, was taken ill. We have no details, but the illness frightened his two sisters so much…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 4 Lent – March 30, 2014 John 9:1-41 This is another long gospel story this morning and I can’t begin to touch on all that’s here. But, sinfulness is a theme that runs through this powerful story. The Pharisees discuss Jesus’ sinfulness in several verses. In v. 34, they return to the sinfulness of the man born blind, with another reference to his birth in sin. But the story ends with Jesus’ condemnation of the…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 3 Lent – March 23, 2014 John 4:5-42 The story of the woman at the well may surprise you. The way it’s commonly told goes like this: Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and asks her for a drink of water. They talk. In the process, she confesses to have been married five times. He confronts her sinfulness. She recognizes him as the Christ and rushes off to tell the others, shouting, “Come,…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 1 Lent – March 9, 2014 Matthew 4:1-11 At Jesus’ baptism, the heavenly voice announces, “This is my Son, the Beloved.” And it seems that almost immediately afterwards, Jesus is tempted by the devil, who treats Jesus as if the reality of his identity is the question: “If you are the Son of God…” Are you really? Can you prove it? Jesus’ responses show him pondering an entirely different question: What does it mean for…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets Last Sunday of Epiphany/Transfiguration – March 2, 2014 Matthew 17:1-9 (As written by Barbara Brown Taylor in TextWeek) The story that we have just heard defies interpretation, although that has not stopped legions of interpreters from trying. It is the luminous story of a mystical encounter, not only between God and God’s Beloved but also between those at the center of the story and those who watch. Those at the center are Jesus, Moses and…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets 7 Epiphany – February 23, 2014 Matthew 5:38-48 Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile and love your enemies. Have we heard these phrases so often that we don’t pay much attention to them? Are they simply niceties? Ideals? So if we are inclined to read over these familiar words too quickly, or if we want to dismiss these commands out of hand as pious idealisms, I’d urge us instead to slow down and…

By The Rev. Sherry Deets Feast of the Presentation – February 2, 2014 Luke 2:22-40 Today we celebrate the presentation of Jesus in the temple. This feast occurs every year on February 2, the fortieth day after Christmas. Once every few years February 2 falls on a Sunday and so we can keep this celebration more fully than may be possible otherwise. Our Gospel from Luke recounts that forty days after his birth, Jesus is taken to the temple by…