Sermons from July 2015

9 Pentecost, Proper 12 – July 26, 2015 John 6:1-21 So, do you all know Dorothy? Dorothy Gale, an orphaned teenager who lived with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry on a Kansas farm in the early 1900s. Like most teens, in fact, like most adults, if we’re honest, the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. Or, more specifically, for Dorothy, it was brighter somewhere over the rainbow. If Dorothy’s life wasn’t bad enough, always daydreaming…

7 Pentecost, Proper 10 – July 12, 2015 Mark 6:14-29 What a story! John’s head on a platter.  But why does Mark tell this story: the longest of the Gospel’s anecdotes and its only flashback? Aside from the Golgotha plot (Mark 14:1-2 + 10-11) and discovery of the empty tomb (Mark 16:1-8), this is the only tale in which Jesus never appears. Its villains never reappear (cf. Luke 23:6-12). It’s a strange story about John in which the baptizer himself…

6 Pentecost, Proper 9 – July 5, 2015 Mark 6:1-13 The Gospel passage appointed for today has a lot to tell us about what it means to be a disciple, a disciple in a challenging, difficult, confusing, and at times painful world which is also and simultaneously a place of beauty and wonder and beloved of God. While there are various elements in what amounts to two connected scenes – Jesus’ preaching in his hometown and then sending his disciples…