Sermons from 2021

Christmas Eve 2021           I admit that I am weary, this virus has created a bit of chaos for our holiday gatherings yet again. But we are reminded on Christmas Eve of how Jesus was born as a tiny baby, in the darkness of a stable.  God’s love comes down to us, is born in us on Christmas. Jesus brings light and life and hope to a weary world. You all know this poetry, these lyrics:  “O Holy Night, the…

3 Advent – December 12, 2021 Luke 3:7-18           “You brood of vipers!” is how our gospel begins today. It sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Here is this crowd of people coming to John to be baptized and he calls them a ‘brood of vipers’.  And John also cautions against abusing the privilege of a family tree that has a long prior relationship with God: “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor.’” If any of…

2 Advent – December 5, 2021 Luke 3:1-6          So, in our gospel this morning we start out with a litany. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and on and on. We get a listing of 7 very powerful people — an emperor, a governor, three tetrarchs, and two high priests. Together they represent rulers of the known world, the regional lands, and the religious, political,…

1 Advent – November 28, 2021 Luke 21:25-36           It is the first Sunday of Advent and the beginning of the year. The beginning of the church calendar year. Have you ever wondered why we begin our church year as the days are shorter and it’s darker? Have you ever wondered why we begin with scripture that is apocalyptic?  I have.  I mean, we’re hearing about signs. Signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. Distress, confusion, fainting from…

25 Pentecost, Proper 28 – November 14, 2021 Mark 13:1-8           Our gospel story from Mark today begins as Jesus is walking out of the temple just after pointing out to his disciples that a poor widow gave more with her small offering than the wealthy did, because she gave out of her poverty. So, doesn’t it strike you as rather interesting that the first thing said to Jesus as they are leaving the temple is, Wow! Look at these…

All Saints Sunday – November 7, 2021 John 11:32-44           Today we are celebrating All Saints Sunday. So, why is it that we set aside a Sunday each year to commemorate the saints that have preceded us? Well, the tradition is meant to provide an opportunity to acknowledge that we stand upon the shoulders of those who lived and died before us, and to give them recognition. What we’ve accomplished in life is partially due to the saints that came…

22 Pentecost, Proper 25 – October 24, 2021 Mark 10:46-52           A question to ponder for today and maybe for the week….what gives you hope?  What gives you hope?  I ask this question from the perspective that we are living in a time where we can make more of a difference than ever before, much of the future is in our hands. In other words, our choices matter, what we do matters. Krista Tippett refers to this as “muscular hope”…

20 Pentecost, Proper 23 – October 10, 2021 Mark 10:17-31           So, in our gospel today, “a man” ran up and knelt before Jesus. This man, perhaps thinking he has everything else—has the ultimate question for Jesus:  “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Like Jesus did last week when the Pharisees put him to the test with the question about divorce, Jesus reframes the question in terms of the kingdom of God (“come, follow me”) rather…

19 Pentecost, Proper 22 – October 3, 2021 Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16 Our readings this week pair a familiar portion of the creation story in Genesis with Jesus’s teaching on divorce in the Gospel of Mark.  The gospel brings up divorce and yet also, in the same narrative, talks about the little children coming to Jesus.  So, the readings offer us a broader vision. They speak to all human relationships, to the ways in which we see, treat, protect, and harm each other.  If…

18 Pentecost, Proper 21 – September 26, 2021 Mark 9:38-50 So, this week let’s look at the similarity in our first reading from Numbers and the gospel that we just heard.  In our first reading the Lord “took some of the spirit that was on [Moses] and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, the prophesied. But notice that Eldad and Medad stayed in the camp. But the Lord caused the spirit to rest…

16 Pentecost, Proper 19 – September 12, 2021 Mark 8:27-38           Today Jesus asks the question, ‘who do people say that I am’?  And Peter responds with “You are the Messiah”.  A perfect, A-plus answer, right? The whole gospel story in a nutshell, right? Wrong.  Or, at least, not quite.  Because after this, the story Mark tells gets really weird. Instead of praising Peter’s prophetic answer, Jesus tells him to keep his mouth shut, and launches into a grim description of…

15 Pentecost, Proper 18 – September 5, 2021 Mark 7:24-37          We just heard two interesting stories about a child, someone’s daughter, and a deaf man — both were suffering from ailments that isolated them from society.  And the story of the Syrophoenician woman, the mother, is an unusual one, because Jesus insults this unnamed woman — he calls her a dog. But she persists, even with the insult, and then Jesus has a critical shift in awareness. Because she…