The Holy Spirit’s Groaning The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Few sounds capture a groan like birth pangs. It is the raw sound of life and birth as well as of pain. It is the guttural desire for the end of the waiting for what…
Move In Day The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Each fall is the perennial move-in day on or near college campuses. Legions of parents descend with carloads that include tiny refrigerators, Ikea furniture, electronics, area rugs, and posters. They unload the one they have birthed,…
Connected for Life The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. A parent stands at the bus stop on the first day of school with a kindergarten student. Another parent lingers in the doorway of a first-year dorm after unloading the final box from the car. These…
Life Laid Down The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. How does faith in the risen Christ call one to live? What shape does one’s life take? The readings for this fourth Sunday of Easter are rich in their imagery, and at the center is the…
Faith-Sustaining Patterns in a World of Stockpiles The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Faith cannot be stockpiled. It needs a pattern of replenishment. Today, the disciples are hungry. While their stomachs may not be rumbling, their hunger is shown in their lack of certainty about…
Wounded Resurrection Power Restores Community The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Jesus’ resurrection confronts the sadness and loneliness of Thomas’s doubt. Many people in congregations left last Sunday’s celebration of the resurrection with feelings similar to those of Thomas. Somehow, Thomas was not in the…
Christ is risen! The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Christ is risen! Jesus is alive, and God has swallowed up death forever. With Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, we may feel astonished and confused, unsure of what to make of the…
A Different Kind of Bloodline The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Combining into one liturgy the “Hosanna!” of the triumphal palm procession and the “Crucify him!” of the passion drama—especially as filtered through Paul’s image of the “exalted” slave—invites a meditation on the mystery of…
The Attraction of the Repellant Cross The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. Two themes vie for attention in the readings: divine forgiveness (with attention paid to the human sinfulness that makes it necessary!) and the cross’s mysterious power. Jeremiah prophesies of God’s desire and ability…
The Cosmic Love of God The sermon will be a post on our Facebook page. Please click on link to view sermon. The prologue of John’s gospel begins with the story of creation, connecting the Word that became flesh in Jesus with the bringing forth of life and all things. Then, as the gospel continues, the…