Sermons from 2024 (Page 2)
Do Unto Others: Kindness
In the midst of all the vitriol and animosity in our world today, how can we stay true to our convictions and engage one another as people and not as positions?
God’s Presence Among Us
In the Bible, God’s physical presence with humans is noted in at least five different ways…walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden, within the flaming bush before Moses, in the Ark of the Covenant kept in the Tabernacle and Temple of Solomon, in the person of Jesus, and at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit became the presence of God among God’s people. Throughout Christian history, our places of worship have used light as a metaphor for the presence of the Almighty. Where is God’s presence and light in our world now, a world that seems so desperate to see it?
Circle Round
According to Jesus, the ways of discipleship are deeply counter-cultural. Want to be a follower of Jesus? Give your life for others in order to save it. Strive to be at the back of the line instead of the front. Turn the hierarchy of honor and privilege upside down. In fact, dismantle it altogether. Be with and for one another in ways that defy cultural norms but that encircle all God’s children into a communion of neighborly love.
Losing, Saving and Following
In our world today, what do these words about losing and saving life and following Jesus really mean?
Stretch
This week’s reading about Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman invites us to take the next step…to consider how we might be called to stretch spiritually in order to put Jesus’ words into practice.
Breached
Our scripture reading for this Sunday draws our attention to the power of tradition. When does a tradition offer healthy structure and a sense of belonging and when does it get in God’s way?
Gird Your Loins!
This week we contemplate what we can “put on” in service to God’s kin-dom. This passage is full of language that has the potential to ruffle our “spiritual” feathers. But it also offers us courage and hope for living lives of peace and promise in a world that still struggles between death-dealing forces and forces that bring love and light.
A Life of Imitation
By the grace of Jesus Christ, we are invited to live into and be a part of an “alternative community,” where we seek to “imitate God.” How is that even possible? If we were to take that seriously, what would it require of us and how would it make a difference to the world around us?
Backward and Forward
Psalm 130 is one we might want to carry in our back pockets these days. And it reminds us, all the while, God is there, somehow seeing “backward and forward.”
Knowing Our Hunger
Understanding our spiritual hunger can be a tricky thing. Does it lead us down paths of destruction or does it turn our hearts and spirits toward God and one another?