Sermon Archives

March 1, 2020

Just as I am

As I have said in previous sermons, I love angry Jesus. As an Enneagram 8 (and if you’re wondering about the Enneagram, just wait, because we have a Sunday School series starting up this week about it), I see so much of myself in angry Jesus. Most of this stems from my “Am I the […]

February 16, 2020

Good Body

Well, it’s time to address the elephant in the room: Shakira, J.Lo and the Super Bowl halftime show. Now, I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say, “I haven’t thought about that for two weeks,” or, “I never thought about it at all,” or, “I don’t want to think about it again.” […]

February 9, 2020

A Taste and a Glimpse

As soon as Nancy Pelosi ripped up the pages of the State of the Union, the Twitterazzi went to work. Some were filled with delight, loving that open display of defiance to a President’s troubling behavior and policies. Others were filled with outrage. It was disrespectful, they said, a sign that those others are more […]

February 2, 2020

Empathy, Vulnerability, and Immanuel

Back when I worked as a case manager, Brene Brown came into my consciousness with her work on empathy. Empathy was talked about so much in our social work circles, in fact, that we often made jokes about it. Empathy is a learned skill, we were told. Empathy is learning another’s world view. As Brene […]

January 26, 2020

Good, Fallen, Redeemed

The other day I went grocery shopping at Kroger. Into my cart went strawberries and a pineapple, carrots and broccoli, onions and garlic, dried small red beans, oatmeal, milk and yogurt, and a score of other food stuffs in bags, packages, cans, and cartons. I’ve shopped at Kroger for about 27 years, and when I […]

January 19, 2020

Come and See

I have climbed the highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you. I have run, I have crawled I have scaled these city walls These city walls Only to be with you But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for. But I still haven’t […]

January 12, 2020

Where the Dove Went

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all. (Emily Dickinson) Genesis, chapter 1. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of […]

January 5, 2020

Stars, Signs and Salvation

We and the church have both, collectively, made it another year. While technically the new decade starts in 2021 people are talking about this year, 2020, as a brand-new page in our history. One of the many big things about 2020 is that it’s an election year, a big one. In a few months, and […]

December 29, 2019

The Other Half of the Story

For the last twenty years, I’ve read the New York Times nearly every day. It’s not my only source of news, but it has been my main source of news. I don’t read the whole paper every day because that would take too long. Instead I generally focus on national and international news, along with […]

December 22, 2019

A Vulnerable God

A Vulnerable God

I once led a retreat for a small group of Christians. I began the retreat by asking them to sit quietly for a moment and identify the main image for God which they carried around in their heads. After a few minutes of silence, each person went around the circle and shared with us their […]

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