Sermon Archives

October 16, 2016

Remembering how we got here

This evening as the sun goes down, Succoth will begin.  Succoth is known in the English Bible as the “Feast of Tabernacles’” or the “Feast of Booths.”  It is a 7-day festival, described in Leviticus, that Jews around the world will observe.  It might be better and more accurate for us to call Succoth “the […]

October 9, 2016

Singing the Lord’s Songs

Sometimes you just don’t feel like singing. I once knew a young man—a college student—who was in a car accident. At the end of the fall semester he and three other college students hopped in a car to go home for Christmas. They decided to drive all night. Around 2:00 AM, the driver fell asleep […]

September 25, 2016

Treasures in Christ

Some years ago…. Judy Wendt….wanting to teach us a spiritual discipline introduced us to the method of pulling out key phrases from the Bible. She began with Ephesians chapters 1-3 and the phrase “in Christ”. She was a wise woman for as young mothers she knew we would be strengthened in our role if we […]

September 18, 2016

A Room with a View

This is my third sermon on the topic of Faith Formation. The first sermon explored what we mean when we say ‘faith formation’, using the images of catching Jesus—believing in Jesus, Jesus catching us and looking to Jesus to give us what we need for our journey. The second sermon used the image of the […]

September 11, 2016

An Anniversary . . . and a Future

15 years ago this morning, at 8:45, a passenger jet from Boston crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, tearing a hole in the building and setting it on fire. 18 minutes later another passenger jet, also from Boston, crashed into the south tower of the World Trade […]

September 4, 2016

A Circle of Grace

Raise your hands above your head and then bring your arms slowly down keeping them outstretched. Extending your arms in front of you and then behind you embrace all of the space around you knowing that God is in this space with you. Then slowly reach down to your feet. This is your Circle of […]

August 21, 2016

From Suffering to Glory

Many of us in this congregation know a thing or two about suffering. We’ve lived through car accidents that damaged major parts of our bodies. We’ve miscarried children. We’ve endured the surgeries, radiations, and chemotherapies of cancer. We’ve trekked through the desolate territory of cold, bitter relationships. We’ve sat beside people we love who have […]

August 14, 2016

Fully Committed God

I know a man who has had a hard life. He and his immediate family members have experienced bipolar disorder, two nasty divorces, long periods of being out of work, chronic physical illness, and a car accident that killed the driver. Because of these chronic conditions and misfortunes, this poor man’s life has often been […]

August 7, 2016

Resisting Racism

When I was 12 years old, my parents adopted another child. One morning in May 1971, I went to school without a brother; that same day when I came home from school, there he was, my new brother, who had been born in the Goshen hospital just 3 days before. Matthew is biracial: his biological […]

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