Sermons

Click here to watch the sermon Ephesians 3:14-21 I want to start this morning by thanking you for my upcoming sabbatical time, which will begin on Wednesday of this week. This time next week, as you are gathering here, I will be heading to Washington DC for the Festival of Homiletics, a preaching conference, where I will get to hear some […]

Click here to watch the sermon.   John 15:9-17 I read a fascinating conversation on Facebook this week. It was in a closed group—mostly ministers, and predominately female. A woman went to the group to ask for advice—or possibly to complain, I’m not sure which. She said that she was a new associate pastor serving in a wealthy congregation. The members

Click here to watch the sermon. Galatians 6:1-10 The Message I usually read and preach from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which is the version in your pews, and is a good, reliable, scholarly translation. But this morning I will read our scripture from The Message, which is neither scholarly nor a direct translation but rather a paraphrase. 

Click here to watch the video. Matthew 25:34-40 The Community Crisis Ministries Team selected our scripture for this morning.  When Kathy Sahrbeck gave it to me, she asked if it was OK, if it was appropriate for CCM Sunday, and if I thought I could preach from it.  I said, “Oh, sure, no problem!”—on the outside.  On the inside I was

Click here to watch the sermon. John 20:1-18 There is always great controversy among biblical scholars and theologians about the Easter story. According to traditionalists, Christianity demands that we believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Such a belief is, they say, a core tenet of the faith. For others the only requirement is that we believe in the spiritual resurrection

Click here to watch the sermon. Mark 11:1-11 and Mark 14:1-11 Denominations and individual preachers vary on their approach to this day.  For some it has always been and will always be Palm Sunday, and that’s all.  But many others are now calling it Palm [slash] Passion Sunday.  In the “good old days” when church was the center of communal life,

Click here to watch the video. 1 John 4: She was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila, Spain.   We know her as Teresa of Avila or Teresa of Jesus.  When she was seven years old, she convinced her older brother that they should run away and “go off to the land of the Moors

Click here to watch the sermon. Jeremiah 31:31-34 The reason we are able to have this Lenten study on the mystics is simple but important: they all told their stories. They felt compelled to tell others what they had seen, heard, or experienced. “There were basically two motivations for writing—to tell one’s own spiritual history and to teach others about God.

Click here to watch the sermon. Romans 8:37-39 When women were first allowed to enter into a monastic life, it represented great freedom. Societal expectations on women were very clear and very limited. “A woman’s convent provided an escape from male domination. . . . It gave women personal power and prestige; offered a political role as abbess or prioress; and

Click here to watch the sermon. Acts 11:1-17 The woman we call Christina of Markyate was born in 1096 into a wealthy merchant family.  She was originally named Theodora.  We know much about her because she was revered enough to have a vita written about her.  It is technically a biography rather than an autobiography, since it was written by others,