Sermons

I’ve talked about this sort of thing before. There are some stories in the Bible where I’m not sure where I fit nor what I think about the story. The story of Jonah, especially the second half, is one of these stories and the Parable of the Landowner is another one; the Lectionary gives us ...

Some weeks, the moment I read the Lectionary texts I know exactly where we need to go on Sunday. Some weeks it is a bit more of a search. This week was one of the latter. It wasn’t that I had no idea where to go but rather, I had an idea that wouldn’t come together ...

Long ago the Beatles sang, “All you need is love.” Even longer ago, St. Paul said, “. . . for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8b NRSV). I don’t think Lennon and/or McCartney were trying to paraphrase the apostle but they came up with a pretty good phrase nonetheless. I was ...

Artist: Haley Holtslander There are lots of lists in our lives. To-do lists. Shopping lists. Christmas lists. There are even a few lists in the Bible. Most of our lists seem to contain things we need to do or get. However, there are some lists of reminders. The picture for this week’s post is from an ...

Who doesn’t like gifts? I don’t think there are very many people who actually dislike gifts. This Sunday we are talking about gifts but a special kind of gift, namely spiritual gifts. So what are spiritual gifts? They are the abilities the Holy Spirit gives each person to equip that person for service to God, most ...

The question we still ask is, “Who’s in and who’s out?” You might think with everything going on—climate change, economic insecurity, poverty, etc.—we would have better questions to ask, but this is still common. We want to know who is “in”; who is on our side. This is a harmless enough question when you are ...

There are many stories in the Bible about siblings and about families. However, there aren’t that many “good” stories about siblings or families in the Bible. I don’t mean the stories are fundamentally bad, but rather, the siblings and families are frequently acting in bad ways. This Sunday’s Old Testament lesson is part of the story ...

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY I am not a wrestling fan. I can remember watching Stampede Wrestling ‘way back in the late 60s and early 70s but since then, not much interest. Today’s Old Testament lesson has a story about wrestling in it but it isn’t the kind with fancy costumes, scripted ...

Being a child is a universal experience. For most of us, who our parent is or parents are is pretty straightforward. It is interesting to see people who know our parent(s) pick us out as their child. We sometimes have physical similarities, similar ways of talking, moving, or other things “shared” with our parents. The ...

Image credit: This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC I have mentioned many times, both here and in various sermons, how many things about God, the Bible, . . . life, I got wrong when I was younger. Most of them happened when I was very much younger but I still run into ...