Sermons

Context is one of those tricky things, at least it can be tricky. Today’s sermon is taken from St. Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians, “I have become all things to all people.” (1 Corinthians 9:22b NRSV) It was all too easy for me, especially when I was younger, to look at Paul’s statement and write him ...

Look! A question for sermon title! In fact, two questions this time. As is so often the case, there is a short and easy answer, “Yes.” So we’re done? No, not really, there is a bit more to it. It is obvious we need rules. Rules of the road keep us safe, or at least ...

One of the questions we often find ourselves asking is “Why bother?” why bother doing the dishes/laundry, they will just get dirty again why bother doing the right thing, no one notices or cares These are question we might find ourselves asking. As questions go they aren’t so bad because we know the answer. We bother doing these ...

I’d say no one likes change but that really isn’t true. Just about no one likes change but there are some people who actually do, I’m not one of them. There are people who might be surprised at this but I am actually a “small ‘c'” conservative, a very, very, very small “c” conservative. What ...

The Baptism of the Lord Sunday is one of the recurring Sundays in the church year. I don’t mind recurring Sundays. I feel there is real value in looking again at something familiar . . . but actually looking at it. Regardless of all that I was wondering what I was going to say about ...

Happy New Year! Again! One of the nice things about using the church calendar is getting two New Year celebrations. We had the beginning of the new liturgical year a few weeks ago and we are now into a new calendar year too. I don’t tend to make resolutions, nothing wrong with them but if last January ...

Merry Christmas! We are all in the family, the same family. Our New Testament lesson for today makes it very clear, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Galatians 4:4b-5 NRSV) This is ...

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is today and is the Sunday of Love. What a great Sunday to end with. We begin with hope and end with love, sounds like a perfect relationship. “Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent. One waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other—things that ...

The Third Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Joy. Joy is one of those tricky words because it has perfectly acceptable casual uses but also more technical uses. Happiness and joy are often considered synonyms and used as such with no difficulty. However, there is a deeper meaning to “joy” that connects us to ...

We are on to our second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Peace. It almost seems unkind to have to think about peace in these days. Oh, I know, I’m not in an active combat zone but there is still a noticeable lack of peace in many places and people I encounter. One of the ...