Sermons

Is there any day, at least on the initial look, less well named than Good Friday? If there is, I can’t think of it off the top of my head. This is the first time I have been in a position to lead a Good Friday service in many years. I am very glad I was ...

Celebration is a good thing so why would I be asking if it is okay to celebrate? I assure you I am not crazy. It is a question worth asking today, Palm Sunday, as we are on the cusp of Holy Week. Is it okay to celebrate Jesus’ triumphant arrival in Jerusalem when we know ...

Links and documents from the service As I mentioned in today’s service, heather has a blog where they (they/them/their are heather’s pronouns) discuss some of their story in more depth, the link is below. The Reverend Amanda Currie’s pastoral letter is also below and, depending on how your browser manages pdfs it will open or download ...

As the title says, I am suspicious of the notion of “either/or.” I’m pretty sure I’ve said it in this space before but there very few actual binaries out there. About the only one I’m likely to stand behind these days is “alive/dead” and I’m not entirely certain about it either. Language can be slippery. The ...

So what might “it” be? In this case, “it” is revelation, or to be more precise General Revelation. This Sunday’s Psalm, which was Psalm 19, got me thinking again about General and Special Revelation. Special Revelation is God’s word(s) to specific people, e.g. Scripture, burning bushes, etc. General Revelation is God’s word(s) to all people, e.g. nature, ...

So what is a paradox anyway? Well, this is one of the reasons God helped us invent dictionaries. I’m grateful to all those people who then put the dictionaries online. par·a·dox  (păr′ə-dŏks′)n. 1. A statement that seems to contradict itself but may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking. 2. A person, ...

It’s the first Sunday in Lent, not these Sundays are in Lent, not of Lent. It doesn’t seem to make a huge difference but if Lent is forty days long and you count all the calendar days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday you get more than forty. The Sundays aren’t counted so the math ...

Transfiguration Sunday comes around every church year. You can think of it as the last Sunday of Epiphany or the last Sunday before Lent but it comes up no matter what you think of it. This is the beauty and (sometimes) the challenge of following the Lectionary. I am grateful to all of those preaching people ...

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 ...