Sermons
What’s a cornerstone anyway?
Well, spoiler alert, I won’t really discuss what a cornerstone is like because I don’t know. I could do an in depth, i.e. three minute, internet search and pretend I know but I don’t think that would address any questions anyone might have anyway. Our New Testament text this week talks about Jesus as the cornerstone, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with…
Blessings and more blessings
I don’t know how many times I have read the book of Ephesians, 20, 30, 50? Who knows? Lots anyway. One of the best things about reading and rereading both Scripture and great literature is that you can come back to the same work over and over again and find new things. The new thing you find was always there but you weren’t able to see it or weren’t ready…
Paradox?
No, no, no. Paradox not a pair of ducks, yeesh. This Sunday’s sermons were about paradox. Well not exactly the notion, theory or existence of paradox but rather a particular statement that might be a paradox. First, here’s a few definitions of paradox. n. A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking. n. One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: “The…
Courage is still needed
I know this Sunday is Father’s Day and as I am at pains to point out in at least one of the sermons, I am not opposed to Father’s Day . . . I’m just more focused on the Lectionary and the texts it has for us on this or on any given Sunday. There is a very well known story in the Old Testament. This story is so well…
New, renewed and still new
So does the blog post title give you a hint about what this week’s sermons were about? One of the many great promises in the Bible is found in Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth where he writes, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV) This is a great promise…
It is all about context
When we don’t have the correct context it is very difficult to understand what is going on. A pastor of my acquaintance, newly installed at a church, was reported to be “having lunch with a blonde” by a, no doubt well-meaning, parishioner who had never met the pastor’s daughter, the daughter had been away school. Not knowing the context meant that this person drew a correct but erroneous conclusion about…
Pentecost for all times
This Sunday was one of the high holy days in the Liturgical year, Pentecost. This is the Sunday that we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming in a new way to the people of God. The Holy Spirit has always been here, this arrival wasn’t the first, after all the Holy Spirit was there at creation and involved with all of the created order, including people, ever since. What was new…
Where do we belong?
Where do we belong? An interesting question that has so many potential answers. This Sunday’s texts had so many fruitful possibilities but the phrase I kept coming back to was “They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” (John 15:17 NRSV) If we don’t belong in the world, then where do we belong? The sermon is an attempt to answer this question….
What’s the opposite of servant?
I have been struck lately, as I am sure is obvious, by the limitations of our tendency toward unhelpful binary thinking. So this Sunday I just lay it out in these two sermons where I think the limitations are using John 15:9-17 as my case study. This passage of scripture has lots of really great things going on but I wanted to focus on verse 15, “ I do not call…
Let’s talk vines
When I say, “Let’s talk vines” it most emphatically is not because I know much, if anything about them. My mother was an excellent gardener as are a number of my other relatives but if that is a genetic trait, I apparently mutated it out of my DNA. The sermons this week come from one of the very well known texts in John, another one of the “I am” statements…