by Patricia Templeton | Feb 23, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
Have you ever picked up a book, opened it about three-fourths of the way through and started reading? You don’t know the characters, the plot, the context. Even if you can tell that something important is happening it doesn’t quite make sense. To...
by Patricia Templeton | Feb 16, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
Blessed are the poor, we hear Jesus say today. Blessed are the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated because they follow him. In these beatitudes, or blessings, Jesus is naming those on the margins, the outskirts of society, and saying that in God’s...
by Patricia Templeton | Feb 2, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
We have competing events on the calendar today. On the secular calendar it is Groundhog Day. Sometime this morning a groundhog in Pennsylvania will come out of its hole and blink at the cameras surrounding it waiting to see if it sees its shadow, something to which...
by Patricia Templeton | Jan 19, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
Those of you who have been here for a while may remember that about 10 years ago I participated in a program put on by the National Park Service commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and the ensuing successful voting rights march from Selma to...
by Patricia Templeton | Jan 12, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
It is one of my favorite images of Jesus, although I have never seen it visually depicted anywhere. There are dozens of portrayals of Jesus being baptized – paintings of him standing in the river with his cousin John, going under the water, coming out it, the...
by Patricia Templeton | Jan 5, 2025 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
There were signs telling them change was coming. First was a large, brilliant star, almost as bright as the sun as it streaked south across the night sky. Next came the birds, thousands of them, big and black, of a kind never before seen in the village, filling...
by Patricia Templeton | Dec 24, 2024 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
It is good to be gathered with you on this most holy of nights, the night that we celebrate the birth of a baby who will change the world. Everything about this evening is special — the music that our choir and instrumentalists have practiced for so many hours;...
by Patricia Templeton | Dec 15, 2024 | Sermons, Tricia's Sermons
When I looked at the scripture readings for this week I was reminded of a game from Sesame Street. Four objects would be shown on the screen while one of the characters sang these words: “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn’t...
