Sermons

    "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."     These words we hear today in our epistle reading are written by the Apostle Paul from a prison cell in Rome to his friend and protégée Timothy. It is...

    Many years ago, when I was newly ordained,  I taught an adult Sunday School class called “Saints and Sinners.” The class took a look at those we typically think of as Biblical heroes of faith – people like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul...

    It was not the word from the Lord that the Israelites were hoping or expecting to hear.     God is addressing the survivors of the Babylonian invasion of Israel, almost 600 years before the birth of Christ.     Those...

    The story we hear today from Luke's gospel is one of Jesus' most vivid and harsh parables.     There's the poor man, Lazarus, covered with sores, sitting outside the gates of the rich man's home. He's so hungry he would be happy with...

You know it is going to be an interesting week of sermon preparation when you read the day’s Gospel text, scratch your head and say “Huh?”; then go to a commentary for illumination and find it begins with this sentence: “The parable of the unjust steward has baffled...

    We all remember where we were and what we were doing that day. I was getting ready for work, about to scoop up 4-month-old Joseph Henry from the bed and leave when I heard the news bulletin – a plane had hit the World Trade Center....

    It is one of the most basic tenets of scripture in both the Old and New Testaments -- hospitality to the stranger.     Abraham and Sarah are the first in scripture to model it. Abraham is sitting at the entrance to his tent when he...

    Eighteen years. For 18 years the woman has not been able to stand up straight. For 18 years she has been hunched over, her back so bent that all she can see is the ground around her.     For 18 years she has not seen the sun or the...

    It is Independence Day weekend, a time that we celebrate the founding of this nation that we all love. It seems appropriate to be in church this weekend to offer prayers for our country.     By any standards this is a difficult time...

    "For freedom Christ has set us free."     It is uncanny how often the Biblical readings on any given Sunday connect directly to the events going on around us.     In this week when freedom, or the lack of it, is in the...

    It’s a dangerous moment for Christianity.     The disciple are gathered together in a locked room. It’s a familiar place to them. They locked themselves away from the world after Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, fearing that those who...

    If you came here this morning expecting to hear some words of wisdom or comfort from me, I'm sorry.      I have no words. No words to ease the pain, no words of hope, no words of wisdom.      All I can offer...

    Last Saturday afternoon I made a routine run to the grocery store. I checked things off my list, chatted with a friend I ran into in the spice section, stood in line, paid for my items, then went home.     All across America...

    "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."     This is the first, and will most likely be the only, time that I have quoted Joseph Stalin in a sermon.      We are fast approaching a sobering...

Utter nonsense. Foolishness. An idle tale. Every year we begin our Easter celebrations with shouts of joy: “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” we cry. “The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!” As we make this joyful proclamation, we may think we are echoing the words with which...