Sermons

    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...

It didn’t have to end this way. A question that perhaps every Christian has asked at some point is this: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Or perhaps more to the point: What kind of God would allow, even demand, the torture and death of his own son? Writer Mary...

    Today begins the most sacred week of the Christian year, the week that we walk with Jesus on the path that ends with resurrection, but first goes through betrayal, arrest, torture, and death.     Holy Week, as it is called, begins...

    The cross is looming large before us on the horizon. We are deeply into Lent. At the end of our service next Sunday we will find ourselves at the foot of the cross, watching as Jesus' hands and feet are nailed into the wood, cringing as he is left...