Sermons

    This third Sunday of Advent we light the pink candle on our wreath to symbolize the joy expressed by Mary when she learns she will bear a son who will be the Savior of the world.     Mary bursts into song at this unexpected news, the...

    What do you still need to do to be prepared for Christmas?     Do you still have gifts to buy? Decorating to do? Cards to mail? Baking and cooking? Wrapping?     There is so much to do between now and December 25. I...

    The calendar says today is November 22, but the liturgical calendar says this is the last Sunday after Pentecost, which means it is the last Sunday of the Church year.     The regular calendar says we still have almost six weeks left in 2020, but in...

I was about 10 years old when psychic Jean Dixon predicted the exact date of the end of the world. Somehow in those days before the internet and social media the news of this impending doom raced through our fifth grade classroom, both exciting and terrifying us. ...

    "Choose this day whom you will serve."     It is a defining moment for the people of Israel. Slavery is behind them, the long years in the wilderness are over, they have at last arrived in that land that God promised to their ancestors Abraham and...

    Today is All Saints’ Day, one of the major feast days of the Church, and one of my favorite Sundays of the year. This first day in November is the time that we remember the saints of the church – all of them, those who are important and have their own day on the...

    Today's gospel reading is one of a string of stories in Matthew where the religious authorities are questioning Jesus, trying to trap him into saying something wrong or heretical.     Today it's the turn of a religious leader who is also a lawyer....

    Wow. I could stand here and look at your beautiful masked faces all day.      Even though all I can see are eyes and foreheads, I can see your joy in being back together again. And I hope those of you who are watching online also feel a sense...

What a difference a week makes! Last Sunday we heard one of the most important stories of the people of Israel, God giving them the Ten Commandments. The commandments are not just a list of rules; they are a covenant between God and God’s chosen people. As God says to...

This year as we have made our way through the strange time of a global pandemic many of our Old Testament readings have come from the Book of Exodus.      Both have been interesting, and often parallel, journeys.     We've heard God call...

This may be an apocryphal story, but it still rings true. The great philosopher Alfred North Whitehead had just finished his opening lecture in a course on cosmology, the study of the universe, when an agitated student came up to him. “I’m sorry, professor, but...

Two hundred thousand. Two hundred thousand people. Two hundred thousand deaths. Two. Hundred. Thousand.     That is the number of deaths from the coronavirus we reached in this country this weekend, or we should say that is the official death count....

“Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.”“Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often shall I forgive? As many as seven times?”“Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven...

       Ever since reading the Gospel early this week I have been thinking about a young man I once knew named Todd.     Todd grew up in the Midwest as a Jehovah’s Witness. His father was a leader in that denomination’s hierarchy. His...

    Last February top executives from around the country and around the globe gathered for a conference in Boston.      For two days, as The Washington Post reports, "they shook hands, kissed cheeks, passed each other the salad tongs at the buffet."...