Sermon: "Pure Lament", Psalm 88/Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 (September 22, 2019)

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Fair warning: today’s sermon is not going to be a feel-good message. Today, we’re talking about lament. There’s been a great deal of loss, both tangible and intangible, in our community over the past few months, so I think it’s worthwhile for us to think through the theology of grief together. However, if at any point something in this sermon becomes too overwhelming, I completely understand if anyone needs to step out. Listening to what your spirit needs in this moment is more important than sitting politely through a sermon that you’re not emotionally ready to hear. If you do need to leave, know that I understand, I love you, and I’m here to talk whenever you feel ready.

Sermon: "The Doctor Is In", Exodus 32:7-14/1 Timothy 1:12-17 (September 15, 2019)

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Today’s lectionary readings are kind of a downer. They focus on how awful human beings are, especially the first passage from Exodus. The “golden calf” incident certainly wasn’t humanity’s finest hour. It gets worse when we realize that the Israelites didn’t just melt their jewelry into the shape of a baby cow out of boredom or ignorance: they were appealing to the god Apis, who was worshiped by the Egyptians (you know, the people who’d enslaved them for hundreds of years). They were choosing to trust the god of their oppressors over and above the God who had literally JUST performed the most epic demonstration of faithfulness of all time. It’s kind of a miracle that God chose to stick with humanity after that. I mean, even Moses got so mad that he threw down the freshly-chiseled Commandment tablets in rage!

Sermon: “The Choice Beyond Black and White”, Deuteronomy 30:15-20/Philemon 1-21 (September 8, 2019)

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As people of faith, choice is often front-and-center in our lives. In every moment, we have to decide whether or not we’re going to choose to follow God’s will. Sure, there’s that whole “predestination” thing that John Calvin burdened us with, but a deeper exploration of that doctrine reveals that it doesn’t necessarily preclude free will. There’ve been many ways of explaining the coexistence of the two concepts over the years, but at the end of the day, both ideas are important to our theological heritage.