Sermon: “Unexcused Absence”, Leviticus 26:2-5, 10-20, 34-35, 40-45 (June 23, 2024)

As you all know, I’ve been directing a youth production of “James and the Giant Peach, Jr.” at Boise Little Theater this summer. This is my first time directing, and I’m learning most of it as I go – mostly that there’s a LOT to do. I’m responsible for shaping the whole show: I direct the actors, of course, but I also give feedback on the set design, lighting, costumes, props, sound, and so on. Fortunately, I have a wonderful team committed to making it all happen, but at the end of the day, it’s *my* vision that guides everything (which is all pretty daunting for a first-time director, to be honest).

Liturgy: 5th Sunday After Pentecost, Selections from Leviticus 26 (June 23, 2024)

  *You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #81, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”
Hymn GTG #639, “O Sing a New Song”
Hymn GTG #64, “I Long for Your Commandments”
Hymn GTG #65, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”

Sermon: "The Poetry of Water", Psalm 65 (June 9, 2024)

You may not remember this about me, but I don’t especially like preaching on the psalms. It’s not because I don’t like them; I think that the Psalms are a beautiful showcase of the depth of humanity’s emotions. But the same thing that makes them beautiful to read is what makes them difficult to preach – they’re poetry. A poem can be challenging enough to understand when it’s in your native tongue, but it gets exponentially more difficult when it’s in an unfamiliar ancient language. The goal of poetry isn’t the same as prose: it isn’t to tell a story, but to convey an emotion or a deeper truth. It uses sentence fragments, metaphor, double-entendre, and ambiguity – all very advanced linguistic concepts – to accomplish this. The fact that poetry purposely uses language in an imprecise and subjective way makes it extremely difficult to translate. Many of the words used in the psalms have multiple meanings, or meanings that don’t make sense to us in the context we find them.

Liturgy: 3rd Sunday After Pentecost, Psalm 65 (June 9, 2024)

 *You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #479, “Ho, All Who Thirst”
Hymn GTG #480, “Take Me to the Water”
Hymn GTG #476, “Crashing Waters at Creation”
Hymn GTG #410, “God Is Calling through the Whisper”

Sermon: “Mastery of All Creation; Master of None”, Job 38:1-38 (June 2, 2024)

When we talk about biblical creation stories, our minds usually jump straight to Genesis, don’t they? The first two chapters of Genesis offer two separate accounts of creation with two different objectives: the Adam and Eve creation story teaches us about humanity’s relationship with God and with one another, but before that, Genesis 1 tells us about God’s relationship with ALL of creation. As far as OUR relationship with creation, the first chapter of Genesis covers that, too – in verse 28, God tells humanity to “Fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” Most of us have gone our whole lives assuming that this is the sum total of biblical creation accounts.