Sermon: "Bet Your Life", Hosea 11:1-9 (November 12, 2023)

As you all know, I had a minor medical procedure on Friday, which is temporarily impacting my voice. I’m so grateful to for the help of our currently serving leadership so that I don’t have to talk for an hour straight this morning, but I still felt it was important to preach the sermon myself. Since most of my weekend has been taken up by the procedure and recovery, I’d originally planned to recycle a sermon on Hosea that I wrote four years ago. But apparently, as is so often the case, the Holy Spirit had other plans.

Sermon: “Fatherly Advice”, Matthew 6:7-21 (January 29, 2023)

-----------------------------------------------------

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about fatherly advice. It doesn’t have to be gendered, really; it can come from anyone. But the phrase itself evokes a very specific genre of guidance: usually given by an older mentor figure and coming from a place of genuine affection and care, it’s heartfelt advice meant to help someone live a better life. It’s parental wisdom offered with the best interests of its recipient at heart.

Sermon: “My House, My Rules”, Psalm 15/Micah 6:1-8 (February 2, 2020)

---------------------------------------------------------

By invoking the image of a courtroom, today’s reading from Micah seems to be implying that we’re criminals. I mean, why else would God have brought us to court? There’s no way that God would wrongly accuse us. Besides, as good Calvinists, we believe in total depravity; we already know that we’re as guilty as guilty can be. So it’s natural that we, the readers, would identify our role in this metaphor as the corrupt defendants facing the righteous plaintiff, submitting to the rage and punishment of a God who’s been unapologetically wronged. It’s just a matter of time before they lock us up and throw away the key.