Liturgy: John 14:1-4, 15-21 (September 29, 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 #314, “Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness”
Hymn GTG #301, “Let Us Build a House”

Hymn GTG #769, “For Everyone Born”

Liturgy: Peter Preaches at Pentecost, Acts 2:36-47 (September 22, 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 #298, “Lord, You Give the Great Commission”
Hymn GTG #767, “Together We Serve”

Hymn GTG #296, “God in Grace and Make Disciples”

Sermon: "Crocheted in Christ", 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (April 28, 2024)

As we all know, the apostle Paul was an exceptionally well-travelled man. He took his call to evangelize very seriously, which resulted in journeys to over fifty cities across three continents. And the message that he preached in each of these cities never strayed far from the famous one that he wrote early on to the church in Galatia: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

But, well – humans gonna human, right? No matter how far he trekked, no matter how often he preached this message, Paul encountered the same problem again and again: people choosing to divide themselves into rival groups, gravitating towards conflict instead of unity. In spite of the young Church’s vulnerability in the shadow of the Roman Empire. In spite of Paul’s teachings. In spite of the gospel.

Sermon: “Behind the Laughter”, Genesis 18:1-2, 8-15 (September 17, 2023)

I have to confess that I’ve abbreviated today’s reading quite a bit from the original text given by the Narrative Lectionary. The full reading includes verses 3-7, plus Isaac’s birth in chapter 21. It wants us to focus on Abraham’s hospitality and to tie up the story with a nice big bow: the impossible promise being fulfilled. But framing the story in this way is unfair to Sarah. So much of Sarah’s story is overshadowed by her husband and HIS relationship with the Lord. Although she’s as much a part of God’s covenant as he is, she remains relegated mostly to the background, silent and alone, for much of the story. I’m tired of her experience being rendered invisible, and so – at least for today – Sarah will be at the center of this story.

Sermon: "Follow the Thread", Acts 2:1-8/Romans 8:26-30, 38-39 (May 28, 2023)

Today is Pentecost. It’s the day that we mainline Protestants finally remember that the Trinity is more than just the Father and the Son, that there’s another divine person who often gets forgotten in our sacred storytelling. So the pastors all unpack their trusty metaphors for the Holy Spirit and the props that help drive their descriptions home: pinwheels, bubbles, red streamers, candles; basically anything that can be used to represent wind or fire.

Sermon: “Assumptions that Divide; Baptisms that Bind”, Matthew 3 (January 8, 2023 - Baptism of the Lord Sunday)

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

Baptism is one of the most recognizable Christian rituals, possibly because it’s also one of the oldest. The form and function of many of our other traditions – hymn singing, corporate prayer, marriages, funerals, the liturgical year, and so on – are all relatively new; they’ve developed into their current form only after centuries of theological discernment and identity building. Baptism, on the other hand, has been practiced since the days of the Bible, with its form remaining more or less unchanged from what was handed down to us in Matthew’s gospel: we baptize with water (as demonstrated at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew 3) and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (as established towards the end, in Matthew 28). There remain, of course, plenty of disputes throughout modern Christendom about the specific prayers included, the age required to be baptized, and whether to sprinkle, dunk, or immerse, but the basic elements have remained largely unchanged for over 2000 years.

Sermon: “The Voices That Matter”, Genesis 11:1-9/Acts 2:1-8, 12 (June 5, 2022)

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

Ever since the first time I realized the parallels between the stories of Babel and Pentecost, I’ve struggled to make sense out of it. In Genesis, it kind of seems like God’s just creating trouble where there isn’t any. After all, the Holy Spirit would never have had to do that translation trick at Pentecost if God had just let the people keep their unified language in the first place. Things seemed to be working just fine; the people were on track to build the first skyscraper millennia ahead of schedule and, more importantly, they all seemed to be getting along and cooperating. It’s difficult to imagine why God would want to put a stop to any of that, especially in light of God’s contradictory actions at Pentecost.

Sermon: “The Fellowship of the King”, Mark 1:14-20 (January 24, 2021)

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

We all know our job as Christians, right? The resurrected Jesus told his disciples what they were supposed to do in one of his final messages to them; we call it “The Great Commission.” All four gospels include some version of it. In Mark’s gospel, from which we take today’s reading, Jesus says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News.” Huh. Not very instructive, is it? For a job so important that it makes the cut in all four gospels, Jesus’ very last words to his disciples, we really don’t have a lot information to get us started. Where should we begin?

Prayer Cairn Revisited

Today was a beautiful day in Caldwell (60 degrees and sunny...sorry, Rochesterians!) so I decided to take a break from sermon writing and take care of a project I've been meaning to do for a while: neatening up the church's prayer cairn.

Sermon: “Imago Dei: In the Image of God’s Community”, Genesis 1:24-31, 2:1-3/Luke 2:8-20 (December 22, 2019)

(Week 4 in our Advent series on how we reflect God's Image--
previous weeks' sermons can be found here, here, and here)

-----------------------------------------------------
By now, most of you are aware of my fondness for musical theatre. What you may NOT know is that I played bassoon for many years during middle and high school. How do these two fun facts relate? Well, for years, all I wanted was to be in the pit orchestra of a musical production. I firmly believed (and still do) that there are some messages and emotions that can only be conveyed properly through music, and although I was too shy at the time to get up on stage, I could definitely play in the pit orchestra. I was delighted at the prospect of helping tell a story through music. I was eager to do my part.

Braiding and Brokenness: The Significance of Our Lenten Practice

It's been a few weeks that Lent has been over, now. Since I've gotten some emotional distance from the difficulty of the Triduum and the catch-up work that always happens after Easter Sunday, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on our Lenten practice this year.

Many people of all ages (even some from outside our immediate congregational community!) took part in our lenten braiding project. Each Sunday, I collected the braids that people turned in, and spent my afternoon weaving them together by hand, one by one, using a continuous piece of yarn--my own personal Lenten practice.

Sermon: "Unlikely Companions (Third in a Series on “Hitchhiking with Jesus”: Who Do We Travel With?)", Matthew 15:21-28 (March 19, 2017)

3/19/17

Sermon video here.

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

Picture this: the world is in crisis, a bad guy has the upper hand, and the powers that be have tried everything they can think of to fix the situation. But nothing’s worked. All resources have been used, all heroes have been sent, and now there’s nothing left to do but wait for death and destruction to rain down upon the world.

But wait a minute; what about that rag-tag bunch of misfits? You know, the ones that nobody believes in and might not even get along with each other, but are the only ones left willing to fight the good fight? What if…what if we sent THEM?

Sermon: "Inquiring Minds, Inquiring Spirits", Psalm 27:1, 4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (January 22, 2017)

1/22/2017

Sermon video here.

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

Last Sunday before worship, we kicked off our confirmation class. We’ve continued the lessons this week, and we’ll be meeting regularly until Easter, at which point each student will decide whether they want to join the church as full members. That leaves us with a lot to discuss in 12 short weeks! As I hope to impress upon them, Confirmation isn’t a matter of checking a box on the salvation checklist (there’s no such thing, by the way), nor is it about learning the “right” things to do in order to be a “good” Christian. It’s about exploring what it means to be a follower of Christ and a Presbyterian, discovering where you are on your own faith journey, and deciding whether the two things fit together for you. Like I said, it’s a pretty tall order for a few short weeks. But I think these kids are up to it.

Sermon: "Us versus Them", Acts 15:1, 6-11 (September 26, 2016)

9/26/16

(This sermon was written for worship with a group of PCUSA clergy that Andrew meets with annually at different churches around the country. This year, they met in Boise.)

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

Us versus them. It’s a mental dichotomy that we set up almost reflexively. If you say that you’ve never taken part in this sort of basic human categorizing, I’m not gonna believe you. It’s a natural way that our minds try to protect us: if someone is one of “us”, they’re unlikely to be a threat, but if one of “them”, they might threaten our resources, safety, or ideals. It’s not a foolproof system, by any means, but it’s a quick way to assess our situation and respond accordingly.

There are all sorts of “us-es” and “thems” that exist in today’s society: urbanites and country-dwellers, bosses and employees, introverts and extroverts, thinkers and feelers; you name it. In many places, people in “opposing” categories live side by side in natural tension. This is especially true here in Boise: in a decidedly red state, we’re the one place that Democrats seem to have a noticeable presence. We’re in a part of the country where Native American populations live in close proximity to those of European descent. Our LDS population makes up a larger portion of our community than every other major Christian denomination—including Pentecostals—combined. We’ve become a (perhaps surprisingly) major site for refugee resettlement. In many ways, we are a city divided into factions. How on earth do we live like this?