Sermon: "A Tale as Old as Time", Christmas in July (July 26, 2026)

While there are many stories about Jesus’ life that have been passed down to us - both canonical and extracanonical - the Christmas story has a special place in our collective hearts. Part of it, I’m sure, has to do with the fact that we associate it closely with “the most wonderful time of the year”. But I think another part of the reason that we love this story so much is because it makes it clear that our Messiah is special. Long before he heals the sick or walks on water, Jesus' conception through the Holy Spirit, the shepherds, the star, all clearly tell us that we’ve hitched our wagon to the right savior. The Christmas story tells us that OUR messiah is someone that the world has never seen before and will never see again.

Or does it?

Liturgy: Hosea, Hosea 11:1-9 (November 12, 2023)

  *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:

GTG #60, “Your Endless Love, Your Mighty Acts"

GTG #435, “There's A Wideness in God's Mercy”

GTG #39, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”

Sermon: "R.O.I.", 1 Kings 18:20-39 (November 5, 2023)

Today’s scripture reading may be a new story to some of you, but regardless of how well you know it, we can all tell right away that we’re supposed to take a side here. The obvious choice, of course, is Elijah, right? He’s depicted as such a cool guy, the paradigm of a self-assured protagonist: sassing back to King Ahab, calling out the people on their indecisiveness, taking on 450 of Baal’s prophets singlehandedly, then making fun of them when they’re unsuccessful…you start to understand why he’s such a big deal, scripturally speaking, even without a book of prophesy named after him. He’s a wise-cracking, no-nonsense biblical superhero!

Sermon: "130 Years by the Grace of God", Isaiah 43:11-13, 18-21/Matthew 28:16-20 (October 27, 2019)

(A sermon preached on the occasion of Reformation Sunday and the 130th anniversary of Presbyterians establishing a presence in Caldwell, ID)

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130 years of Presbyterians in Caldwell. That’s an awfully long time. That’s almost four times as long as I’ve been alive. Now, that also means that there’ve been 130 years’ worth of Presbyterian sermons in Caldwell, so I’ll do my best not to add too much time to the clock today. Besides, I’m inclined to let the stories speak for themselves.

Sermon: "Where's Waldo--I Mean, God?", 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 9-11, 22-30/Psalm 84 (August 26, 2018)

8/26/18

Sermon video here.

Sometimes, searching for things can be fun. The increasing popularity of scavenger hunts, geocaching, and escape-the-room games attest to that. When I was a kid, though, we didn’t have quite as many of these opportunities, and I wasn’t one to get out very often anyway, so most of my recreational searching was done between the pages of a book. And of course, in the early ‘90s, there was no search-puzzle book greater than Where’s Waldo.

Reflections on a Flame

Small and focused,
Still and tall;
Dispels the darkness
Without a sound.

Claiming our New Name

This past week, I was back on the East Coast (yippee!) for some continuing education. There was a lot of good stuff that happened at Stony Point Center (reconnecting with old friends, walking with one another through the challenges of ministry, HILARIOUS card games) one of the worship services that we did really stood out to me. I remember thinking, "I'll definitely need to write some reflections on my blog about this!"

So here we are.