Sermon: “Stay (A)woke”, Mark 14:32-42 (July 12, 2026)

As we near the end of our sermon series about “disputing with God”, we’ve been given this text, Mark’s version of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. It’s pretty clear why this passage wound up in the series: I can’t think of a more intriguing sermon topic than “God arguing with Godself”. I’m sure we’ve all wondered at some point how a prayer from one person of the Trinity to another would work - is it like talking to yourself? Or is it more like a “multiple personality” situation? How can something be both not what Jesus wants, and also what God does want at the same time? There are a lot of fascinating directions that this sort of sermon could take. But as I wrestled with which of these questions I should tackle this week, I found an entirely different one distracting me: why are the disciples reacting SO differently from Jesus in this passage?

Liturgy: Jesus in Gethsemane, Mark 14:32-42 (July 12, 2026)

   *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 that you have either used or adapted it.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #451, “Open My Eyes, That I May See”

Hymn GTG #220, “Go to Dark Gethsemane” [vv. 1, 2, & 4]

Hymn GTG #343, “Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life” [vv. 1-3, 6]

Sermon: "The Deepest of Wounds", Matthew 15:21-28 (July 5, 2026)

This weekend (this whole year, really) our country has been celebrating 250 years of independence from British rule - the “birthday” of the United States. But even as we display our sense of national pride with waving flags, parades, and red, white, and blue EVERYTHING, many of us hold our sense of patriotism alongside complicated feelings. It’s not that we don’t love our country; it’s that we recognize a deep and painful divide between ourselves and our fellow compatriots. The wound is deep. Our seemingly insurmountable differences make us question whether we’ll be able to be “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” ever again.

Liturgy: A Canaanite Woman Confronts Jesus, Matthew 15:21-28 (July 5, 2026)

  *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 that you have either used or adapted it.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #620, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”

Hymn GTG #754, “Help Us Accept Each Other”

Sermon: "A Snapshot of the Soul", Psalm 88 (June 28, 2026)

In one of his commentaries, John Calvin calls the psalms, “an anatomy of all the parts of the soul,” because he believed that there was no human emotion that can’t be found within this collection of poetry. And he’s right: themes range the gamut from ecstatic joy to sorrowful remorse to righteous anger. In fact, many of the psalms incorporate several emotions all together at once: lament, repentance, thanksgiving, and praise all in one convenient package.  

Liturgy: A Psalm of Despair, Psalm 88 (June 28, 2026)

 *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 that you have either used or adapted it.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #735, “I Need Thee Every Hour”

Hymn GTG #651, “I Waited Patiently for God”

Hymn GTG #67, “My Song Forever Shall Record”

Sermon: "The Cost of Compassion", Jonah 3-4 (June 21, 2026)

This second half of the book of Jonah may not be a proper dispute with God, as there’s not much direct back and forth between Jonah and God, but there’s certainly a struggle of wills on display here. Many people in Scripture push back when God calls them to prophecy or leadership, but Jonah elevates resistance to an art form. At first, he attempts to literally run away from God’s instructions, which famously lands him inside the belly of an enormous fish. Only then, after God delivers Jonah from his predicament by way of fish vomit, does Jonah begrudgingly make his way to Nineveh to proclaim the message that God had given him. 

Sermon: "A Conversation with God", Exodus 33:1-17 (June 7, 2026)

Our sermon series on disputing with God continues this morning with a second story about Moses. Last week, thanks to Moses pushing the boundaries of God’s permissiveness after the golden calf incident, we were able to learn more about God's nature and what it means for us. This week, Moses’ apparently argumentative nature and inability to let things go will teach us more about the relationship between God and God’s people. So let’s jump right in.

Liturgy: The Divine Presence, Exodus 33:1-17 (June 7, 2026)

*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 that you have either used or adapted it.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #39, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”

Hymn GTG #465, “What Friend We Have in Jesus”

Sermon: "Gentle Sibling-ing", Exodus 32:7-14, 30-35 (May 31, 2026)

For the next seven weeks, we’re going to be digging into some scriptural examples of people disputing with God. From Abraham to Moses to David to Jonah to an unnamed Canaanite woman to Jesus himself, it turns out that we come from a long line of believers who were willing to question and even criticize God. Sometimes, these skeptics are swiftly put in their place (the book of Job comes to mind), but more often, the Lord just…lets it happen. On some occasions, God actually engages in the debate, and there are even times when God winds up changing God’s mind because of it. Plenty of modern Church leaders would be horrified at the thought of questioning religious authority, but the fact is that there’s a whole lot of scriptural precedent for it. So let’s see what we can learn from the complaints of our forebears.

Liturgy: Moses Appeals to God’s Mercy, Exodus 32:7-14, 30-35 (May 31, 2026)

*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 that you have either used or adapted it.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #439, “O My Soul, Bless Your Redeemer” (vv. 1, 4-6)

Hymn GTG #57, "Tremble, O Tremble”

Hymn GTG #354, “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”

Sermon: "I Don't Know", Daniel 12:5-13 (September 1, 2024)

Well, we’ve been working our way through the book of Daniel over the past month, and today we finally arrive at the last chapter. Since Deanna preached for me last week, I’ve actually had two weeks to sit with this passage, reflecting on everything else that’s come before it and how it all fits together. I’ve reread my sermons, listened to Deanna’s, and carefully studied the chapters that we skipped over. And now, thanks to all that, I can confidently tell you that I’ve got nothing.

I just don’t know.

Liturgy: 15th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 12 (September 1, 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 #305, “Come Sing, O Church, in Joy!”
Hymn GTG #687, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”

Sermon: "My Hands Are Tied", Daniel 6 (August 18, 2024)

Most of us are young children when we first encounter Daniel’s twin stories of the Fiery Furnace and the Lion’s Den (because apparently, stories about capital punishment are foundational to every child’s theological education). And almost universally, we’re told that the moral of both stories is that if we trust in God, God will rescue us from danger. But of course, as most of us have figured out by now, that’s just objectively untrue. It’s probably past time for us to consider more nuanced interpretations of these ancient stories.

Liturgy: 13th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 6:1-27 (August 18, 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 #307, “God of Grace and God of Glory”

Hymn GTG #468, "In My Life"
Hymn GTG #335, “The Foolish in Their Hearts Deny”
Hymn GTG #332, “The Right Hand of God”

Sermon: "A Window to the Future", Daniel 2:29-45 (August 4, 2024)

Over the next five weeks of worship, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the book of Daniel. Daniel is best known for the classic church school stories of the Fiery Furnace and the Lion’s den (and we’ll definitely get the chance to dig into those in the next month) but there’s a lot more to this book than we often realize. It’s made up of a collection of writings largely concerning Daniel, a young Israelite man brought to the Babylonian court to serve the king during the 6th century Jewish exile. As usual, context is really important: having been written 400 years after its setting, Daniel is very much about remaining faithful to God while living among non-Jews (a topic that was yet again relevant to the community by the 2nd century). Its first half is largely narrative (including those two stories I mentioned before) while the second half focuses more on apocalyptic writings (remember: apocalypse is Greek for “revelation” or “unveiling”; it’s not a synonym for “cataclysmic”).

Liturgy: 11th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 2:29-45 (August 4, 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 #30, “O God, in a Mysterious Way”
Hymn GTG #507, “Come to the Table of Grace”
Hymn GTG #376, “When All Is Ended”

Sermon: "The Passage That Doesn't End", 1 John 5:1-5 (July 21, 2024)

Okay; before we go any further, I want to assure you that it’s not just you: this passage IS really confusing. You all know I usually prefer the Common English Bible for its clarity of language, but even there, Scripture’s message is convoluted at best. One of the commentaries I read in preparation for this sermon noted that this passage “seems to defy parsing into logical thought. Motifs entwine, spiral, then interlace with such circularity that a reader may experience verbal vertigo.”[1] This passage is objectively perplexing, even to the so-called “experts”. Sometimes, that’s just the way the Bible is.

Liturgy: 9th Sunday After Pentecost, 1 John 5:1-5 (July 21, 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 #110, “Love Has Come”
Hymn GTG #137, “He Came Down”
Hymn GTG #372, “O for a World”

Hymn GTG #720, “Jesus Calls Us”

Sermon: "Aaaaand ACTION!", 1 John 3:16-24 (July 7, 2024)

As some of you may remember, this past week was the biennial gathering of General Assembly, the national governing body of our denomination. This probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to most of you, but many clergy (myself included) watch the livestream of these meetings with the same fervor that regular people follow the Olympics. (In fact, I’m all but certain that I watched a lot more of GA than I’ll watch of the actual Olympics later this summer.) Anyway, the gathered body addressed many topics over the course of four VERY full days, including everything from online worship to divestment from the fossil fuel industry to an official policy of non-discrimination against our LGBT+ siblings. And while of course everyone always waits with bated breath to learn how the assembly will vote, in my opinion, the most riveting part of GA is actually the debate. It’s the most nuanced way to “check the pulse” of the denomination as a whole, and it’s where you can most clearly see the Holy Spirit moving throughout the week.