Sermon: "Unworthy", Luke 7:1-17 (February 9, 2025)

Ah, yes; yet another miraculous healing from Jesus. To be honest, Jesus does so much healing in the gospels that the stories all seem to blend together a bit, don’t they? I don’t know about you, but I’m guilty of occasionally assuming that all these accounts serve the same narrative purpose: to demonstrate Jesus’ power and explain how his following grew so quickly. It makes for faster reading if you can gloss over the details and just throw the story into that corner of your brain where you keep a vague awareness of all the gospel’s other healings.

Sermon: “Foe or Friend”, Luke 6:1-11 (February 2, 2025)

By this time in Luke’s gospel, Jesus has been going around teaching and healing for a while now. He’d made quite a name for himself, to the point that people were actively seeking him out to hear what he had to say and be cured of illness and disease. But the attention wasn’t all positive – Jesus had also attracted a fair amount controversy and conflict, as we read a couple of weeks ago. And it appears that by this point, one particular group of Pharisees have had about all they can take: upon observing Jesus healing on the Sabbath, Scripture tells us that “They were furious and began talking with each other about what to do to Jesus.”

Sermon: “Go Fish”, Luke 5:1-11 (January 26, 2025)

You know, over the course of my ten years of ordained ministry, I’ve had frequent doubts about the content of my sermon. Sometimes I think, “Maybe I should try to be a little more intellectual in my writing. Maybe I use too many weird metaphors about butterfly goop[1]  and Barbies[2]  and Witness Protection[3]  and cups full of mud[4]. But then, of course, I remember that Jesus was the KING of metaphors. I remember that he refers to himself as bread, a vine, and a gate; that he calls his disciples salt, sheep, and light; that he describes the kingdom of God as a mustard seed, a pearl, and a hidden treasure; and I feel less self-conscious about my sermon illustrations.

Sermon: "No Offense", Luke 4:14-30 (January 19, 2025)

“People are so easily offended these days. You can’t say ANYTHING anymore!” Such is the attitude that seems to have taken hold in certain corners of the popular modern imagination. We’re living in the era of “cancel culture,” and to hear some people tell it, it’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to society. If only people would just stop being so sensitive, we’d be able to focus on things that really matter, instead of spending all our time tiptoeing around the “snowflakes.”

Sermon: "This Is How We Pray", Luke 11:1-4 (July 28, 2019)

(A message given prior to our "Christmas in July" celebration)

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Since we’re celebrating Christmas in July this morning, I want to let the story speak for itself and leave plenty of time for Christmas carols, so I won’t talk for long. But it occurred to me that it might be worth first stopping to reflect on WHY we would read Christmas scriptures and sing Christmas music in July. After all, they feel distinctly out-of-place in 90 degree weather.

Sermon: "Lose the Recipe", 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14/Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (June 30, 2019)

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Do you ever wonder what scripture would look like if the early Christians hadn’t screwed up so much?

I do. I mean, Paul’s primary motivation for letter-writing was usually to correct some misconception that had been making the rounds in Christian communities, and depending on who you ask, these letters make up anywhere from 30 to almost 50 percent of the New Testament. It was always something with those blockheads: either they were excluding gentiles, or they couldn’t get along with each other, or they were pledging their allegiance to specific teachers instead of to Christ, or they were keeping other people as personal property…they just couldn’t seem to get it right, no matter how many times Paul yelled at—err, wrote to 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.

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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.