A sermon preached on March 15, 2020 – the Sunday we turned to worship online because of the coronavirus. Our text is Luke 17:6-7, 11-17. A live version of this can be found at our website and at the Facebook page of the Parsippany United Methodist Church. When I began looking for a scripture passage […]
A sermon preached on March 8th, 2020 based upon John 3:1-17. For many of us the Gospel story we are about to hear is a familiar one, containing a couple of the most well-known verses in the Bible. For all of its familiarity, however this passage can be a hard one to make sense of, […]
A sermon preached on February 23rd, 2020 – Transfiguration Sunday – and on the occasion of the baptism of Milania Isabella Ventola. The sermon was based upon Matthew 17:1-9. There is an ancient tradition that arose in Ireland that speaks of certain places being “thin” places. These are places where sometimes the veil that separates […]
A sermon preached on February 9th, 2020 based upon 1Cornithians 2:1-12 entitled, “Seeing Through the Lens of the Crucified Savior.” When we are born, we experience life directly. But as we grow, we develop lenses through which we see our lives – lenses that filter reality. Our lenses lead us to pay attention to certain […]
A sermon preached on February 2nd, 2020 based upon Matthew 5:1-12 entitled, “Acknowledging our Poverty of Spirit.” In my 38 years of being a pastor, visiting and preaching in nursing homes has always been something I’ve done on a regular basis. Nursing homes can be rather depressing places, and I’m not looking forward to the […]
A sermon preached on January 26th, 2020 based upon Mathew 4:12-23, entitled “Learning to Live in the Kingdom of God.” As I mentioned last week, each Gospel writer has distinctive ways of presenting the story of Jesus with particular themes on which they focus. One theme Matthew highlights is the conflict between God’s kingdom (reign) […]
A sermon preached on January 19th, 2020 – the Sunday before Martin Luther King’s birthday — based upon John 1:29-42 entitled “The Light that Transforms Us.” Last week I began my sermon talking about the messiness of the Bible. Some Christians try to deny this messiness by insisting that each word of the Bible was […]
A sermon preached on January 11th, 2020 – The Baptism of Our Lord Sunday – based upon Matthew 3:13-17 entitled, “Embracing the Messiness of Both the Bible and of Life Itself.” When folks read our scripture lesson in worship, I ask them to begin this way: “Listen for the word of the Lord.” And then […]
The Eulogy for John Robert “Bob’ Keller (July 31, 1952 – December 21, 2019) Bob Keller was born on July 31, 1952 to Virginia and Larry Keller and grew up in the small, working class town of Turtle Creek (“Crick”), Pennsylvania, just twenty minutes outside of Pittsburg. His older brother, Larry, Jr. preceded Bob in […]
A sermon preached on January 5th, 2020 – Epiphany Sunday – based upon Matthew 2:1-12 entitled, “Attending to the Spiritual Journey.” In this life we are all obliged to engage in what you could call a “struggle”, or a “battle” or a “quest.” It is the quest to carve out a place for ourselves in […]
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