Sometimes it is more the quality of a person’s presence, rather than the things they do that has the greatest impact. This was the case with Ruth in the life of our church. Her loving, gentle, faithful presence quietly impacted our church in subtle but deeply beautiful ways. For fifty years one of those things […]
A sermon preached on August 2, 2020 based upon Matthew 14:13-21 – Pastor Jeff’s first Sunday back after a month of rest and renewal in the midst of the Pandemic, entitled “How I heard this very familiar Jesus story in a new way.” I’ve preached on this story at least forty times and it continues […]
A sermon preached on June 28th, 2020 based upon Matthew 10:40-42, entitled “The Kindness of the Little Ones.” Our reading comes at the end of the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew The entire chapter has been devoted to Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as he sends them out into the world to do […]
A sermon preached on June 21st, 2020 – “Father’s Day” – based upon Matthew 10:1-5a; 7-9, 11-14; 24-26; 28-31 entitled, “Father Wounds and the Deep Healing into which Jesus Would Lead Us.” It was an odd group of men that Jesus called to be his disciples. There wasn’t much to suggest they’d make particularly promising […]
A sermon preached on June 14th, 2020 based upon Romans 5:1-5 entitled, “Finding the Hope that Does Not Disappoint.” For the Apostle Paul the figure of Abraham (and presumably his wife Sarah if he could have gotten past his patriarchal bias) was a big deal. The entire chapter leading up to this morning’s reading was […]
A sermon preached on June 7th, 2020 entitled, “Though We Flunked, Nonetheless We Graduated”. This was the Sunday we acknowledged our graduates who have missed out on having a graduation ceremonies, and held a pretend graduation ceremony of our own online. Our Gospel lesson takes us to the very end of Matthew. Once more we […]
A sermon preached on May 31, 2020 – Pentecost Sunday – based upon Acts 2:1-21 entitled, “We Need to Open Ourselves Up to the Experience of Awe in these Troubled Times” These are challenging times. The Pandemic that has taken more than 100,000 lives, and now the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, […]
A sermon preached May 24th, 2020 based upon John 17:1-11, entitled, “What Inspires a Parade in the Midst of an Epidemic.” Last Tuesday there was a birthday parade for Doris. Two fire trucks and maybe sixty people from the church in cars with decorations, balloons and signs, with much honking and shouting “We love you, […]
A sermon preached on May 17th, 2020 based upon John 14:15-18 entitled “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child – Thank God for the Advocate.” Once more we find ourselves in the upper room as Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure by his death. He has lovingly washed the feet of each one of […]
A sermon preached on May 10th, 2020 – Mothers’ Day – based upon John 14:1-13a, entitled, “Becoming Comfortable with Uncertainty; Resting in the Expansive Love of God.” I continue to be struck by the way the Gospel readings speak with a particular poignancy in the present context of the epidemic and the feelings it evokes […]