Sermon Archives

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April 17, 2022

The Art of Resurrection: From Certainty to Openness

The Art of Resurrection: From Certainty to Openness

On Friday, Good Friday, many of us gathered in this very space. Together, we said: Look and see the shadow of sin. Look and see the weight of the world. Look and see the suffering of our savior. Look and see the sorrow of Jesus Christ. We sang hymns. We prayed to our forgiving, reconciling, […]

March 13, 2022

From Privilege to Cruciformity

From Privilege to Cruciformity

Many of you here know of Michael “MJ” Sharp, I assume. He spent part of his growing up years in Goshen and went to Bethany Christian High School, where he had a bit of a reputation as a trouble-maker. But he was very smart and had an expansive vision of what he wanted to do […]

September 19, 2021

The Long Walk to Irrelevance

In fourth grade, I beat Vance Campbell to win my age group at the Wauseon Parks and Recreation Department’s ping-pong tournament. My age group covered fourth through seventh grade, and Vance was in seventh grade. So . . . yeah. I mean, if you wanted to say David beats Goliath, I wouldn’t object. A few […]

July 25, 2021

Wonder Bread

I want you to imagine that all of us who have gathered here this morning represent the entire world’s population. Now, I need fourteen people to stand up. If our attendance today is similar to previous Sundays, the people standing up represent the people who went to bed hungry last night. According to the World […]

June 20, 2021

The Power of One

Only a boy named David, only a little sling, only a boy named David, but he could pray and sing. Only a boy named David, only a rippling brook, only a boy named David, but five little stones he took. And one little stone went in the sling, and the sling went round and round. […]

August 23, 2020

The Joseph Project and Jesus

I A while back I had a Christian friend in another state who was an avid supporter of one of the two major political parties in the United States. He gave large donations to candidates of his political party and to political action committees that supported his party. Since he was a moderately wealthy person, […]

December 22, 2019

A Vulnerable God

A Vulnerable God

I once led a retreat for a small group of Christians. I began the retreat by asking them to sit quietly for a moment and identify the main image for God which they carried around in their heads. After a few minutes of silence, each person went around the circle and shared with us their […]

April 14, 2019

The March of the Kingdoms

With a high school band or soldiers in basic training, one of the first things taught is how to march.  And that’s not an easy task.  Learning how to march takes practice, hours and hours of practice.  Hours and hours spent paying attention to even the slightest details.  The length of the stride.  The pace […]

October 28, 2018

Using Leverage in Obedience to God

Our biblical text for today is an ancient story, crafted at least 2,500 years ago but set in a timeline at least 3,200 years ago. The main characters are an unnamed king at the top of the nation, two lowly Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah, and a God who works in hidden yet detectable […]

May 20, 2018

Stretching, Propelling Spirit-Wind

“Build the Wall! “ Build the wall! Keep the segregating lines clear. Know who is IN and who is OUT. Know who is welcome and who is not. But “something there is that doesn’t love a wall”… I think it’s called the Holy Spirit… THE Spirit of our WALL-WRECKING MESSIAH… The one who breaks down […]

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