Sermon Archives

Lent
March 1, 2015

Grieving Well

On November 11, 1971, my grandmother was killed in a traffic accident. At dusk that evening, she was driving a tractor with a wagon attached behind the tractor. A drunken man, traveling about 60 miles an hour in a zone marked for 40 miles an hour, crashed his car into the back of her wagon. […]

February 22, 2015

The Ritual of Remembering: Funerals and Memorial Services

Today we begin the season of Lent, and we also begin a worship series on the rituals of loss and remembrance; a series on death and dying. You might be asking: Why a death and dying series for Lent? There are a number of reasons we are doing this. One reason for this series is […]

April 13, 2014

The Arrest

Most of us have kissed—or been kissed—at one time or another. When our sons were small, I probably I kissed each of them at least a thousand times, plus however many times Jenny kissed them. We don’t kiss our sons anymore—a fact for which they are profoundly grateful—although Jenny and I still kiss each other […]

March 30, 2014

God-Smacked

During my first year at Chicago Theological Seminary, I lived in one of the seminary’s dormitories. One afternoon at 5:00 I left my dorm room and walked down to the dormitory kitchen, located in the basement. This kitchen served all the students who lived in that dorm. We each had our own cupboard and cooked […]

March 23, 2014

Boundaries, Buckets and Blessings

The Jews and Samaritans had been estranged for a long time. It all started when those who had been in exile and those who had not been in exile, couldn’t agree on where the temple should be. Initially, it was a mild estrangement, but around 200 BCE, it grew in intensity. It ended with the […]

March 16, 2014

Parables Worship Team

Parables, a worship ensemble from Goshen College, combines music, original drama and personal stories to create an engaging worship experience designed to inspire, comfort and challenge.  This year’s theme, “Where the River Will Never Run Dry” focuses on songs and stories of healing and home, addressing our deep-seated need to experience God as the ever-present […]

March 9, 2014

Jesus’ Temptations—and Ours

For many of us this story is extremely familiar. We hear it nearly every year in our Lenten worship services because Matthew, Mark, and Luke each tell a version of this story. We call it “the temptations of Jesus,” though I’m not sure how tempting Jesus actually found Satan’s three offers. I don’t know about […]

March 17, 2013

Rubbish

During Lent we’ve been playing with the theme of honor and shame in various biblical passages. Our purpose has been to explore how God honors us, especially through the person of Christ; and how we in turn give honor to God. The text in front of us this morning is an eye‐popping passage. Paul plays […]

March 10, 2013

A Kiss of Peace

We already know what this parable means, right? We say this parable is about a foolish son who grabs his inheritance early, then wastes the money on prostitutes and other stupid expenses. The “prodigal” son, we call him, even though that word prodigal is not in Luke’s text. “Prodigal” because he’s wasteful and extravagant, because […]

March 3, 2013

Ashamed No More: Invitation, Challenge and Grace

Stories of war, disaster, tragedy fill our newspapers and news channels. Innocent people dying from drone attacks, school shootings, and suicide bombers. Intentional acts of violence targeting innocent and not‐soinnocent people alike. It is disheartening to listen to the news or read the newspaper. And yet, there’s also a part of human nature that wants […]

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