Sermons 2025
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May 4, 2025: "Follow Me"
How many here have a library card? There is a library for which you do not have to have a card—that is the Bible. The Bible is not a single book but a collection of books.​
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April 20, 2025 Easter: "Alleluia. Christ the Lord is Risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia"
Here we are it is Easter Day. We are rejoicing in the Resurrection of our Lord. We sing joy-filled songs. We hear inspiring scriptures and say heartfelt prayers. We wear our fancy clothes and hats. There is a festive reception awaiting us next door.​
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April 18, 2025 Good Friday: "A Week to Remember"
Passion Week or Holy Week is seven days of drama. It begins jubilantly with the entry into Jerusalem as the crowds cheer on Jesus. But they are also pleading with him when they shout “Hosanna,” which means “save us.”​
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​​April 17, 2025 Maundy Thursday: "Following Love's Command"
Today is Maundy Thursday. The Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which translates as commandment. For this is the day we remember that in the Gospel of John, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[1]
[1] John 13:35
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April 13, 2025 Lent 6 Palm Sunday: "Save Us Now"
This is a difficult Sunday to preach, because we are trying to do two things at once. The tradition is that Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. We enter Jerusalem with Jesus and the disciples... While your bulletin reads Palm Sunday, officially, the Church calls it Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday. Therefore, we are supposed to jump from the triumphal entry right into the Last Supper, trial, and crucifixion.
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​April 6, 2025 Lent 5: “Abundant Life”
Over the past few weeks, we have been alternating between the Gospels of Luke and John. This is problematic because John is so different from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). Even when the Gospel of John uses a passage similar to ones in the Synoptics, he does something different with it. Take today’s gospel reading for example.
March 23,2025 Lent 3: "Burning Questions"
When Moses saw that burning bush about 3,500 years ago, it did catch his attention. It was aflame and yet not burning up. Moses, who was tending his father-in-law’s herd of sheep, was so amazed that he left the herd to get a closer look. As he approached, God called his name from the bush. Moses answered, “Here I am.”
​March 16, 2025 Lent 2: “The Hen and the Fox”
A fox and a hen show up in today’s Gospel reading from Luke. The fox is Herod Antipas, according to Jesus. This Herod is a son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the one who expanded the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He is also the one who is identified in Matthew’s Gospel as the king the Magi encounter when they are looking for the child Jesus. He is also the one who ordered the slaughter of the innocents.
March 9, 2025 Lent 1: “Called to Become Irrelevant?”
Each year, the readings for the First Sunday in Lent are from one of the synoptic gospels about Jesus’ forty–day sojourn and fast in the wilderness. As we are starting our Lenten disciplines, it is good to remind ourselves what inspired this practice.
February 23, 2025: "Forgiveness be With You"
In today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus gives us some rules to live by. Unlike what we might hear in the Book of Proverbs, these rules are counterintuitive, radical, and downright hard to put into practice. Like Joseph, Jesus tells us to love those who have hurt us. If we are struck on the cheek, we should offer the other one also. If someone steals from us, we should offer the remainder of what we have.​
February 9, 2025: "Chosen"
Being chosen on the playground was fraught. Whenever a captain picked a team a different kind of panic set in. The best athletes would be called on first that was a given. All of us who were in the middle would dread one thing, being selected last. It was humiliating. Being chosen could be a troubling experience.
All of today’s scripture readings have something to do with being chosen. The psalmist is one of the chosen people of God.
February 2, 2025: "A Soul Set Free"
Most parents think their baby is special. I do not doubt that they are right in their assessment. Every child is special. When we meet a little child, we are engaged by their cuteness, our innate desire to protect, and wonder. We wonder about a new life that has come into the world. We are amazed at what they can do as an infant. We wonder about what the child may grow up to be. Then there are Jesus’ parents.
January 26, 2025: "You Can't Go Home Again"
Preaching The Good News is a tricky thing. First, there are many people who think The Good News is there to confirm what they already believe. They want to have their life affirmed. I saw a quote this week that read in part, “[Many] people go to church to be assured that they are good people who are part of a mostly good enough system…They don’t want to follow Jesus. They want Jesus to follow them and whisper, ‘You’re doing fine. You don’t need to change. I have the same enemies as you do.’”​
January 19, 2025: "See Something, Say Something, Do Something"
This wonderful invitation is given by God to each of us. We can open our heart and prepare it to receive the newborn Christ child into our life. When we do, we will be changed. The change will not be recorded in photos or nostalgic movies. The change will be realized in the way we live. The effect, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, will ripple out into a world that is in need of hope.​
January 12, 2025: "Whose Baptism is it Anyway?"
You may have thought that the rite of baptism was all about the ones being baptized. It is also about us who are affirming our baptism. For little ones baptism may seem simple, but for the rest of us baptism is multilayered. First, we must get our own spiritual house in order. We must remind ourselves of our baptismal promises and start doing a better job of living them. We must set an example for children and for each other. Second, we need to realize that perfection is not what is required, rather it is the striving to live into the covenant that is important. It is hard, but anything that is worth doing is hard.​
January 5, 2025: "The Work of Christmas"
Today is the last day of Christmas. Despite what the secular world thinks, Christmas does not end on Christmas Day. Christmas Day is only the beginning. I know a young girl who told me she corrected her mother who thought that the twelve days of Christmas were the days leading up to Christmas Day. The girl was proud of herself for knowing that the twelve days start on Christmas Day. I think she is a liturgy nerd in the making.​