Epiphany 2021 House Blessing With Chalk
The Church has a custom of blessing homes on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) and the weeks following. Family and friends gather to ask God’s blessing on their homes and those who live in or visit...
View ArticleDo You Know The Story Of The Fourth Wise Man?
As you know, the Feast of the Epiphany commemorates the magi or wise men visiting Jesus in Bethlehem and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-12). Holy scripture does not tell...
View ArticleAll Are Responsible – A Sermon On Mark 1:4-11 And Acts 19:1-7
Last week, some of you may remember, I ended my sermon by asking this question: Will we, in 2021, be different from and better than how we were in 2020? There’s not much about the first ten days of...
View ArticleDeep Listening – A Sermon On John 1:43-51
If 2020 showed us anything it revealed how necessary that kind of deep and intentional listening is, and how difficult it is to sort through all the voices we hear, both within and outside ourselves,...
View ArticleRemembering The Future – A Reflection On 2020
Twenty-twenty. When I say those two words I’m not sure if I intend them as a statement or a question. A lot of things could be said about 2020. It feels like we have been exiled from our homeland, from...
View ArticleWhat Needs To Be Left Behind? – A Sermon On Mark 1:14-20
“Follow me,” isn’t only about going somewhere, it’s also about leaving behind. That’s the hard part for most of us. We’re pretty good at accumulating and clinging but not so good at letting go. More...
View ArticleLife In The Deserted Place – A Sermon On Mark 1:29-39
Jesus got up early, while it was still very dark, and left the security of the house to go to this deserted place, this wilderness place. My guess is that nobody wants to go to that place and yet we’ve...
View ArticleThe Most Important Day Of Your Life – A Sermon On Mark 1:9-15
In some ways the past year has felt like a long never ending season of Lent. It has been a time of fasting, self-denial, and giving up; a time when people and things have been lost or taken from us; a...
View ArticleCleaning Out And Enlarging Life – A Sermon On John 2:13-22
I think business as usual is the issue. The animals and money changers are not the problem. They are the symptom that something else is going on. I think Jesus went to the temple that day for one...
View ArticleLifting Up Our Contradictions – A Sermon On John 3:14-21
Some of the funniest and most terrifying aspects of my life are my self-contradictions - the contradictions with which I live, the contradictions that live within me. My wife would probably say they...
View ArticleConfessing
What on earth were you thinking Mike? Why would you do that? What an idiot. There it was again, that familiar inner voice. At one time those words, that voice, were about what I had done. Now they were...
View ArticleUnless …– A Sermon On John 12:20-33
I don’t know if “unlesses” is a real word but I am using it as a noun and the plural of unless. We all have our “unlesses.” They’re about how and what we see. They are the restrictions, limitations,...
View ArticleWorking Out Our Life – A Palm Sunday Sermon On Mark 11:1-11
What if Jesus is more like us than we know or want to admit? What if Jesus was always working it out just like we are? What if he struggled with life and death in the same way we do? What if Holy Week...
View ArticleFragrancing Life – A Sermon On John 12:1-11
Here’s my question: In what ways are you fragrancing the life of others? I hope you understand that I’m not talking about perfume or rubbing someone’s feet. I’m asking about love. I am talking about...
View ArticleWhat Troubles Your Soul? – A Sermon On John 12:20-36
Here’s my question: What troubles your soul today? What is the hour from which you want to be saved? Now before you answer, let me explain what I am asking about. I’m asking about more than just...
View ArticleThe Night Of Betrayal – A Sermon On John 13:21-32
Here’s my question. In what ways have you been the betrayer? Whom have you betrayed? And how did that happen? “Very truly, I tell you,” Jesus said, “one of you will betray me.” Everyone at the table...
View ArticleComing Clean About Ourselves – A Sermon On John 13:1-17, 31-35
Here’s my question. What in you needs to come clean tonight? And what is your fear about that? This is not about whether you will wash someone’s feet or take off your shoes and socks and let your feet...
View ArticleA Call For Change – A Sermon On John 18:1-19:42
Here’s my question. What is the cross of Jesus asking for in your life today? And what is it showing you? Most of us come to Good Friday believing that the cross gave us something. Most of us come to...
View ArticleWaiting – A Sermon On Matthew 27:57-66
Here’s my question. What are you waiting for? And what is your hope on this day? The thing that makes Holy Saturday so difficult, that makes this gospel text so unsatisfying, that leaves my sermon...
View ArticleHere’s My Question – An Easter Sermon On Mark 16:1-18
Alleluia. Christ is risen. I wonder what that means for you today and why it matters. I don’t think we can understand what today really means apart from this past week. Without Holy Week we risk coming...
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