Posts filed under: Sermon

Extraordinary and Everyday Saints

See what love our Creator has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know God. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do...... Read More

The Forehead of a Whore

#MeToo. I am one of the many, many women who have been targeted, touched, sexually harassed or assaulted and lived to tell the tale. But all of us did not survive our attackers. We were exposed to that which we did not want to see or touch, forced to experience that to which we did...... Read More

The Bull in the Church Isn’t Idolatry

  Exodus 32:1-14 Moses came down from the mountain where he experienced the glory of God face to face to discover that there was some bull in the Israelite community. They were worshipping bull at the foot of God’s holy mountain. They had their bull all up in God’s face when they said, “These are...... Read More

When Scripture is Violent

  I love the Hebrew Scriptures and their stories but I understand why some folk have a hard time with them, particularly as scripture. Many of these epic stories include epic episodes of violence, sometimes at the bequest of God, sometimes enacted by God. It is easy to treat these stories like novels, movies, or...... Read More

The Woman Who Changed Jesus

There are certain ways that the church tends to focus on the humanity of Jesus, especially at certain times of the year. I’ve just spent a week and Bethlehem and have Advent and Christmas on my mind. At Advent we marvel that the fullness of God could be contained in a tiny baby with clutching...... Read More

How Deep Is Your Love

Let us pray: God of love, teach us to love as you love. Amen. The Bee Gees, Dru Hill, Calvin Harris, and a few folk I’ve never heard of have all asked, “How deep is your love.” If they were to ask the biblical characters, more often than not the answer might seem be, “not...... Read More

A New/Old Psalm of Lament

  If you don’t mind, I’m going to take some liberties with Psalm 13. How long Holy One? Will you forget us forever? How long will you let them kill us? How long will you let them deny us justice? How long O Lord? How long will you hide your face from us? From what...... Read More

Exorcising America’s Murderous Demons

[In an earlier version the title was misspelled as “exercising.”] In the Name of the God who loves we who are hated, those who hate, and those whom we hate. Amen. Forty-nine. Forty-nine lives cut short. Forty-nine people murdered. Forty-nine souls martyred. Forty-nine of God’s children executed for living and loving out loud as gay,...... Read More

Ascended to Where?

Open our eyes that we may see. Amen. We are here in no small part because of the power of the story Jesus. That power permeates the words of the story and extends far beyond them. It is a power that defies the rules of logic and science. The touchstone confessions of our faith are...... Read More

She is God

Alleluia! Christ is risen! For fifty days the Jewish and Gentile Christians of the early church told the stories of Jesus, his life, his death and his life-from-death over and over. Jesus was raised from the dead as he said he would be. I imagine everyone knew someone who had seen him, touched him, broken...... Read More