Unity and Liberation: A Sermon for Easter 7C on Acts 16:16-34 and John 17:20-26

Sermon Easter 7C Unity Liberation Acts 16:16-34 John 17:20-26

Doubt abounds when it should be unity and liberation. Pandemic. Mass shootings. War. Suicide. Super storms. Earthquakes. Floods. Drought. Disease.These events and many more things can cause us to question our faith. And they should. For centuries human beings have been blaming God for things we are often the cause of. We want God to … Read More

Sophia, Logos, and a New Year: A Prophetic Sermon for Christmas 2C using Wisdom of Solomon, Ephesians, and John

Christmas 2C sermon on Wisdom of Solomon, Ephesians, and John

On the brink of a New Year, perhaps it’s time we learn something from Sophia and the Logos, something we maybe should have learned a long time ago. We’ve endured 2020 and 2021. The predictions for the next couple of months in terms of COVID are pretty ugly given the omicron variant’s high contagion rates. … Read More

Jesus Wanted a Revolution; Do We?

The choice remains ours. Do we seek to be the body and blood of Christ or do continue to pretend we don’t know why our congregations are getting smaller and smaller? Jesus went where the vulnerable people were. We expend so much effort to keep our buildings and our worship exactly as they have been in the memory of our oldest members. What has this got to do with being bread for the hungry and forgiveness for the broken?

Living Bread, Living Water

Jesus said some weird stuff and the end of John 6 is the top of the list. Here Jesus talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood to gain eternal life. It’s baffling even when we don’t take scripture literally. It’s hard to know what Jesus really intended here. Yes, it can be a foreshadowing of the Passover meal to come. Yet, I think he meant more than the eucharistic sharing of bread and cup. I suspect that all this weirdness about eating flesh and drinking blood has to do with how we live, a metaphor for embodying all that Jesus did and taught. Is this any less weird? Maybe not…

Mirror, Mirror

Mirrors are helpful most of the time. We benefit from being able to make sure that we look “presentable” before going into public spaces. Sometimes, though, the mirror reveals unpleasant truths. I’m not talking about the distortions I see in the mirror; I know these are false. I’m referring more to the metaphoric mirror, the kind of mirror Nathan held up to David. The one that shows our character flaws and reflects our sins clearly. This kind of mirror is a rare and true gift, if we are brave enough to gaze into it.