Bringing People Together to do Good
I have gotten in trouble for a sermon once. When I say ‘in trouble’, I don’t mean that someone had a question or wanted to have a conversation about something that they disagreed with. When I say ‘in trouble’, I mean that I was pulled aside after the service and given a lecture about how
God loved the world like this: In the days when Israel was ruled by Rome, God sent an angel to a young woman named Mary, who was engaged to a man named Joseph, and that angel said, You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will
Right after I graduated from seminary, a lot of my friends began their first calls at their first churches. And that meant that, for the first time, they had to preach… every week. And if you’ve never had to preach a sermon every week, then you might not know that preparing a sermon is a
Today is the second Sunday of Advent. And today, we hear a part of a story that we don’t hear very often. There was this priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth. They were righteous before the Lord. And, like so many people in the Bible, they were old and they were childless. And, one day,
It is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a strange season. On the one hand, we’re looking forward to Christmas. In the church, we decorate the building, we make cookies for people who can’t be with us regularly, we prepare for the children’s Christmas program, we sing a handful of carols, and we give
I didn’t preach this Sunday, so there’s no new sermon today. This is an old one that I preached at Congregational United Church of Christ in Whitewater, Wisconsin, on September 15, 2013, when I was working for Back Bay Mission. The scripture for this sermon is Luke 15:1-10. Now all the tax collectors and sinners
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those
This sermon was delivered at Church of Peace, United Church of Christ in Rock Island, Illinois on February 26, 2017. The scripture for this sermon is Luke 12:42-53. “Keep your lamps,” says the old gospel song, “trimmed and burning.” Jesus has just finished a parable. “Be like slaves waiting for their master to come home from a
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and
