Sermons Archive

The Gospel of John rushes headlong into the story of Jesus’ ministry.  Here we are, at the beginning of Chapter 2 of John.  There has been no birth story in John, no baptism story either.  John testifies about Jesus being with God from the beginning, then John the Baptizer talks about Jesus being the Lamb of God and spirit of God filling Jesus...

It is a fortuitous day to be able to reflect on baptism, as we have just had the joyful experience of Isabel’s baptism.  Two millennia separate the baptism of Jesus and the baptism of Isabel and yet the gesture and the meaning are one. In both cases, the person receives the Holy Spirit and is declared to be God’s beloved. As are we all.

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Today we celebrate Epiphany, and while most American Protestants could not really tell you what Epiphany is all about, the celebration actually is more important than Christmas in much of the Christian world.  When I was in Ethiopia for Christmas one year, I was amazed to discover Christmas came and went with very little fanfare, but the...

 Need any New Year’s resolutions? Colossians has ‘em: Be kind, meek compassionate, humble, & patient.

  Be forgiving, loving, harmonious. That’s 8. Be peaceful/grateful. Be faithful, wise & praising of God.

  Uh, oh, we hit 13. I am not superstitious, but just to be safe, let’s sing Psalms, hymns and songs. Piece of cake,...

We are so close to Christmas now, we can almost touch it. Depending on how the calendar falls, the fourth Sunday in Advent can be as much as a week away from Christmas, as it was last year, when Christmas fell on a Sunday and the candle of love was lit a full 7 days earlier.  This year, Advent is on tiptoes, looking over the sunrise to tomorrow...

I know what you are thinking.  You don’t want to be chastised by John the Baptist today.  You are preparing for the holidays and family coming and good cheer and Christmas.  We have witnessed unspeakable tragedy only 25 miles from here. We need time to process this all-too-close violence.  None of us wants to be called a bunch of snakes by John...

Lets be frank. The gospel story just read, about Martha and Mary is out of sequence in our Advent season. It has little to do specifically with awaiting the birth of the messiah. But it is an interesting supplement to our other reading from Luke, the words of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord!”  The...

As Advent begins, all around us we can feel the weather become cold and the holiday excitement begin to build.  But then, we come to these readings for our first Sunday in Advent.  This is not the expected [sing]  “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style….”  Instead, this is something very different. ...

Today is the last Sunday in the church year.  Next Sunday we begin a new church year starting with the first Sunday in Advent.  Here in the US, we are also celebrating our Thanksgiving Holiday, and to make things even more complex, our lectionary passages introduce today’s theme of the Reign of Christ with stunning words from Revelation and the...

"God's Rag-Tag Army" was written by Martin Bell, a private investigater, dic jockey, song writer, performer and minister in the Episcipal Church in Burmingham, Alabama.  He also served a church in Indianapolis. "Rag-Tag Army" is from his book," The Way of the Wolf" subtitled" The Gospel in New images".  It was published in 1969.  He passed...