Unconditional Love

We’re going to do things a little differently this morning. All through Lent, we’re looking at ways that Jesus teaches us about love, and this parable is huge, and deep, and all about love. It’s about love so big and so tenacious that it’s hard to fathom. So, rather than me standing up here and…

Love Waits One More Year

I ran across a quotation this week that is worth sharing. I found this in a book by Brene Brown, but the quotation comes from Lynn Twist, who is a fundraiser for global non-profit organizations, and in this paragraph she is describing a mindset of scarcity, which she calls “the great lie.” “For me, and…

Love Rejected (Keeps on Loving)

“Jesus, you should leave Galilee, because Herod wants to kill you.” Were the Pharisees who brought this warning to Jesus trying to protect him, or threaten him? I wonder if it was any clearer to him than it is to us? Regardless of their intentions, Jesus’s response dismisses both the warning and the threat. “I’ve…

Love that Chooses Vulnerability (Lent 1–Feb. 17, 2013)

It was right after the baptism in the Jordan. John lifted him, still dripping, from the water, and something shifted. He felt full—full of something powerful and good—full of love—so loved. He belonged. He was beloved by God. Filled to the brim with this awareness of God’s Spirit with him.   And it was that…

Clouds of Glory–Transfiguration sermon for Feb. 10, 2013

A cloud of glory.   That was always the sign of God’s presence. When Moses led the people of God through the wilderness, they knew God was with them because of the pillar of cloud moving ahead of them. When Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai, he was enveloped by a cloud, and spent…

Statement of Purpose (Part 2) February 3rd sermon

A few years ago I heard a recording of Martin Luther King, Jr. recalling some of the challenges he faced in the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. There were a lot of details of his story that stood out to me. Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was fresh out of…

Statement of Purpose (Part 1), January 27th Sermon

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. Aren’t there sometimes words or songs that are so familiar, so comfortable, that you can sink down in them, like a warm blanket? Have you had that…

Glimpse of Glory

When my parents were missionaries in Japan, they had colleagues that ran the gamut from liberal Presbyterians to conservative Southern Baptists, and while there were lots of differences, one that seemed most obvious  to my teenaged perspective was the differences when it came to alcohol. My parents enjoyed wine and beer, and always tucked little…

Family Trees (January 13th, 2013 sermon)

I know some people in this room can trace their genealogy back for centuries. I can’t go back that far in my own family tree—maybe four or five generations, with certainty, although there is a chance that one of my ancestors was on the crew of the pirate Jean Lafitte, in the early 1800s. The…

Starlight

When I was in about 6th grade, I used to go with some friends to a church group that met on Sunday evenings. Remember, I was living in Japan at this point, with my missionary parents, so I took public transportation to the church. Our house was just a few blocks away from the train…

Repent and Be Purified

Texts: Luke 3:3-14 and Malachi 3:1-4 One of Barrett’s and my favorite movies is called “Little Miss Sunshine.” It’s an odd movie, and it is not one for the kids—it is rated R for language, and some substance abuse–but it is a movie that offers some wonderful images of grace. It’s the story of a…

Christmas Crisis?

Throughout Advent, I will be sharing songs and images that connect to each Sunday’s lectionary text. This week, the song is “The Trumpet Child,” by Over the Rhine. The image is “The Last Trumpet (recto); Two studies of a right eye, a profile of an open-mouthed young man, the head of an eagle, and the…