Posts from 2026
Sermon Note: Expand the Circle
Introduction As we continue our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we return to a central question from our source book: who exactly is our neighbor? Last week we explored what it means to begin with love. This week we ask who that love is actually for, and whether the answer is as broad as Jesus seems to intend. In this week’s reading, we follow Jesus from the shores of Gennesaret to the home of a tax collector, and the pattern of who he chooses…
Sermon Note: Begin With Love
Introduction As we begin our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we open with a question central to our Judeo-Christian faith: of all the commandments, which one comes first? Most Christians remember Jesus’ response when asked in the synoptic Gospels, and perhaps we might consider that we’re a bit too familiar with what Jesus says. Perhaps we’ve been looking at it backwards. This Sunday, we take that backwards look seriously. Reading from Mark 12 and Galatians 5, we ask what it means…
Sermon Note: The Host Who Becomes the Meal
Introduction As we come to the final week of our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, our journey reaches the table it’s been heading toward all along. Over the past five weeks, we’ve watched Jesus tell stories about a God who scatters seed recklessly, who keeps sending servants into the streets with invitations, who throws a party before an apology is finished, who sees those lying outside our gates, and who sends a beloved son…
Sermon Note: Refusing the Host
Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, the stories have been building. A reckless sower scattered seed everywhere. A host kept sending his servant back into the streets. A father threw a party before his son could finish apologizing. A rich man feasted while a poor man sat outside his gate. Each week, Bishop Will Willimon’s question has been: Who is God, and what is God up to? As the days…
Sermon Note: Crumbs from the Table
Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, our focus shifts. The first three weeks gave us a reckless sower, an expanding guest list, and a father who throws a party before his son can finish apologizing. This week, the table is still set… and someone is lying outside the gate. In Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who feasts lavishly every day while a poor man named Lazarus…
Sermon Note: Feasting with the Found
Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we turn to one of the most familiar parables in the Gospels—and possibly the most misread. A young man takes his inheritance early, wastes it, ends up feeding pigs in a far country, and finally heads home with a prepared speech. His father sees him coming from a distance and runs. Before the son can finish his apology, the father is already calling for…
Sermon Note: Open Invitation
Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we turn from a field to a dinner table. A host has prepared a large feast and invited many people. When the time comes, the replies arrive one by one: a new farm to inspect, new oxen to check, a new marriage to tend. The excuses are completely reasonable, and the host sends his servant into the streets anyway. First to the busy streets,…
Sermon Note: Sowing, Seeking, Finding
Introduction As we begin our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we follow Jesus on his final journey toward Jerusalem—listening carefully to the parables he tells along the way. Bishop Will Willimon, in his book by the same name, calls these stories “riddles,” and insists they’re more about God’s character than our behavior. That’s a more interesting (and more difficult) claim than it sounds. Most of us were taught to read parables as instructions: be…
Sermon Note: Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
Introduction As we continue our worship series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we come to the question that causes more doubt than perhaps any other: why do innocent people suffer? When tragedy strikes someone who has done nothing wrong—a child with cancer, a family killed in an accident, a community devastated by a natural disaster—we struggle to make sense of it. Where is God when bad things happen to good people? This question has shaken faith for centuries. It shows…
February, March & April Book Talk Info
For our February 4 meeting, we welcome back Dr. Diane Schneider, who will present a very popular bestseller, The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. In this wonderful “epistolary novel” (one told through letters), the main character, a spiky retired attorney, reveals her life, conflicts, heartaches and discoveries through the letters she writes to everyone she knows – and many she doesn’t! This book has been a big hit with book clubs. For our March 4 meeting, we have had a change of presenters. …
Sermon Note: Is Heaven Real?
Introduction As we continue our worship series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we turn to a question many of us struggle with: What happens when we die? Popular images of heaven—clouds, harps, angels in white—sometimes feel more like cartoons than images of hope. And when loss and grief hit close, when someone we love is gone, the questions become more urgent: Will I see them again? Is there something beyond this life, or is death simply the end? This week…
Sermon Note: The Gospel Truth
Introduction As we continue our worship series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we turn to a question that underscores a lot of other questions: How do we approach the Bible? For some, scripture has been a source of comfort and clarity. For others, it has felt confusing, internally conflicted, or even used to keep score. And when that happens, it can be hard to know what to do with the Bible. This week we are exploring our sacred text critically…
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