Sermons from 2021

Lost at Home

The Scripture for this Sunday is the story from Luke 2:41-52. Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and those who observed the Passover Festival at Jerusalem just finished their big holiday celebration, and they were on their way home.  They were returning to the normalcy of home and the everydayness of life.  But unexpectedly they found themselves in a predicament.  They couldn’t find their son anywhere, and they were terrified! Perhaps you can empathize with Mary and Joseph because you have had a…

Family Candlelight Service

Our 5:00 pm Christmas Eve Service focuses on children and families and will tell the story of Christmas through scripture and song. Children may be invited to join an informal visual tableau (no rehearsal required!) with fun costumes and easy movements. We will conclude with Christmas carols and candles.

The Blessing of Home

As we move toward the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we continue our series that focuses on coming home for Christmas. The Luke text this week is filled with wonder as cousins greet one another and experience the wonder of connection and the mystery of new life. It’s wonder-full! And it’s a blessing. Scripture: Micah 5:2-5a (NRSV), Luke 1:39-45 (CEB)

The Joy of Home

This is the Third Sunday of Advent, understood in part through our Advent Candle liturgy as a reminder of joy! In light of our series on home, it is my hope that returning home is exciting and joy-filled! For many of us—hopefully most of us—this is indeed the most wonderful time of the year! There is laughter, reunion, and joy; there are happy memories and celebrations of deep love. May this celebration of the third Sunday of Advent help us…

The Fear of Home

We want Christmas to be happy, a time of celebration of joy! And for the most part, it is! And for those whose return home is fraught with anxiety, it is an opportunity: for reconciliation, for healing, for peace. Christmas is a chance for the paths to be made straight, the valleys to be filled, the mountains and hills made low, so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Scripture: Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)

Time to Go Home

As Jesus’ message in the parables and his teachings often tends to challenge our conventional understandings of faith and practices, it also invites us to re-evaluate, re-imagine, and re-interpret our usual understanding of things.  With this in mind, the text for this Sunday is both challenging and inviting.  It’s challenging our normal perception of Advent and inviting us to see it through new lenses. Scripture: Luke 21:25-36 (CEB)

Everyone Who Belongs

As we approach the end of our Christian year with Reign of Christ Sunday (sometimes called Christ the King), we might consider where we place Christ in our lives. Have we kept Jesus at the center of our awareness, remembering his parables and teachings? Have we remembered each day and even each moment to follow the commands to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves? Have we allowed Christ to reign in our…

Everything She Had

Through our recent series on parables, there were several times when Jesus would teach the phrase we now hold familiar: the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The text this Sunday may offer a parallel illustration. The text contrasts those who like to be recognized in public, and the humble widow who quietly gives everything. We might consider how this inspires us to live as people of faith. Scripture: Mark 12:38-44

The Rich Man & Lazarus

This Sunday we conclude our sermon series on the parables of Jesus. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus may be another familiar one, and in this case the original audience may have guessed the same about each character as we do today. Even so, Professor Levine reminds us not to think of this parable as one about the afterlife but is a message that we can still make changes in this life. Scripture: Luke 16:19-31

The Widow & the Judge

This Sunday we near the end of our sermon series on the parables of Jesus, this one addressed to those who “need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged.” I’m not sure about you, but the idea of praying continuously wears me out. Honestly, I feel like I have been! So in a way, I feel like this parable is for me. Maybe it’s for you too… Scripture: Luke 18:1-8

The Laborers in the Vineyard

This Sunday we continue our sermon series on the parables of Jesus, guided by the book Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine. In a fair world, everybody would get equal treatment. We would all get what we deserve and not get what we do not deserve. Yet, that is not always the case. This parable helps us to consider the issue of fairness from an economic point of view, but it also…