Year: 2004

Scripture: 1Corinthians 13 So this is sermonette number 2 and it will be even shorter than sermonette number 1. But I do need to say a few words today about same-sex marriage, marriage equality, which is one of the topics that is much with us these days, isn’t it. Church conventions are talking about it. … Read more

Scripture: 1Corinthians 14:13-19 I said before that I would not be preaching today, and I won’t. This will be just “a few words”, a meditation, a short meditation, and as the title says, the few words will be more in the nature of a prayer concern. They will try to express a prayer concern of … Read more

Scripture: Luke 11:1-13 In all honesty, I don’t have an urgent message for you today. We have some urgent business to do as a congregation after worship today, but I think I have said all I need or care to say about that three weeks ago, for now at least. Our possible building purchase is … Read more

Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; Matthew 6:5-13 “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” I suspect that most of us have said those words…a whole lot…of times in our lives. And I suspect … Read more

Matthew 6: 24-33 I was well out of seminary and well into my ministry when I read a book that changed my relationship to Jesus. It was called “The Politics of Jesus”, and it was written by a man named John Howard Yoder, a Mennonite Biblical scholar and theologian. I had agreed at the last … Read more

Scripture: Exodus 16 selections There’s this story in the book of Exodus about some people who find themselves out in the desert wilderness and they are hungry and they are not happy. When I am hungry, I am not happy. God is not so happy that they are not happy, because of some of the … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 25:1-13 You may have noticed that there was a prayer of confession in the service today. I have a kind of confession of my own to make about the fact that there is a prayer of confession in the service today. I was going to use the prayer of confession today as a … Read more

Scripture: Psalm 71 and Psalm 23 I remember that when Ronald Reagan began talking about the evil empire, and more recently when George Bush spoke of the axis of evil, I was disturbed. I was upset that they would be thinking in those terms and using that language. And I was reminded of that disturbance … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:13-27 We’re starting a new season for our Sunday School, and I was looking through the curriculum recently to get some feel for what the Sunday School themes are for the fall. The curriculum we use actually has a number of resources not just for the children, but for the whole congregation—artwork, poems, … Read more

Scripture: Luke 16:13-31 The question for this morning is what the Jewish holidays of Rash Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the opening of the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, and the lectionary scripture reading about a rich man and a poor man have to do with each other…besides the fact that those three topics … Read more