Year: 2005

Scripture: 1 Kings 19 When we first thought of having William Williams come today and get us started on our visioning process, we talked about having an abbreviated service today and I thought maybe that would mean that we would sing and pray, but that I would not preach today. When I first imagined this … Read more

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-9 I want to begin by thanking the various people who have stepped in to share in leading worship the last couple of weeks: Lee Walters and the Bible study group, Lynn Litchfield, Karen Wilcox and Jeanine Woodruff, Padma Gallup and Beverly Heyworth, who is helping out again this morning, and now the … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 14:13-23 The scripture reading for this morning begins by saying that Jesus went off to a lonely place. Some translations say that he went off to a deserted place, but I don’t like that translation so well. I don’t know which translation is closer in meaning to the Hebrew, but I do know … Read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 This is one of those Sundays when I have been imagining myself, and now observing myself, getting up to preach and my out-of-body self looks at my preaching self and says something like: What does he think he’s doing? Actually, that’s part of my preaching experience to some degree every Sunday. … Read more

Scripture: Selections from the Psalms; Deuteronomy 6:4-9 This is a sermon about God, even though its title is silence. This sermon will largely be about why I have called a sermon about God, “Silence”. And of course if I am going to give a sermon I will need to jabber away at you about both … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:13-23; Mark 7:1-7 I woke up this morning…with my mind stayed on Jesus. Knowing that Jesus was my announced preaching topic for this morning, I’ve been waking up for several days now with my mind stayed on Jesus—or at least with Jesus troubling my mind, hanging around, looking at me, wondering what I … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46 Last winter, while we were in the process of acquiring and moving in to a church home, other congregations around Charlottesville were opening their doors to provide shelter for homeless men in the Charlottesville area. The program, new at the time, was called P.A.C.E.M.—People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry. We were in … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20 This is a sermon on “The Bible”. Not a verse or a passage in the Bible, mind you. The whole Bible! So get comfortable in these pews, if you can; we may be here a while. Just kidding, of course. What I mean, I’m sure you understand, is that this will be … Read more

Scripture: Isaiah 62: 1-4, 12; John 15:12-15 My thoughts for the sermon this morning were stimulated at first by the Halloween Party that’ll be happening tonight…more accurately by the occasion of Halloween itself…more accurately still by the slightly more religious occasion of All Saints Day, which is Tuesday, and All Souls Day, which is Wednesday. … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 12:1-14 I feel like I need to explain myself this morning. There are actually quite a few Sundays where I feel like I need to explain myself, explain where I’m coming from in a sermon, explain why it is or how it came to be that I’m talking about whatever it is that … Read more