Do Not Be Afraid

Scripture: Matthew 28:1-11; Psalm 27; Isaiah 35:1-7,10 It’s funny how small, chance happenings can connect to different parts of your life sometimes and cause you to see things in different ways. You don’t know what’s causing me to say that, so let me tell you. After Christmas last year Ava and I decided to spend … Read more

Several Reasons Why Thomas Should Not Be Called Doubting

Scripture: John 20:19-31 I’ve been in a not too terribly serious mood this week, and my initial thought for this morning was to do a sermon entitled “The Top Ten Reasons Why Thomas Should Not Be Considered a Doubting Thomas”. But then I wasn’t sure I could come up with ten reasons, though I could … Read more

Feed My Sheep

Scripture: John 21: 4-19 I’m continuing today to reflect on the stories of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and his encounters with the disciples. These stories are all part of the larger Easter story, and to tell you the truth, they are more interesting to me, and they speak to me more, than the actual … Read more

Families

Scripture: Mark 3:31-35; Acts 2:43-47 For those of you who weren’t here last week, it was a good day last Sunday. For those of us who were here, it was a good day. And of course what I meant to say was that for those of you who weren’t here, you missed a good day. … Read more

Tongues of Mortals and Angels

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21 I want to ask you to bear with me for a bit today, because I want to take a little time to talk about some things that will seem rather distant from us here at Sojourners and unrelated to anything we are about. I don’t usually like to do this, because it … Read more

How Do We Speak?

Scripture: Exodus 4; 2 Corinthians 5 My words for this morning grow partly out of some reflections on the Central Atlantic Conference meeting that seven Sojourners attended last weekend. I probably shouldn’t say that, since there may be some of you who, hearing that, will tune me out for the next fifteen minutes. Before you … Read more

Pride

Scripture: 1John 3:11-16; 4:7-12 This is a day that many churches around the country—not as many as I would like, but ok some—celebrate Pride Sunday. It’s the Sunday closest to the anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion that began on June 28, 1969 and that Dian described. This also just happens to be the exact day … Read more

On Feeling Alien

Scripture: Psalm 39 and Psalm 146 Tuesday is the Fourth of July and that has had something to do with the direction of my thoughts for this morning in a way that I’ll try to explain in a few moments. But with the Fourth of July in mind, I was putting together the worship materials … Read more

Escape

Scripture: Jonah 1 and Psalm 42 This is the first of what will be probably three sermons based on the book of Jonah. As many of you know, I like to do this from time to time—summer often seems like a good time—I like to take a Biblical character or a series of stories and … Read more

Deliverance

Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10; Psalm 130 This is the second of several sermons based on the book of Jonah. I realize some of you weren’t here last week, some of you may not have total recall of where we were with the story last week, and I can stand a little refresher myself, just to get … Read more