Delivered while pastor at Sojourners United Church of Christ in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Scripture: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 I mentioned last week that I stole my sermon title from a book by a church consultant, Gil Rendle. This week the title is stolen, or at least is the same as, a Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Marilynn Robinson that I know at least a few of us have read. I don’t … Read more
Scripture: Psalm 95:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9; John 4:23-24 I often feel that I need to spend just a minute or two explaining myself at the beginning of a sermon, as to where the sermon is coming from. Today is one of those times. At the retreat a week ago, one of the planned topics of discussion … Read more
Scripture: Psalm 24:1-6; 2Corinthians 7:9-10; Luke 3:7-10 I begin this morning with a dilemma. As you know I spent a good part of my sabbatical reading about, thinking about, connecting with Virginia Indians, past and present. When you do that, what I think is a vague awareness for many or most of us, that we … Read more
Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-13 I know few if any of you care whether the printed sermon title has anything to do with what I actually say, but it always makes me feel better when it does. Today it does not. Where the spirit has led me is to a place quite different from where I thought … Read more
Scripture: Matthew 8:18-34 The sermon this morning is I think a little more along the lines of where I thought I might be headed in the sermon two weeks ago, though that seems like a long time ago now and I’m not sure I remember quite where I thought I was headed because I ended … Read more
Scripture: Psalm 107 It’s the Sunday before the Thanksgiving holiday, and a few words about the giving of thanks would seem to be in order. It’s also a Sunday when we have a few additional things to fit in to our schedule, so a few brief words about the giving of thanks would seem to … Read more
Scripture: Mark 13:1-8;17-20 This is the time of year when the lectionary readings, the suggested scripture readings for the various Sundays of the year, when those readings tend to be like the one you heard from the gospel of Mark. This last Sunday before the beginning of Advent, the end of the year in the … Read more
Scripture: Mark 1:1-8 A blessed Advent to everyone! Let me begin by telling you what I am planning on doing for the sermons during the Sundays in Advent. It’s something I’ve never done before, haven’t even thought of doing before, though it’s a pretty simple idea and I’m not exactly sure why this has not … Read more
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 As I was saying last week, it’s my intention during the four Sundays of Advent this year to take a different one of the four gospels each week and reflect on the Christmas story as it appears in that gospel. I began last week with the gospel of Mark, which in a … Read more
Scripture: Luke 1:5-20 I sat down last Monday to read the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. This was the week I had scheduled myself to preach on the Christmas story as it appears in Luke, having already talked about Mark and Matthew and planning to talk about John next week. So I sat down … Read more