Year: 2009

Scripture: 1Corinthians 14:6-19 As I was beginning my sermon based on the story of Balaam last week, which I sensed and several of you confirmed afterwards is a fairly obscure story, I said that I just might pick a few more relatively obscure Biblical stories to preach on in the coming weeks. I decided against … Read more

Scripture: 1Corinthians 13 I quoted portions of 1Corinthians 13 last week and in the process of doing that I made the comment as a sort of an aside that those words really shouldn’t be read just at weddings. So this morning I decided to stand behind my comment and at least do my part in … Read more

Scripture: Romans 8:18-27 My sermon this morning will I think be somewhat scattered, not logically organized, filled with paradoxes and attempts to express things which cannot be expressed very well, at least by me, will have a kind of a mystical quality to it meaning maybe a bit of a fuzzy quality and therefore I … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34 I’m not sure quite what to say this morning. I wasn’t even sure what to call it, although I went ahead and listed it in the bulletin as a sermon—even came up with a title—even though in some ways it doesn’t feel like a sermon in any usual sense. For those of … Read more

Scripture: Mark 7:1-23 I’m doing something today that I haven’t done very often in the past at Sojourners and don’t promise to do any more often in the future: preach on the lectionary scripture for the day. Frankly, I’m surprising myself a little bit by doing this. Not so much by choosing to preach on … Read more

Scripture: Mark 7:24-37 The scripture reading you have heard is once again, as it was last week, the lectionary gospel reading for the day, so that makes twice in a row that I will be preaching on the lectionary. I still don’t promise to make a habit of it. But I found when I read … Read more

Scripture: Mark 8:27-33 This sermon has several points of origin. As is obvious by now this Sunday is a kind of symbolic starting point for the fall season here at Sojourners, in the case of the Sunday school, an actual starting point. The choir sang last Sunday but it was a holiday weekend and they … Read more

Scripture: Luke 4:14-21 In the space of roughly forty hours last weekend, I heard two sermons based on Luke 4:14-21. It’s not all that often that I get to hear sermons at all, especially since I don’t usually go to church when I’m on vacation, so I don’t hear too many sermons period. For me … Read more

Scripture: Luke 9:57-62 Let me get right in to where I’m coming from this morning. It’s Columbus Day weekend; tomorrow is the day most people refer to as Columbus Day, and many people observe it simply and innocently enough by taking advantage of the three day weekend in some way or another, just enjoying the … Read more

Scripture: Psalm 46; Matthew 13:10-17 I’m still on the theme of “release to the captives”, following up on the words of Jesus, which were originally the words of Isaiah, words that declared what Jesus intended his ministry to be all about: to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captive, recovery of sight … Read more