On the Road

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35 I am not giving a sermon today.  I am offering a meditation. What I mean by a meditation is something shorter than a sermon and probably less organized, more like a collection of loosely connected thoughts, rather than any systematic or sustained discussion on some topic.  The shorter part seemed appropriate since … Read more

When the Spirit Is Missing

Scripture Acts 1:1-11 The truth is: I have had a little trouble coming up with a topic for the sermon this morning.  For quite a long time now sermon topics and worship themes have seemed to come rather easily and in the natural course of things, being suggested by seasons like Christmas and Lent and … Read more

Becoming Christian

PentecostScripture: Acts 2:1-11 I promised that I would return sometime to the question a young man asked in worship several weeks ago: How do you become a Christian?  Sometime is going to be today.  When Basil was baptized a few weeks ago, I noted that baptism was certainly one way a person becomes a Christian.  … Read more

What About Building?

Matthew 7:24-27 The scripture for this morning and the hymn we just sang both lead in, in a rather unsubtle way, to what I want to talk about.  I have been wanting to talk about our possible plans for a Sojourners building project for some time now, feeling that we need to put our concerns … Read more

Voices of Lament

Scriptures: Psalms 38 and 112 One of my principles of preaching is not to talk too much about “other people”, especially in a negative way.  I consider it inappropriate to spend a lot of words telling you what I think of, for instance, the attitude of Southern Baptists toward women.   Inappropriate because it’s a … Read more

Praise

Scripture: Psalm 42; Psalm 146; Luke 13:10-17 I confess that this sermon was born out of a sense of duty.  I was talking last week about voices of lamentation, particularly those which rise from people who have been abused by people they trusted within the church.  I was thinking too of all the voices of … Read more

A Table Before Me

Scriptures: Psalm 139 and Psalm 23 I’ve decided to turn to the Psalms for my preaching this summer.  The most familiar of the Psalms, of course, is the 23rd, and knowing this was communion Sunday it suggested itself to me for that reason as well—because of the image of a table that God has prepared … Read more

Enemies Without

Scriptures: Psalms I had meant, in my last sermon, two weeks ago, to say something about enemies. I had started out with the thought of focusing on the verse from Psalm 23 about preparing a table “in the presence of my enemies”, I meant to say something about that then, but ran out of time … Read more

Enemies Within

Scripture: Psalm 91 One way I have of thinking about what faith is, what faith is to me, is to think of it as the “nevertheless” part of my life. In a way, my whole life is built upon, depends on that “nevertheless”. Here are some faith statements in my own words: I look at … Read more

Dance!

DANCE! Sermon for Glade Church Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-24; Psalm 146; Luke 9:57-62 You know sometimes strange things pop into your head.  I was trying to think what I was going to call this sermon—this was earlier in the week and I already had some ideas about what I wanted to say, but I was still … Read more