2006

Scripture: Hebrews 11:8-16 First of all, thank you to Rev. Mildred Best and to Rev. Lynn Litchfield for preaching the last two weeks in my absence. I always regret not being able to hear the sermons you all get to hear on the Sundays when I am away. I mean it doesn’t spoil my vacation … Read more

Scripture: Genesis 1 Much of what I have to say today may sound familiar to people who have been around Sojourners for a while. I hope it sounds familiar because if it doesn’t it means that I haven’t been doing my job or making myself very clear. I hope what I have to say sounds … Read more

Scripture: 2Corinthians 5:16-21 My first foray into organized church work took place just about forty years ago.  Until this week, I hadn’t thought about that experience in a very long time, maybe because I’ve been blocking it out, maybe just because I didn’t have any particular reason to.  But I guess the direction of my thinking … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 15:32-39 I have elections on my mind this morning. Doesn’t sound very spiritual, does it? Pretty hard to think of the electoral process these days as being in any way spiritual, no matter how eager candidates may be to be seen as people of faith. Nevertheless, the elections are on my mind, and … Read more

Scripture: Luke 16:19-31 I had a little bit of a break in my preaching routine last week because of the program on hunger. Since I didn’t have to prepare a sermon, I used part of the time I would ordinarily spend in sermon preparation to think ahead a little about the coming weeks—meaning today and … Read more

Scripture: Mark 13:1-8 Many of you know that there is such a thing as a liturgical calendar, a church year, that consists not just of a few important dates like Christmas and Easter but that, depending on your tradition may have a whole series of significant dates from Ascension and Pentecost and Trinity Sundays to … Read more

Scripture: Luke 1:5-23 The sermon this morning is going to be something of an exercise in free association. As I say in the newsletter this month, I have been thinking about the kinds of non-material gifts not so much that I might desire as gifts but that I think I need, that we all may … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12 It may seem like I am contradicting myself this morning. It may seem like the sermon this week is saying something that is pretty much diametrically opposed to what I was trying to say last week. It may seem like in saying what I am going to say this week, I must … Read more

Scripture: Luke 1:46-55, 68-79 I’m continuing with the theme of gifts, non-material qualities that we may need more of in our lives or that may point us in the direction of a greater human wholeness that I believe is what the gift of Christ represents, a holy, human wholeness that we strive and pray and … Read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 You know those optical illusions where you look at a picture and it looks a certain way, but you sort of squint or blink and it can suddenly appear like a completely different picture. There’s a needlepoint you see of the name of Jesus that’s that way, where if you look at … Read more