2008

Scripture: John 21:9-19 It’s communion Sunday today, and I’m thinking about feeding, particularly spiritual feeding and what that means to me. As a sidelight, the scripture for this morning fits in well with the time of the liturgical year we are in. In the broad sweep of the Christian story, we are currently in the … Read more

Scripture: Acts 2:1-6 In a few moments we’ll have the opportunity to share in the confirmation of Amber Lyon. I’ll get to Amber in a moment. Let me start though with some comments about Pentecost, which today is. Pentecost is a Jewish holiday, celebrated for centuries already by the time of Jesus and still celebrated … Read more

Scripture: Isaiah 59:9-15, 58:5-9 I have been asked by the leadership of my denomination to preach today on race. Not just me. Everyone preaching in a UCC church this morning has been asked to preach on race. This is a result, as many of you know, of the recent public attacks on Jeremiah Wright and … Read more

Scripture: Psalm 131; Matthew 6:24-34 This is one of those Sundays when I turn to the lectionary scriptures, two of them. Although the Matthew scripture about the lilies of the field is one of my favorites, as I know it is for many others, I want to begin by reflecting on the Psalm, Psalm 131, … Read more

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9 The scripture from Genesis is one of the lectionary scriptures for this Sunday. As many of you know, I don’t often preach on the lectionary scriptures. I often have something else in mind or choose to look elsewhere for ideas. But I almost always read the lectionary scriptures for the week, just … Read more

Scripture: Acts 17:22-31 First of all, I want to thank all those helped make worship happen last week here at Sojourners while six of us were attending the Central Atlantic Conference annual meeting in Newark, Delaware. I knew what Shelli was going to say in her sermon before you did because she had her sermon … Read more

Scripture: 2Corinthians 6:1-10 Several things conspired to bring about the sermon for this morning. For one thing there was the memorial service yesterday for Tom Meyer. As we said yesterday, it was not meant to be a gloomy time. Tom would not have wanted that. Neither did Marion or the rest of the family for … Read more

Scripture: Psalm 139; Matthew 18:1-5 It may have been because it was two generations ago, or it may have been where I was living or the church I was serving at the time, but when I was beginning my ministry, I would fairly often encounter people who were in a hurry to have their child … Read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-19 Back when summer was young, a month or so ago, at one of the regular meetings of the worship committee I asked the group if they had any suggestions for me regarding possible preaching topics during the summer months. I explained that summer often seems to me like a good time to … Read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:15-17, 31-34 For those of you who weren’t here last week, I devoted the sermon to Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah and the man we know through the book. I was trying to give a sort of overview of what the book and the man, the prophet, are all about, with the intention … Read more