Category Archives: Sermons

Glasses resting on Bible

Blessings in Unexpected Places

Reading for the Fourth Sunday in Lent: The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for

Glasses resting on Bible

What Is Required To Live?

I think the most difficult part of this process is deciding what to talk about. To stand here doesn’t just mean that I must have something to say. I can usually manage to say something (though I do prefer saying it in from another vantage

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis Celebration of Animals

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, New Zealand Readings: 2 Kings 4:1-37, Acts 16:1- 15 Picture if you will, a 12 year-old girl, sitting at the dinner table on a summer’s evening. It is the night before her thirteenth birthday, and she is concentrating hard on not

Architecture Building Chapel

What Is the Church?

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C. Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done

Two men holding hands in a field

The Sharp Edges of Blessings

Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Atlanta, Ga. Readings: Proverbs 25:21-22; Romans 12:14-18; Matthew 5:11-12, 38-48 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. (Romans 12:14) Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you

Glasses resting on Bible

This Is Love

A sermon delivered at the Lutherans Concerned/Twin Cities worship service Psalms and Lessons (Series C, Seventh Sunday after Pentecost): Psalm 138, Genesis 18:20-32, Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 11:1-13 Offertory: Psalm 84:3-4 Wrestling with the text “Who decided I should preach on August 17th?” That was my

Glasses resting on Bible

Making Room in God’s Embrace

Faith United Church of Christ, Dayton, Ohio Readings for the Second Sunday after Pentecost: Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39 In my first preaching class in seminary, our professor, a dry stoic Dutchman named Syd Greidanus, told us that the best way to start off every sermon

Glasses resting on Bible

Let Go and Hold On

Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Atlanta, Ga. Readings: Ezekiel 36:25-28, Luke 12:1-12, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 I wish I could stand in front of you today without my sermon written word for word on the page. I prayed about it last week. As I stood here as

LOVE Scrabble letters on bible

Better Heresy of Doctrine Than Heresy of Heart

Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Atlanta, Ga. Readings: Psalm 139, Matthew 6:19-21, Matthew 15:10-20, 1 Peter 3:13-17 Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart. (John Greenleaf Whittier) Thomas Carlyle said, “A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.” On this point I believe Jesus