Posted in Sermon Notes on May 9th, 2021
The New Normal: The Spirit Surprises Acts 10:44-48, NRSV, John 15:9-17, NRSV Reflections When you’re lying on the beach something is happening, something that has nothing to do with how you feel or how hard you’re trying. You’re not going to get a better tan by screwing up your eyes and concentrating. You give the […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Jan 3rd, 2021
Dark Winter Hope Matthew 2:1-12, NRSV Reflections Hope is a song in a weary throat. Give me a song of hope And a world where I can sing it. Give me a song of faith And a people to believe in it. Give me a song of kindliness And a country where I can live […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Nov 8th, 2020
When Things Fall Apart: Turn Matthew 25:1-13, NRSV Reflections “The fragile human world will one day be caught up into the endless glory of God and will be held securely in God’s hands forever. But this is not a moment that has arrived in all its fullness in our history. We know about the promise […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Jun 18th, 2016
The God of All Consolation 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, NRSV Reflections It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that i will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Feb 14th, 2016
Putting New Wine into New Wineskins Mark 2:1-22, NRSV Psalm 103:6-14, NRSV Reflections If Christ is the answer, what are the real questions? Does God speak my language? How can we live out and share the gospel without domesticating the new wine? — Harvie Conn,Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace Period of Epiphany Baptism of […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Feb 14th, 2016
Elijah: Faith with a Limp 1 Kings 18:20-39, NRSV Mark 9:1-8, NRSV Reflections Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things. — St. David of Wales, d.589 The main question: where is God? We need prophets’ voices that scream out but that is not a sustainable way to live spiritually In the Bible, […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Oct 27th, 2014
Series: The Ten CommandmentsThe Ninth Commandment: False Witness Exodus 20:16, NRSV James 3:1-12, NRSV Reflections There can be no love without truth. Without clear vision, love is a business of projection and fantasy. And there can be no truth without love. Without trust and tenderness and courtesy, truth will vanish behind the walls of fear […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Aug 6th, 2014
Series: The Ten CommandmentsThe Fifth Commandment: Honoring Father and Mother Exodus 20:12, NRSV Ephesians 6:1-4, NRSV Reflections In one sense the modern world began as Freud’s attempt to kill his father ended in the killing of God. Freud taught us to believe that we ought to hate the ones who produced us, to render ourselves […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Apr 17th, 2014
Series: Lord of Lent The Crucified King John 12:12-27; 19:16b-22, NRSV Reflections And when the story does turn the world upside down, or the order of nature anyway, by telling us that Jesus lives again, it isn’t suggesting that he didn’t really die, or that we won’t really die. The happy ending makes a promise […]
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Posted in Sermon Notes on Aug 16th, 2012
Taste and See: Learning to Praise the Lord Psalm 34:1-8, NRSV Reflections The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for our worship like a vain [person] wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his books to people he never met or heard of him, is implicitly answered by the words, […]
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