This week’s readings (Narrative Lectionary, October 25, 2021) are 1 Kings 5:1-5 and 1 Kings 8:1-13. We’ve skipped over the entire reign of David (which, honestly, is fine by me) and are now reading about the dedication of Solomon’s Temple. Of course, it is not really Solomon’s Temple, it is God’s Temple. Though reading through…
Christ have mercy.Hear our sighs too deep for words.Christ have mercy. In the wake of the shootings at Robb Elementary School, I was drawn back to this sermon I wrote over six years ago–after another mass shooting closer to my home. Christ have mercy. A sermon on Luke 13:1-9 from February 2016 Jesus, Jesus. Did…
Hello, friends! It’s been a minute. (Many, many, minutes actually.) I have been writing over these past months, but haven’t gotten around to posting. So I decided to post links to the sermons I’ve written since my last post. Now that we’re (still) in the midst of a world-wide pandemic, I record and post video…
*This post is excerpted from a sermon on Acts 3:1-12a; 4:1-4. My friend, Jay Yoder, has been supporting Black organizers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and shared a video of what happened when they were filming police badge numbers: as Jay neared the end of the line of officers, one stepped forward and, with no warning…
A few years ago I audited a class at St. Paul seminary on “Preaching and the Short Story.” There was a story on the syllabus with “Easter” in the title, and I kept thinking I should read that before I wrote my Easter sermon. So this story title, “Small Easter,” kept rattling around in…
(Transfiguration: Luke 9:28-36) The second Moses and Elijah show up on that mountain, the entire Jewish tradition of the Exodus and the prophets is brought to bear on this story—and on Jesus’ life and ministry. To understand the story of the Transfiguration, we have to understand the narratives of all three men:
Emmanuel. God with us. Really. In the flesh. The incarnation means that in the most real and concrete way, God is connected to the physical reality of this planet. God has inhabited a human body with skin, hair, blood, bone. God has had dirt under fingernails, has drunk thirstily from the offered cup. God has…
[This post is excerpted from this full sermon.] The very first sentence of this story tells us that “the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli.” And this sentence tells us right away how things are supposed to work. Samuel is a boy and Eli is a grown-up. Samuel is serving under Eli.…
[This post is excerpted and edited from a sermon I preached a few years ago.] Jonah is a book of biting satire. You have a prophet who does exactly the opposite of what prophets are supposed to do. He runs away from Yahweh and keeps his mouth closed. The fish’s mouth, of course, is wide…
[This reflection is an edited excerpt from this sermon on Matthew 4:18-22.] Think, for a minute, about a time in the past few days that you were at work–your job work or working on some project or responsibility. You are grading papers or standing in front of a class full of kids. You are making…
Spacious Faith 