What mountains would you like to move?

I’ve posted the sermon I preached this morning on Mark 11:20-25.  I was honored to preach for one of our ecumenical mid-day Holy Week worship services here in Lawrence.  We pastors had decided to take the texts chronologically for the week.  I agreed to preach on Tuesday without knowing what I was getting myself into.…

Palm Sunday Sermon

I’ve added my sermon from Palm  Sunday 2009 to my “Pages” (on the right hand side bar).  The main point is that we try to make Jesus into the savior we want, thus depriving ourselves of the fullness of Christ’s salvation.

Listening to the Questions

I attended a preaching workshop at First Baptist Church here in Lawrence yesterday. The kind American Baptist folks let me hang out with them and learn from them for awhile. (Thanks!) Something one of the presenters, Matt Sturtevant, asked has particularly stuck in my head: As preachers, are we answering the questions our people are…

Pre-Sermon Ponderings: Law and Love

When I saw that one of the Lectionary readings for this week was from Leviticus, I promptly (and, yes, sarcastically) informed my husband that we don’t hear enough sermons based on Leviticus. Well, you know what’s coming next, right? I’ll be preaching on Leviticus this week. It’s a stunning, beautiful text. Actually, I am drawn…

Pre-Sermon Ponderings: On Being Pro-Life

I have long loved this week’s Old Testament lectionary text, Deuteronomy 30:15-20. “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.” These words are dear to my spirit . . . “choose life.” Yet as I read the passage this time around, I…

Preaching in the Dictionary

If you look at the photo of my “Praying Women” notebook from yesterday’s post, you will see a ripped part of a page tinted purple. I’ve got a detail here that you may or may not be able to read. It’s part of a dictionary page that contains the word “prayer.” Cute, right? The poet…

Sunday’s Sermon

My sermon on the Slaughter of the Innocents is posted here. Much thanks to my seminary profs David May and Mike Graves for the insights provided in their book Preaching Matthew: Interpretation and Proclamation.

Sermon Link

Here is a link to my sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent.  The focus scripture is Matthew 3:1-12. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”

What Power in the Womb

It’s probably bad form for a pastor to post her “first thoughts” about Sunday’s scripture passages on Thursday night. I know I should be well past the “first thoughts” stage by now . . . but it’s been one of those weeks. Here’s part of what we read this Sunday from Isaiah: “He will strike…