Sermons

Maybe you saw Kodi Lee’s amazing first audition with America’s Got Talent in 2019.  Blind, autistic, and accompanied by his mom, the then 22 year old Kodi did not seem, on first glance, to be able to compete or even to complete a sentence.  Yet before a stunned crowd, he blew away the judges as… [Read More]

I can think of a lot of objections to this particular passage…and maybe you can also.  For instance, the man gets to name all of the animals and birds.  So, if you are irritated by the name of an “aye-aye,” that is, a nocturnal lemur that lives in Madagascar; or the blobfish, that lives in… [Read More]

Have you ever had one of those weeks?  When all is supposed to be celebration, but you are having trouble celebrating because, well, life has happened as it does in a confusing and soul-sucking muddle.  Have you ever had one of those weeks when what is in your mind and how your body moves, or… [Read More]

The disciples are arguing.  As they walk along the way to Capernaum, Jesus notices that things have gotten rather heated.  There is some subtle irony in this passage…Jesus had just taught his disciples that the Son of Man would be betrayed, would be killed, and then rise again.  The disciples obviously didn’t understand so they… [Read More]

Fresh water… it is something that is sorely lacking in many parts of the world.  Something that we sometimes, maybe often, take for granted.  Water that we use for drinking, bathing, and cleaning dishes or clothes.  Water that we do not have to travel very far to get; water that is available upon demand—our demand. … [Read More]

The German religious reformer, Martin Luther, famously called the Epistle of James “an epistle of straw” in comparison to the other books of the New Testament canon. In theological language, Luther believed that one was justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone.   He called this sola fide, or faith alone.  He relegated the epistle of… [Read More]

Perhaps you remember singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” or “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus” as a child.  Or maybe you have some vague recollection of the terms “church militant” or the “church triumphant” from a church liturgy in a Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, or other setting.  Or maybe you remember learning in some long-ago bible study… [Read More]

While I was at Divinity School, a friend of mine from high school came to see me.  At the time, I was living in one of the oldest dormitories still in constant use in the country.  It had housed such famous students as Horatio Alger and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  We knew this because there were… [Read More]

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