Sermons

Today, friends, we enter a new season — a new year, according to the church calendar, and we may be sensing some of that newness ahead of us here at BUCC today. Today we enter the season of Advent— something’s coming; that’s what Advent means.  Advent is a season for watching and waiting for something… [Read More]

Roger Ebert was the first movie critic ever to win a Pulitzer for criticism in 1975.  Just before his death of cancer in 2013, the famous critic wrote these last words for the Times, “So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at… [Read More]

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Years ago, when Frank and I traveled to Jerusalem, one of the places that we visited was the Western Wall, also known as the Kotel.  The Western Wall is one of the only remaining parts of the Jewish Second Temple, which was renovated and expanded by King Herod around 37 BCE.  Parts of the wall… [Read More]

The other day, our little nightlight in the bathroom broke.  I was searching for something in close quarters and my elbow hit it and then sent it ricocheting off the wall and crashing into our bathroom floor.  It was the second thing broken in a week; the first being one of my front teeth as… [Read More]

There are ghosts in our readings for today.  You may not see them; they may not look like those young sprites wearing all manner of sheets who drift through our darkened Halloween streets requesting candy.  In fact, you might not immediately recognize them as such, but they are there.   They lurk around the edges of… [Read More]

When is the last time that you felt awe?  Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines awe as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.”  Did you find that part about dread surprising?  Well, awe is a mixing together of fear, wonder, and reverential respect, which makes it… [Read More]

Oh, my dear Lord, I have gone and done it.  You know that thing that you say you will never do, or that person you say you will never be?  Do you know what I mean?  You are in your early 20’s and you scoff at certain people or certain ways of being in the… [Read More]

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]