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It’s That Time of Year…For Repentance?
Why do you hate Advent? Seriously. What did it ever do to you? It never tried to steal your lunch money. It never made up rumors about you and spread them around school. So what gives? Why are you talking about a holiday that isn’t even here while ignoring the season that is? It isn’t…
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We Begin At the End (full sermon w/ audio)
a Sermon for Advent 1B Text: Mark 13:24-37 The down ending Jesus and his buddies walk out of the Temple. It’s late Tuesday afternoon of Holy Week and Jesus has been teaching thousands of people, revealing the hypocrisy of the church leaders. Jesus has, as they say, arrived. He’s a rock star. People are chanting…
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We Begin At the End
Happy New Year, everybody! This is, of course, the Christian New Year. It looks and feels a little different than the day we associate with New Year’s. Penitential purple? Ugh. So we begin Advent, and the new year, with Jesus telling his disciples about the end of things. We begin at the end. Today, we aren’t…
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From Division, Unity (full sermon)
a Sermon for Proper 29A Text: Matthew 25:31-46 Now what was that about the goats? I saw a comment online a week or so ago about these gospel readings we’ve had that said something to this effect: What horrible readings for stewardship season! This morning’s gospel, like the last few weeks have been a pretty…
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From Division, Unity
The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Matthew 25:31-46 We all know the parable about the sheep and the goats. The easy reading of this parable is that it has to do with division—sheep/goats, left/right—and eschatology—how time is completed/the end times. It clearly looks like that. But I don’t buy it. And neither should you. The context…
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The Slave Is Neither Wicked Nor Lazy
Proper 28A, Matthew 25:14-30 This passage is known as the Parable of the Talents. Which is unfortunate, since it sometimes gives us the wrong idea. We think that it has something to do with investing our talents and treasure in the Kingdom of God. That’s what we normally preach. And we’d be wrong. We also preach…
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The Bridegroom’s a Jerk; I Sure Hope God Isn’t
In this parable, (Matthew 25:1-13) with bridesmaids, waiting for the bridegroom, the easy reading is wrong. It doesn’t work. If we see this as being about…The Second Coming or Heaven after death or the perfect example of Christian community… Then God is an idiot. See, the easy reading makes us think two things: We need to prepare for…
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The wedding is the red herring
a Sermon for Proper 23A Text: Matthew 22:1-14 Give it up for weddings Raise your hand if you like weddings. All those happy people, the good food, a pervasive spirit of hope. Everybody dressed in their finest. The two, whose binding together we gather to support and cheer have never looked so beautiful and powerful. …