Category: Sermons

Sermons preached in a context, but written for people of all sorts and conditions.

  • After the Night is Over

    After the Night is Over

    He is not here; for he has been raised. Usually a person isn’t so happy to truck themselves all that way to see somebody and find they aren’t there. The Great Vigil of Easter  |  Matthew 28:1-10 Those four words: “He is not here” are among our favorite words as Christians. Probably more than for…

  • Crossed

    Crossed

    He warned them. Three times he said what would happen when they got here. To Jerusalem. Three times. Just like the three times Peter would deny him. And the three times they fell asleep waiting. They knew what was ahead. Jesus told them! But they weren’t prepared for this. Not the cross. Good Friday  |…

  • The Unity Table

    The Unity Table

    I never know how I’m supposed to feel today. We know how we’ll feel tomorrow and then the third day. We know how we will feel. How things will be tomorrow. We feel that confusion today. There’s an anticipation to this day we call Maundy Thursday. A day in which the big story’s climax is…

  • The Wisdom of Crowds

    The Wisdom of Crowds

    Hear the excitement in the air, crackling with power and uncertainty, with the anticipatory cries of “Hosanna!” For here is the new king, anointed, blessed successor, and reuniter! The one who would bring the glory of the one kingdom back with its conquering power! He is here and we will be saved! Excitement and confusion…

  • Seeing Jesus

    Why do bad things happen? That isn’t the question this passage answers. Nor does it answer why we suffer, why some are blind or disabled, or why some of us are total jerks. Instead, it tells a story. A story of people willfully blind to the beauty of God. Lent 4A  |  John 9:1-41 The…

  • Living Waters

    Living Waters

    Growing up on Lake Huron, in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, the living water of the Great Lakes is persistently present. Like a slumbering beast you knew would awaken. Not to us by the shore, by the harbor where fishing boats and freighters would dock. But out a few miles from…

  • Look Up

    Look Up

    There’s something hinky going on here. Jesus and Nicodemus and this late night visit. And how each of us comes to see this moment speaks to how much we trust in Jesus and how much we trust in our own experience. Who is this man, and why does Jesus give him such a hard time?…

  • Tempted

    Tempted

    This is the first thing after. A thousand things he could’ve done. Jesus is the Messiah, right? The Son of God. There’s probably a few pressing things God needs done around the place. The first thing he has to do after his baptism is to go into the wilderness to be tempted. Lent 1A  |…