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On Perfect Christians
a Sermon for Epiphany 7A Text: Matthew 5:38-48 Rebelling against Jesus You’ve probably seen this phrase on a book cover or on a church sign. It reads: “no perfect people allowed.” Kind of catchy, isn’t it? We don’t want perfect. We don’t really want to be perfect, do we? The phrase also has a sly…
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With Us
a homily for Advent 4A Text: Matthew 1:18-25 “Don’t be afraid” The most common phrase Jesus utters in His ministry is some variation of “don’t be afraid”. So often, the disciples are in the midst of something really hard, something truly frightening. Like Jesus appearing to them in the boat, rocked by storms and He…
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Technicolor Faith
a homily for Advent 3A Text: Matthew 11:2-11 From Repent to Doubt When John appeared in the wilderness, a wild man dressed the prophet’s part, we caught a glimpse of his vision for the kingdom of heaven. He preached repentance and preparation: turning away from our pasts and toward a new future, living in a…
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Jesus Offends Us
John the Baptist is locked in a cell, full of doubt, wondering what the whole Jesus experiment is really all about. He is left questioning everything. What is my role in this? Was I wrong? What he’s really thinking is this: Jesus isn’t the Messiah. This Sunday’s gospel is Matthew 11:2-11, and just in case…
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Priorities
a Homily for Thanksgiving Text: Matthew 6:25-33 An Unthankul Story Tonight we’ve gathered to give thanks. More specifically, to give thanks to GOD for all of our blessings and all that we have to be thankful for. To give thanks to a GOD for so much wonderful stuff. But we know not everyone feels that…
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Our Marks, Like Dust
a Sermon for Ash Wednesday, B Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 We’re trained from an early age to hate red ink. Our tests and composition papers were often so riddled with red, contrasting starkly with our own black or blue markings on the white piece of paper. Each of our teachers counted up those red marks—with…
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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…