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The Worth of Life
Bad News, Good News, and Life Itself As much as Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for teaching harmful stuff to the people, Jesus is opening up the very nature of life and death to them: That, of course: what lies ahead is awful. Of course none of us wants to do this. And yes, I…
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In the Middle
The Transfiguration, Peter, and how it feels in the inbetween. The middle, the hinge point in Mark is the end of chapter 8, when Jesus tells the disciples what is about to happen to him and to the movement, and the beginning of chapter 9, when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain. This is the…
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When a rock is not a rock
rethinking Jesus’s vision of church, Peter, and the love of GOD We mistake the naming of Peter as reflective of his character, rather than His. a Homily for Proper 16 A | Text: Matthew 16:13-20 desiring proof Again the Pharisees. Those ancient ideological evangelicals–obsessed with rule-following–return. This time they’ve brought back-up: the Sadducees. Not…
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Not Alone: Maundy Thursday and the Building of Intimacy
a Sermon for Maundy Thursday Text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 The Cup This year, it was helpful for me to remember that we have developed a different way of marking days from Jesus’s time and place. Then, the day began at dusk. So this, Jesus’s final day, has begun. He gathers His friends for dinner, for…
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After the Mountaintop: listening/following Jesus
a Sermon for Epiphany LastA Text: Matthew 17:1-9 On another mountain We skip ahead to another mountain; more climbing, more experience with Jesus. Not a place of preaching. No Sermon on the Mount. This time is supernatural. Three followers go; the inner circle. The executive committee. Jesus invites them to follow Him up the mountain.…
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Our Fast
It is fitting that Congress set All Saints’ Day as the day to cut SNAP (the program formerly known as Food Stamps). The day we celebrate all of the saints that came before, all the saints in our midst, and all of the saints to come, All Saints’ Day is one of the church’s principle…
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The Spirit is Here!
a Sermon for Pentecost C Text: Acts 2:1-21 Listen to it here! A Holy Spectacle In Pentecost, we have the dawning of a new era. Jesus has departed and the Advocate, the Holy Spirit has arrived. It is now the apostles’ turn to deal with the ministry for which Jesus was preparing them. I’m not…
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Love is Love Except When It Isn’t
In Sunday’s sermon, I preached about Jesus’s third appearance in the Gospel we call John. There were several pieces that fascinated me about the text. Saturday, I focused on the fantastic image of Peter, sitting naked in a boat, dressing, and jumping into the water. The other is the interaction between Jesus and Peter about…