Harrowing Of Hell

Category: Evil

Cosmic Evil and John the Baptist

Sermon | December 7, 2014

December 7, 2014, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching

I was coming over here yesterday to practice my sermon. A neighbor was out, and he asked how I was doing. I hesitated. “OK, I guess. I’m having a hard time birthing this sermon.” “What’s it on?” he asked. “Cosmic evil,” I said. “Oh… Why?” he asked. “I guess because I believe in it, and Jesus put an end to it, and the text lends itself to the topic.” “Well,” he replied, “Good luck with that.”

Repent!

Sermon | March 5, 2013

March 3, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching

What Jesus does do is call people to repentance! Yet, this is where it gets tricky. Having rescued us from the notion of a “God who pulls the strings” and “works good things for the good and bad things for the bad,” it is tempting to use repentance as a way to re-enter that “prison we know.” We are tempted to view repentance as that act which resets the ideology back to its default.

In the Name of Jesus

Sermon | December 23, 2012

December 23, 2012 The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

I’d like to stand up here this morning and inspire the congregation around issues pertaining to gun control. I’d like to stand up here this morning and galvanize our common will to serve people who suffer with mental illness. These are topics on our collective mind after all. Because they were two forces that added to the nightmare that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, a week ago Friday. Certainly these two things were at play. And as people of action, and power, and compassion we seek the cause of this horrible crime, to point at it, to pull the string and snip it short, so something like this never happens again. This is our common prayer.

Pentecost and Baptism

Sermon | May 27, 2012

May 27, 2012, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

Catholic Church and the Girl Scouts. And given the speed at which the church moves I don’t imagine this is going to change any time soon.

But turning on a dime has never been one of the churches strong points, and this reality is highlighted, I think, by the language used in the Baptism service we are participating in today.

Ruth and Pentecost

Sermon | May 13, 2012

May 13, 2012, Charissa Jones preaching

Today we dive into the Old Testament. In our current age we often wrestle with questions about the scientific and historical accuracy of the Old Testament, and wonder therefore, whether it is more than just an interesting anthropological document belonging to a people from a long distant time. Yet the Old Testament itself wrestles with core questions that still grip us today. At the heart of the Hebrew narratives, declares Robert Alter, we find two recurring tensions.

First: a tension between the divine promises made to Abraham, Moses and the prophets – and the seeming impossibility of fulfillment, amidst the disorderly character of events that unfold. The second is related: it is a tension between God’s will and human freedom. Old Testament narratives repeatedly draw us into the question, “How do we trust in the promises of God when the divine plan appears to be in the hands of people with an unruly nature – in the midst of circumstances that feel most unpromising?”