Pilgrimages From Home

Sermon | March 21, 2021

Not long before the pandemic began last year, some fantastic Epiphanites loaned me three books before we knew what would unfold during these intervening 12 months. “A year later, these three books (kept in Ziploc bags as I do since I worked in a bookstore where we could read any book for free as long

Confrontng Evil When it Lives in the Light

Sermon | March 14, 2021

I’ve finished a book recently called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s a story of a young girl whose brother dies and mother abandons her into foster care. It takes place in Germany during WWII. The town she lands in is Molching, with a family living on the wrong side of the tracks, barely

Aunt Maria and Zeal

Sermon | March 8, 2021

“Zeal for your house will consume me.” That is a word I get excited about, zeal. It is a word that gets a bad rap—a zealot, a person blindly compelled by an idea, irrespective of its costs, particularly cost to relationship. I believe zeal means just the opposite. I believe zeal is all about relationship.

The Bigger the Hair, the Closer to Jesus

Sermon | February 28, 2021

Good Morning Christians, Seekers, and Friends! Good mornin’ and Howdy! Are you prepared for our big fast on the 29, 30th an 31st of February? Ha ha! Sorry, feeling a little extra joyful today as I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s Have a Heart and what a wonderful night we had with you—even

It’s Okay to Feel What You Feel

Sermon | February 21, 2021

Good morning Christians, seekers, and friends! How are you doing this first Sunday in Lent? This time I ask this not as a nice segue way into my sermon – be nice to the people Ruth Anne so they’ll want to listen—but because in my experience, in the average Christian year, we seem to really

The Bright Sadness of Lent

Sermon | February 17, 2021

I awoke Friday night and there was a brightness in our bedroom. Having grown up in Minnesota I realized quickly that it snowed out. Snow on the ground makes everything bright. As a child I used to love that, since a big snow fall, even in Minnesota, sometimes meant that school was canceled. Certainly, here

Simple Stories

Sermon | February 7, 2021

Simple stories are important. And the ones that matter most to me are the stories of my family that I carry with me. But I have not always understood this. You see, I, like a lot of American folks, used to think (and if I am honest, still sometimes do) that the big stuff that

Authority and Liberation

Sermon | January 31, 2021

Good morning. We have a short piece of scripture today that revolves around the word authority, and so, with the authority vested with me, that is the word that I am going to preach about today. Let’s begin by reviewing where we are: Jesus is in Galilee. He has just begun choosing his disciples. There

Fishing with Pelagius and Augustine for a Trinitarian God

Sermon | January 24, 2021

Today I want to preach about the state of our nation, and while the January 20 inauguration was honorable and majestic, as it should be, I am still troubled by what happened at the US Capitol building on January 6. The memory of signs and symbols asserting that it was a Christian sanctioned movement: a

Category: God’s Nature & Mercy