Category: Kingdom of God

November 3, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching

At Epiphany we often talk about operating principles that give us insight into the world as God made it. Gravity is an operating principle; so is the principle of water evaporation; as is the principle of the stone in the pond (if you don’t know what that is you can listen to last week’s sermon here).

This week I’d like to introduce two other operating principles that may help us become kinder people. The first is the operating principle of “ick” and the second is the operating principle of “awesomeness.” They are both pretty simple and they both have to do with kindness.

October 27, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching

Envy may well be the first temptation we encounter in life. Observe a child. Even in the nursery we see envy, as a toy or a snack is snatched from the hands of the other, even when it is the same toy or snack the child is holding himself. The child reaches to grab what he wants, and the other cries out, and relationship is tested and challenged and in some cases broken; which is why envy is a crime in the kingdom of God, where relationship is primary, and that which causes brothers to brawl is contrary to the world as God made it.

Preacher: The Rev. Kate Wesch Genesis 3:13b-24 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”  14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon

October 13, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn

There is a moment after all that, when God, walking in the Garden in the cool of the evening, calls out: “Where are you?”

August 18, 2013, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

The sermon today is about the lavish, outrageous, abundant, overflowing love God has for us. It is a sermon about what it means to be a child of God, and why that matters. It is a sermon to remind us of our divine family resemblance, and the duty that puts upon us, and joy that this bring us when we act as heirs of God’s kingdom.

July 14, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching

God asks Amos, “What do you see?” and then, God says, “Go, prophesy!” Now, God asks each one of us. What do you see? Do you see institutional racism, workplace bias, ageism, poverty, or homelessness? What do you see that gets your blood boiling, your spirit agitated, and your soul hungry for change?

June 30, 2013, The Rev. Doyt Conn preaching

This morning I’d like to focus on and then fuse the message from the Gospel with the wisdom from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The hope is to gain a bit of insight into how we were made to live naturally in the kingdom of God. The key word to follow today is freedom.

June 23, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching

Elijah has really been through the ringer when today’s reading from I Kings begins.

To bring us up to date:

“He is headed into the wilderness because the evil Queen Jezebel had a contract out on his life and he was scared to death of her. He had good reason to be. He had just staged a contest on Mount Carmel between himself –one lonely prophet of Yahweh – and 450 of the prophets of Baal, whom Jezebel worshipped. The contest was to see whose god was really God, and Elijah won.

While Baal was nowhere to be found, Yahweh sent a blast of fire from heaven that no one present could deny, and Elijah marked the victory by killing every last one of the losers.

When Jezebel heard it she sent a message to Elijah, letting him know that he was about to be the next loser, and he knew her well enough to start running right then.