Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved. Our thoughts and prayers are with the hungry. Our thoughts and prayers are with the homeless. “Thoughts and prayers”: a very common phrase these days. We hear about thoughts and prayers for Haiti; thoughts and prayers for Black Lives
Thoughts and Prayers and…
Sermon on James
I am sad to say this will be my last Sunday with you before my wife and I get our house ready to go on the market and we make our move to Florida a permanent one. I am happy to say, however, that for this last sermon one of the assigned readings is the
Ambassadors in Chains
Today we find the apostle Paul in very unfortunate circumstances. He is in a Roman jail with a death sentence hanging over his head. He is literally in chains, and there is a date set for his execution. It had been his calling to carry the message of Christianity throughout the world. That was his
Feast of the Virgin Mary
I’ve had Mary on my mind recently. I’ve been reading a book by Hans Urs von Balthazar titled Prayer. He was a Swiss theologian, who trained as a Jesuit priest, but left the order to be a more active in the world, and yet, also continuing to be a person who lived a life of
David
In my life I have seen three versions of Michelangelo’s Statue of David. One is the original that before the pandemic millions visited each year in Florence at the Galleria dell’Accademia. The other is a stunning full-size bronze copy purchased by John Ringling to be the centerpiece of his art museum in Sarasota. It was
Unity in the Kingdom of God
We find ourselves today in the midst of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. It is a beautiful letter that we have recently worked our way through in Bible study (restarting September 17, Friday 10:30 am). One reason we study the Bible, particularly the New Testament, is that it gives us a path forward for the
The Parables of Jesus
Good morning Christians, Seekers, and Friends! How are you? Okay, so I have a question for you. How many of you here LOVE poetry? How many of you like poetry? And how many of you think it is a bunch of pretentious BS that nobody really understands but that we’ve been taught to respond to
A Treatise on the Devil
The devil shows up in scripture today. He is going by Beelzebub, which is sort of a great word, even though it is the name of Satan. It rolls off the tongue… Beelzebub. I’d like to invite you all to say it with me, but that might be a little weird in a church. Sometimes
Dance with the Spirit
Good morning Christians, Seekers, and Friends! Happy Trinity Sunday! I am super excited to be here with you this morning! And I hope you all are as excited as I am. You get to hear a sermon about the Trinity today! Hooray! And I really mean it. For those of you who have glanced over
