Category: Sermons

September 30, 2015, Kevin Mesher preaching

Here’s my take away: The book of Jonah shows me that there exists in each and every person—and their animals, apparently—a latent potential to connect to some kind of “source” regardless of your or my personal conception of what that should look like or for whom you or I think is worthy of it. For aren’t we “all members one of another” (Eph. 4:25)? How absurd of me to think that I can apply limits to God’s mercy. How strange I would rue your homecoming!

September 27, 2015, The Rev. Kate Wesch preaching

The entire story of Esther–it’s a weird one!

September 23, 2015, George Moberly preaching

What can we do to call God to demonstrate his presence through us into a world that so needs us to return peace for violence, love for hate. Who knows what will grow from God’s love we bestow and release into God’s world?

September 20, 2015, The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr.

Self-preservation is no longer bound by the edge of death. It’s reformulated into an eternal pattern of service to others, through Jesus, for God. And this can happen in so many ways, in as many ways as there are configurations of relationship. If someone is next to you or even near to you, you can serve them. No occupation is exempt from being an “occupation of service.”

September 13, 2015, The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr., preaching

“When I saw on the news the other day, that man running across a field in Hungary, carrying his child and getting tripped by a camera woman, I remembered Jesus. I don’t know if he was Muslim or not, but it doesn’t matter. He was a person, personal, and incarnational, and a resident of the kingdom of heaven. All I know was that he was vulnerable. I remembered Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre, the blind man, the leper, and the little children who he blessed. I remembered the outsider, who I know to be my neighbor, who is loved by God, like Hagar and Ishmael. I remembered my time of vulnerability, and I knew for a moment what it might feel like to be that Dad just barely holding on.”

September 6, 2015, Wellesley Chapman preaching

God sent his son into the world also a beggar for shelter and a refugee from a ruler intent on killing him. And we did not have the ability, in his time on earth, to love him enough. Captives of our own fear, we sentenced him to die. We were there when we nailed him to the cross. And if this is what we are willing to do to God, then I ask you, what will we not do to one another?

August 30, 2015, The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr. preaching

There was a social scientist named Rene Girard who was interested in human violence. He developed a theory called Mimetic desire, which is defined this way: “What you have, I want, because you have it.” A strong variant of this is sibling rivalry, which brings us back to our story today. The two sons of Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, are locked in Mimetic desire.

August 23, 2015, The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr., preaching

Blood is sort of an uncomfortable topic. It makes us wiggle in our seats, but the reality is that in the church blood is an underlying theme that runs through our worship. We talk about the body and blood of Christ. So today I’d like to do some teaching on the blood, and the mighty men of David are a good place to start; they give some Jewish context.

August 16, 2015, The Rev. Kate Wesch preaching

At first glance, this is a story about pregnant cousins happy to see one another or perhaps an older family member looking out for a teen mom who is being hidden away for a time. But when you start peeling back the layers and really examining the women, the nuance, this scene within the context of a much larger narrative, you get a strikingly different story. You see two strong women who greet one another in blessing and joy. You see two powerful prophets who will change the world. You see boldness and courage in their actions, not the shame and disgrace that so typically distort this passage.