The Olive Press

Sermon | April 2, 2026

To watch the sermon click here. This is Maundy Thursday. It is the first act in a three-part liturgy we call the Triduum, from the Latin meaning “three days.” It is one continuous movement: tonight, then Good Friday, and finally, the Great Vigil of Easter. These are not three separate services, but one unfolding mystery.

The Cosmic Moment of Easter

Sermon | April 19, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Shhhhhh… Here, we sit, in a liminal space. I almost feel as if we should whisper. This is the moment when Silent Saturday gives way to Easter Sunday. Today is called Silent Saturday because of the quiet of the tomb. At the very powerful Good Friday service last night,

The Courage of Good Friday

Sermon | April 18, 2025

To watch the sermon, click here. Tonight we meet the prophet Isaiah, whose words of suffering and hope have echoed out over the centuries. Specifically, this passage, known as the Fourth Servant Song, is a mysterious, powerful poem that dares to imagine a world saved not by domination, but by a bruised and broken body.

Guardians of Grace

Sermon | March 30, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Part of my job as your priest is to pray every day. I use the Daily Office. It’s a rhythm of prayer and scripture reading that places me inside the unfolding story of God. It’s fascinating, sometimes challenging, sometimes consoling, but always insightful. I want to thank you for

And we Wait…

Sermon | March 30, 2024

To watch the sermon click here. We are here at Holy Saturday. This is a night of waiting, of anticipation, of deep mystery. It is a night that invites us to to confront the silence and to immerse ourselves in the story of a world paused in the throes of loss and uncertainty. This is

Freedom, Love… and Demons?

Sermon | February 4, 2024

To watch the sermon click here. Good morning. Over the last month or so I’ve been preaching about big visionary things, sweeping things, that call to mind our place in the evolutionary progression of Christianity. I spoke about the 500-year cycle, where now we find ourselves at the point of breaking out of the encasement

To Be A Disciple of Christ

Sermon | June 25, 2023

To watch the sermon click here. I remember a picture that hung on the wall of one of the Sunday School classrooms in the church where I grew up. It was a pastoral scene. Jesus was seated on a large stone beneath a tree, a tree unlike any I was familiar with in West Virginia.

The God who Makes, Moves, Purposes, and Renews

Sermon | April 8, 2023

As we sit in darkness having heard the Cantor sing: “This is the night…” we remember. This is the night we remember who our God is. We tell the stories about what our God has done. We remember that it is God who saves us. The song we just sang makes the point: Surely it

Adulting Faith

Sermon | March 19, 2023

When I was a kid, I lived in sort of a wooded area. And winding through the woods was a series of paths, well-trodden by me and my friends on our journey toward adulthood. Now one of the dangers that we had to contend with were the bottomless pits of quicksand, hidden at the edges

Category: The Prophets