Sermon Notes (Page 10)

This week we continue our Lenten Worship series entitled I Give Up that explores what we might give up during this season of introspection and preparation. A few months ago, we focused our Worship on this same text; and instead of a traditional didactic message, we heard the story through song. For the most part, congregation members were supportive and there was a strong acknowledgement of the time and energy it would take to put such a musical sequence together.…

This week we continue our Lenten Worship series entitled I Give Up that explores what we might give up during this season of introspection and preparation. I’ve often found wonderful humor in this familiar phrase: “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans.” I think this is completely true! In our lives, I know we have a tendency to build up our expectations on how things are going to turn out with every circumstance. Even so, I…

This week we continue our Lenten Worship series entitled I Give Up that explores what we might give up during this season of introspection and preparation. We live in a world that often feels like it’s ruled by fear. There are so many of us fearful of disease and illness–especially in this COVID era. There are so many who are fearful of being judged for their race as statistics show an increase in hate crimes. There are so many who…

This week we begin our Lenten Worship series entitled I Give Up that explores what we might give up during this season of introspection and preparation. In the Gospel text, Jesus is drawn into the wilderness for forty days and endures hardship and temptation. Understanding where this lies in the context of the Gospel of Luke, we may understand this in part as Jesus’ preparation for ministry. It is a time—remembering the mystery of trinity as both togetherness and separateness—that…

This week we conclude our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. In doing so, we arrive at Transfiguration Sunday, a reminder of Jesus’ mountaintop experience where the three disciples who are along for the journey observe a notable change in Jesus. As we have continued to Worship in various ways including online, we regularly claim that the act of Worship changes us and that we are called to respond to the change…

This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. Indeed, we are nearing the end of this series as we get closer to the season of Lent! We began with the Spirit’s presence in baptism and Paul’s assertion that we are united in the Spirit. And as we followed Paul’s argument, we were (hopefully) compelled by his illustrations of the diversity of the body. We were reminded of our physical…

This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul has been clearly and faithfully addressing the divisiveness they seem to have shown to one another. He has done so in talking about the gifts of the Spirit and reminding them that they are connected as the Body of Christ. In this week’s text, Paul returns to one of the central disagreements…

This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. We started at the beginning with the Baptism of Jesus, and have spent several weeks on Paul’s understanding of the Body of Christ and remembering our call to love. This week, the text invites us to go back to where we started. Paul suggests we start at the very beginning of our spiritual lives. In this way, we can reclaim our…

This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. We started at the beginning with the Baptism of Jesus, we explored our unity in God’s Holy Spirit, and we celebrated our diverse roles in the connected Body of Christ. This week may hone in on our overall focus; this may be the “why” for us as people of The Way. The song suggests that “they’ll know we are Christians by…

This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. We started at the beginning with the Baptism of Jesus, and then we explored our unity in God’s Holy Spirit. As we continue, we understand that there is beautiful diversity in God’s creation and even within our unity. Paul’s letter draws a powerful illustration, reminding us that we are beautifully unique with individual gifts that make our union in the Spirit…

Last Sunday we began a new series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian that started with the baptism of Jesus and now turns to Paul’s correspondence with the church in Corinth. Paul’s prose is extraordinary even when we read in English, and Greek scholars note incredible beauty in the original text. Just as we began last week at the beginning (with Baptism and Holy Communion), our first section of Paul’s letter starts with…

This Sunday we begin a new series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. This is also the time in the Christian year that we conclude Christmastide and Epiphany and begin Ordinary Time (sometimes called “season after Epiphany”). But this time is anything but ordinary! As we made the difficult decision to return to online-only Worship, there’s nothing “ordinary” about this! Perhaps we are all filled with expectation, even if our expectations aren’t working…