Sermon Notes (Page 11)

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…

This Sunday is the last Sunday of Christmastide, and January 6th will be Epiphany of the Lord.  Our Scripture this week comes from John 1:10-18.  It is the second half of the prologue to John’s Gospel, at least that is what many commentators believed about John 1:1-18.  The prologue contains poetic verses that likened Jesus to the Word and light along with the concepts of incarnation, glory, grace, and truth. These concepts are illumined when we interpret them through Jesus. …

In a couple of days, we’ll have our Christmas Eve Programs at 5 PM and 7 PM. Christmas Eve’s celebration is, as I recall from personal experience, normally bigger than Christmas itself in terms of congregational celebration.  Unless Christmas falls on a Sunday, church folks normally celebrate Christmas Eve at church, but we celebrate Christmas at home.  This Sunday, we’ll be done with Christmas, but we’re still in Christmastide, at least until the evening of January 5th, 2022. The Scripture…

As we move toward the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we continue our series that focuses on coming home for Christmas. We’ve explored some of the baggage we carry when we return home, and addressed how this can be a fearful experience for some. And last week we talked about that childlike and unadulterated joy that we might lean into as we celebrate Emmanuel—God with us. It is my hope that the joy of Emmanuel is lasting. I say…