-
Sermon 11/1/09, Mark 12:28-34 Giving Thanks: For All the Saints All Saints Sunday is not a day I remember celebrating as a child in my congregation. In fact, I really don’t remember celebrating this special until I got into seminary, although I’m sure we did at my childhood church. But I was lucky enough...
-
Sermon 10/25/09, Mark 10:46-52 Take Heart This week, my mother found out that she will need to have surgery on her ankle in January – surgery to fuse together the joints which have collapsed on her through the years. My family and I have been trying to put together a plan for her post-surgery – she’ll...
-
Sermon 10/11/09, Mark 10:17-31 Be Challenged I’ve been thinking, over the last several weeks, in light of some of the powerful lessons from the New Testament that we’ve focused on in worship, that it’s amazing that we even read the Bible aloud and pretend to like it. I wonder why our very reading of...
-
Sermon 10/4/09, Mark 10:13-16 Be Childlike Today we come to the third in a set of texts where Jesus draws children into the scene, draws children to the center of a circle of adult men, to the center of a circle of his most trusted colleagues, to the center of his teaching. In our first text two weeks...
-
Sermon 9/27/09, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-50 Be Healed Today’s gospel lesson of those times when I feel like the author had a few scenes of Jesus’ teaching that he didn’t know where to put, and just sort of jumbled them together in one scene. We have several snippets in today’s text, words from Jesus...
-
Sermon 9/20/09, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, Mark 9:30-37 Be Last I have to confess to you – it may not seem like it to you at first – but I’m actually a very competitive person. I like to win, and not so much even just to win , but to be the best . Now, I don’t mean that I will get upset and be a bad sport...
-
Sermon 9/13/09, James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38 Be Followers This week, at the eighth anniversary of September 11 th , 2001, like many people, I thought about where I was and what I was doing when I first heard word of what was unfolding in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. I was in my second...
-
Sermon 9/6/09, James 2:1-17, Mark 7:24-37 Be Opened This week, we’re starting a new focus in worship, centered on asking ourselves the question: Who and what is God calling us to be ? Who are we meant to be, each one of us? Who are we meant to be as a congregation? Each week, through October, we’ll look...
-
Sermon 8/23/09, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Inside Out Are you all familiar with the story and music from Fiddler on the Roof? When I was in high school, I was in a community theatre production of Fiddler , and have most of the lyrics and choreography permanently imprinted in my mind. In...
-
Sermon 8/23/09, Ephesians 6:10-20 Dressed for Success I have to admit to you that when I first read our passage from Ephesians, when I first skim this text again after not having considered it for some time, my first response is always a bit of a cringe of dislike. This is the closing passage of Paul...
-
Sermon 8/16/09, Ephesians 5:15-20 Wise Up Some of you may know that one of my responsibilities for the extended-church – the church-beyond-the-local-church, is my role as Conference Youth Coordinator for the youth in the North Central New York Conference of the United Methodist Church. I oversee the...
-
Sermon 8/9/09 John 6:35, 41-51, Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Building Up Some of you may know that as a part of my ministry here with you, the Transition Team and I have been working on a covenant – a commitment on my part and your part to talk about our goals, our hope and dreams for this congregation, and to...
-
Sermon 8/2/09, 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a Changing Directions During undergrad, students were required to take two semesters of a language as part of our core requirements, and since I already knew I was going to go to seminary, I decided to study Ancient Greek, the language of the written New Testament of...
-
(Sermon 7/26/09, 2 Samuel 11:1-15, John 6:1-21) Kings As we begin our ministry together, my goal is, over the next several weeks, to preach on some key themes, some foundational pieces that I feel are important for you and for me to think about as we start out. What’s at the core of what we do? Why are...
-
(Sermon 7/19/09, Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, 2 Samuel 7:1-14a) God in a Box I told you last week that in the midst of this transition, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to say, “welcome.” Another thing that has been on my mind these days is the idea of “home.” Since I left for Ohio Wesleyan University...