Tag Archives: sermon
Rise: A Sermon on Everyday Resurrections – June 9, 2013
When I was a kid, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: I really wanted to be a pilot. I was convinced that I was going to go to one of the service academies and then I was going to learn to fly. My bedroom had pictures of airplanes on […]
The Bible Clearly Says…: Sermon for June 2, 2013
Earlier this week I was reading a news article about a social issue, and the reporter had interviewed a pastor. And he was talking about this issue and he said, “the Bible clearly says that this is wrong”. And I remember thinking to myself, “actually, I don’t think that’s what the Bible says at all.” […]
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger?: Sermon for May 26, 2013
Text: Romans 5:1-5 When I was in my freshman year at my college, I was in a leadership program. It was a little like Outward Bound, we climbed rocks, and did high ropes courses, and pushed ourselves past what we thought that our limits were. And the joke throughout the whole trip, whenever we were […]
No Longer Lost in Translation: A Sermon for Pentecost, May 19, 2013
A few years ago, when I was working as a hospice chaplain on the South Shore of Massachusetts, I had one patient down near New Bedford. And whenever I went to see them at their nursing home, this other resident on her unit would see me in the lobby and start shouting at me in […]
Getting Our Heads Out of the Clouds: A Sermon for Ascension Sunday, May 12, 2013
Churches, and their clergy, have sometimes been accused of being out of touch with the real world. Karl Marx called religion the “opiate of the people” because he believed it made us ignore the pains and injustices of the world and look to a pie-in-the-sky heaven when this life is over. And even today you […]
Peace Called Beside Us: Sermon for May 5, 2013
Every Sunday, at the very end of worship, I stand in the back of the sanctuary and offer the final blessing. I use words that are nearly 2,000 years old, and that are shared by Christians of all times and places: and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, […]
A Church Built on Second Chances: Sermon for April 14, 2013
A couple of weeks ago, right before Easter, we shared the stories of Holy Week. And one that we read was the story of Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples. We read about how on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that they were all going to leave him before the night […]
Second Time Around: A sermon on Doubting Thomas for April 7, 2013
Last Sunday most of you were here for Easter. We had an uplifting service celebrating faith in Christ and in the resurrection. We read together the story of how Christ rose again, and appeared to those he love, and how the message that God’s love still lived began to spread. It’s hard to leave church […]
The First of the Resurrections: A sermon for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, and on Easter morning we are filled with reminders of resurrection and new life. There’s music, and flowers, an Easter egg hunt, and more. On Easter morning we are filled with joy, and filled with hope. But it is such a contrast from what was happening […]
Called to Healing: Sermon for March 3, 2013 (Third Sunday in Lent)
I believe you can find God everywhere. You can experience God’s love up in your relationships with others. You can see the wonder of God’s creation up on the top of Mt. Snow. You can hear words of comfort from God in books or music. And you can find God’s hope in the most unexpected […]
