Category: Lent
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The Most Important Day Of Your Life – A Sermon On Mark 1:9-15
In some ways the past year has felt like a long never ending season of Lent. It has been a time of fasting, self-denial, and giving up; a time when people and things have been lost or taken from us; a time that is continually pointing to our mortality and the fragility of life. What… Read more
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All Shall Be Well – A Sermon On Psalm 23 And COVID-19
“All shall be well. All shall be well. Every manner of thing shall be well.” I hope you will hold on to what those words say. Let them bind you to faith, hope, and love, and connect you to one another. The theme of those words – all shall be well – is the thread… Read more
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The First Sunday Of COVID-19 – A Reflection On Exodus 17:1-7
It was The Third Sunday in Lent. We had planned to celebrate the Holy Eucharist beginning with the penitential order. It ended up being a different kind of Sunday; not your usual Third Sunday in Lent. We omitted the penitential order and began the liturgy with a prayer concerning COVID-19. There was no water in… Read more
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The Perfect Question For Ash Wednesday – An Ash Wednesday Sermon
Ash Wednesday – Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” That’s the last line of Mary Oliver’s poem, “The Summer Day.” I had never thought of my life as wild and precious until I read her question. I love the invitation, freedom, and… Read more
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Life Is Promise And Risk – A Sermon On Luke 4:1-13
The promise and risk of life come to us asking for a response. Jesus had decisions to make. And so do we. We make decisions everyday of our life; decisions and choices about what to do, who we want to be, how we want to live. We sometimes call them temptations. We feel torn and… Read more
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Life Before Death – An Ash Wednesday Sermon
Maybe Lent and the gospel of Jesus are not primarily about being good, a program for changing from a bad person to a good person, so we can get a future reward. I’ve got nothing against being a good person (whatever that might mean) but I’ve never read where Jesus said, “I came that you… Read more
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In the Nighttime of Life – A Sermon on Genesis 12:1-4 and John 3:1-17
There comes a time in each of our lives when understanding and knowing give way to the darkness of not knowing and not understanding. The journey of faith, it seems, is a journey through the darkness. Maybe we all come “to Jesus by night.” Read more
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Two Questions for Lent – A Sermon on Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11
Lent 1A: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11 Over the last several years I’ve begun to see and understand Lent and temptations, the struggles in my life, in a different way. It used to be that I thought about those things in terms of self-denial: just say no, don’t do this, don’t do that; and… Read more
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Longing for God
Most of us likely understand or have been told that Lent is a penitential season. We give something up, take on a new discipline, work to change our ways. None of this is wrong. But what if Lent is more than that? Read more
Interrupting the Silence 