Tag: Lent
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Lifting Up Our Contradictions – A Sermon On John 3:14-21
Some of the funniest and most terrifying aspects of my life are my self-contradictions – the contradictions with which I live, the contradictions that live within me. My wife would probably say they are more aggravating and frustrating than funny. Most days my life is a living contradiction between what I say and what I… Read more
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Cleaning Out And Enlarging Life – A Sermon On John 2:13-22
I think business as usual is the issue. The animals and money changers are not the problem. They are the symptom that something else is going on. I think Jesus went to the temple that day for one purpose and with one intention; to throw out and overturn business as usual. There are times when… Read more
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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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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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Without A Why – A Sermon On John 12:1-8
“The rose has no why; it blossoms because it blossoms. It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it.” What if we were to live like the rose, without a why? What if we blossomed simply because we blossomed. What if there was no motive or seeking to our blossoming; to… 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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The Secret To Life – A Sermon On John 12:20-33
Seeing Jesus isn’t a spectator sport. It is a way to be followed, a truth to be embodied, a life to be lived. It’s being a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies so that it might bear much fruit. That’s where we see him. It’s the letting go, the emptying, the… Read more
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The Snaky Places of Life – A Sermon On Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21
The serpent that bites and kills and is also the serpent that heals and give life. That doesn’t make sense but what if that’s really how it is? What if the snaky places are not so much places to escape but places from which soul-medicine arises? Can opposites really coincide in that way? Read more
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Interrupting Business As Usual – A Sermon On John 2:13-22
I don’t think this story is simply about Jesus getting angry. Jesus got angry. I get angry. It’s ok to get angry. That misses the point. There’s more to this story than that. And I don’t think it’s about the animals or the moneychangers being in the temple. Jesus surely had to have known they… Read more
Interrupting the Silence 