In some Bibles, the Palm Sunday story is sometimes subtitled, “the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem” which is ironic, of course, since the word triumphal implies that somebody is the victor and somebody else is the defeated and that is precisely …
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Mark 4:35-40 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats …
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SCRIPTURE AND READINGS Sometimes I wondered if I had any faith. And when I had had enough of that, I got up and went on my way. And that – the getting up and going – was faith. ~ M. …
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Matthew 16: 21 From that time forth began Jesus to show to his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again …
Continue readingJohn 11:1-45 My dad finally came out of the closet not so long ago. I’d been carrying him around for a while. Not shut up in a tomb with a rock in the door like Lazarus, all that remained had …
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Mark 9:2-10 The disciples did, however, question what this rising from the dead meant. Without a good Lent, there’s not a great Easter. We can have a pretty good Easter without a good Lent but not a great Easter. We …
Continue readingI’ve needed this February worship theme of Poetic License in the context of our troubled world. In hard personal or political times we need creativity to help put us back together after the latest news has broken us apart. Art …
Continue readingA few years ago I got in a little trouble with a church member for a sermon I preached, entitled, “The Awful Grace of God.” In it, I quoted a little poem written some 2500 years ago by the Greek …
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Sunday, February 12 was the second week of our new worship theme, “Poetic License.” How are our spirits renewed by the mysteries of creation? Several artists of our congregation shared their experiences in visual arts, music, spoken word, and teaching …
Continue readingFor Amy Rixx’s Ordination SCRIPTURE: First Corinthians 13: 1-7, 13 – If I speak in the tongues of mortals or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have …
Continue readingOn Sunday, January 29, Andy Bachmann rounds out our theme, “I’ll Fly Away: Stories of Captivity and Release” with the sermon, “For Such a Time as This.” As I have tried to make sense of our world this past week, …
Continue readingEphesians 4:26-29 It has been a challenging roller coaster week, emotionally and spiritually. Many weeks are like that. It is joyful to be gathered together here to sing, pray, reflect, laugh, and ask each other important questions. In churches around …
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