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Sermons (Page 89)

Clown Ministry

Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:1-37
We live in violent times. It’s hard to deny it whenever we hear the words Columbine or Virginia Tech or more recently Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or Binghamton, New York, or Pine Lake Nursing Home right here in our own state. Incredibly, in my mind at least, it’s still legal for gun shops to sell assault weapons … for what earthly reason I can’t imagine. We hear over and over of those who kill with guns or baseball bats or their bare hands…

Be Here

Tonight marks the beginning of the end of Jesus’ life. And the end is marked by something that is at the very heart of Jesus’ ministry and life: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Jesus loved them to the end. And his last gift to them was a gift of love. This last evening wasn’t just about the Eucharist, and it wasn’t just about what Jesus was going through in these last few hours before his death, and it wasn’t even about the betrayal that was to come, even though that was a part of the story…

The Meaning of Palm Sunday

As we progress through this Holy Week we will continue to walk through the events that have been described in the passion reading, ultimately leading us to next Sunday with the celebration of the resurrection. What I’d like to do this morning is to share a few thoughts, not so much on the passion reading, but on the gospel reading that we read outside with the blessing of the palms, from Mark’s gospel about Palm Sunday…

Stories of Yellow Man

I’d like to begin by speaking about a Navajo storyteller named Yellow Man. Yellow Man hosted an anthropologist for several years. This anthropologist was in search of artifacts of the Navajo oral history. And a relationship bloomed between them that lasted a whole generation, until Yellow Man died. The anthropologist was permitted to record Yellow Man’s stories onto audio tape, but only after promising that those stories would only be played when they were seasonally appropriate…

Lent is My Favorite Season

You have heard me say, many times I am sure, how much I am grateful that we worship God by following a seasonal calendar throughout the year. And possibly you have also heard me say that Lent is my favorite season in the church calendar. I really like Epiphany too, but Lent is my favorite. I was glad, for my own spiritual journey, to be able to preach on Ash Wednesday and talk about my understanding of Lent as the opportunity that God gives us to look honestly at ourselves within a context of safety…

On the Edges of Life

Mark 9:1-5
Mark doesn’t waste a lot of words on his introduction of Jesus. Jesus enters the frame without detail or ceremony as he steps into the water to be baptized by John. Remember that Mark is actually the earliest of the four gospels, so this is the very first time in the Gospels that we meet Jesus.
Now, at the beginning of lent, we encounter Jesus once again in this earliest account of his life and ministry…

Ann Lockhart: Stewardship

I was raised in a Baptist church in the South. Stewardship was always a part of our lives and our conversations. My parents, my Sunday school teachers all talked about offering, giving, tithing, above a whisper. If I had actually listened to a sermon back then, I’m sure the pastor talked about it too. I knew that to tithe meant to give a tenth, from a very young age. My parents made it easy for the three of us kids. We all earned a dollar allowance regardless of our age, paid to us on Saturday evenings, in dimes…