Sermons

There’s nothing calm about either of these Gospel readings. They stir up the routines of ordinary life, they evoke strong emotions, they challenge us in unexpected and uncomfortable ways. Today's texts - Luke 19: 29-40 and Matthew 21: 12-17 If you have been watching any of the election news on television over the last few months, you probably have seen images of the candidate entering a rally, the crowd cheering wildly and waving signs, the candidate smiling and waving back at the crowd. You may also have seen images of dissidents in the distance, people unhappy with this particul...
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We recognize that plans have to be flexible or else we would all go crazy. As one of you said in your response to today’s question, “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.” Today's texts - Philippians 3: 4b-14 and John 12: 1-8 Some of you may be fans or followers of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team. It’s been a challenging year for that group coming off a specular season last year. They lost too many games early in the season, then their legendary coach Bo Ryan quit unexpectedly in early December. The team had to adjust to a new head coach who in turn quickly...
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What does God look like? Do you see a person, a concept, and idea? When you pray, who are you praying to anyway? Today's texts: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 A problem with asking members of our congregation to submit questions for me to reflect on during Lent is that I can get some really tough questions. I’m not talking about intellectually tough. These are not vague, abstract questions. These are questions that come from the heart of people’s lives, their worries, their concerns. This week’s questions are in that category. I grouped two of them together becau...
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I don’t think law and love need to be in opposition to each other. The trouble comes when one ignores the other. Today's texts - Psalm 63: 1-8 and Luke 13:1-9 A little over a decade ago, I was part of a group on a mission to trip to Nogales, Mexico, just across the U.S. border from Arizona. We were there on a construction project, but one of my jobs turned out to be the driver and errand runner for the group. So I got to know a bit about driving in Mexico where the rules of the road are not quite as well defined as they are in, say, Wisconsin. It was not so bad when I was just dri...
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With today’s story about God reassuring Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, it seemed like a good time to explore how those descendants think about God in the 21st century. Do we all worship the same God? And if we do, what does that mean? Today's texts - Genesis 15: 1-15 and Philippians 3:17-4:1 Towards the end of last year, when there was a lot of vitriol being spewed out in the political world at Muslims in this country, a professor at Wheaton College near Chicago decided to take a small stand in solidarity with those people who, like her, trace their r...
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I suspect each of us goes through our own wilderness experiences where we grapple with our own quests for power or recognition. Today's texts - Psalm 91 and Luke 4: 1-13 I'd like to take that familiar story we heard today of Jesus in the wilderness, struggling with the temptations to feed only himself, to seek great power and amazing fame, and insert a different character into it. For Jesus, this time in the wilderness was a time of discerning who he would be when he emerged on the public scene. It was a time of clarifying who he was, what really mattered to him. It was a ti...
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Sacred spaces may have something to do with how we can use the coming season of Lent to draw ourselves a bit more into God’s presence and then let that experience shape how we live in the everyday spaces of our lives. Today's texts - Psalm 84 and Luke 2: 22-40 Where are the places you feel closest to God, where you feel God’s presence around you? Take a few moments to think about that while I share a couple of images with you. One of the places I feel closest to God is under a starlit sky, out in the country, sensing the vastness of the universe and sensing that somewhere withi...
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Jeremiah and Jesus - two young men about to go public with their message. Their responses raise questions for us. Today's texts - Jeremiah 1: 4-10 and Luke 4: 21-31 You may have noticed that we are starting to get into the crunch time of the presidential primary season. The Iowa caucuses are tomorrow and the New Hampshire primary is a week from Tuesday. There’s a phrase from the presidential campaigns of eight years ago that came to mind as I was reading over the two scripture passages that we heard today. Barack Obama’s theme was “hope and change.” I think the theme from these readings i...
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The two selections we heard today say a lot of why our lives in this community are rooted in scripture. They give us some good insights into who we should be as a community of people who have chosen to follow Jesus. Today's texts: Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10 and Luke 4: 14-21 Every Sunday morning, we gather here, sing a few songs, say a few prayers, listen to somebody speak for a while, give a bit of money, sometimes share a meal. Oh yes, and we listen to a couple of selections from a very ancient book. Actually, it’s selections from 66 different books, all collected in what we cal...
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I can't turn water into wine. But might I be able to do something about overcoming hatred with love? Today's texts: Isaiah 62: 1-5 and John 2: 1-11 Come with me for a few moments to that wedding at Cana. Jesus was there with his mother. A few of his new companions had come along as well. The way John tells the story, Andrew and his brother, Simon Peter; Philip and his friend Nathaniel had become followers of Jesus. John does not say whether all of them went to the wedding in Cana, but let’s imagine that they did. So they are all there having a fine party. This must have been a ...
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