Sermons

John 6: 24-35        July 31, 2021 Winslow Homer – The Gulf Stream     When I stand in front of an oil painting, I am amazed at how the brush strokes add a depth to the colors and composition of what the artist painted. The closer I […]

This week, four hymns were sung in place of the usual sermon.

Mark 6: 30 – 34, 53-56 July 17, 2022   The disciples have been busy! After Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth, he called the 12 together and sent them out, two by two, and charged them 1) to travel lightly, taking nothing but a staff – no […]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was […]

Happy 246th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the 2nd Continental Congress. Still, since then, the country has grown from 13 colonies with about 2.5 million people to 50 states and 14 territories with a population of more than 330 million, that in 2021 produced a […]

Mark 5: 21-43   After my retirement, I happily discovered when I returned to the pulpit that familiar Scriptures are just as exciting and enriching as when I first preached. This morning’s passage from Mark is familiar, and still offers new insights which, if taken to heart, I expect will […]

Mark 4: 26 – 34 Parables are like poetry in this regard: Both art forms take ordinary words, events, things, and arrange them in a manner that invites a new and perhaps extraordinary insight. We are surprised by the unexpected turn of a phrase. We can be shocked by circumstances […]

John 3: 1-17 They met at night, because a faithful Jewish man worked in the day and studied the Law at night. Pharisees were lay people, not priests – lay people like elders, deacons, trustees, moderators of committees, Godly lay people. The night is also the time when a person’s […]

John 14: 25-27 – PENTECOST  Those of us who have been around the church for a while know the basic story of Pentecost, but a little refresher won’t hurt.  Pentecost – one of three (some scholars say four) holy feast days in the Old Testament. It was celebrated between the end […]

John 17: 20-26 A simple way to read and understand Scripture: Content (what does the passage mean) Context (what does the passage mean to those who first heard it Conviction (what does the passage mean to me, or to us) Content I want to look more closely at the phrase […]