Sunday, August 18, 2024 – Gospel John 6:51-58, also Proverbs 9:1-6, Psalm 34:9-14, Ephesians 5:15-20 Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Hindu monk and religious teacher, born in 1863 who introduced Hinduism and yoga to the West. He traveled to the United States in 1893 and spoke at a huge event in Chicago called the Parliament of […]
Sunday, July 21 2024 – Gospel, Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, also Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 23, Ephesians 2:11-22 What draws people to Jesus? That’s the key question I want us to think about today. Now when I was last with you, two weeks ago, remember that Jesus had just gone back to his hometown where he experienced
Sunday, June 30, 2024 – Gospel, Mark 5:21-43. Also Lamentations 3:22-33, Psalm 30, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 One of the most amazing stories of healing I ever heard came from a medical doctor named Norm Shealy. It was in a workshop in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a place known for its healing waters, that Dr. Shealy shared
Sunday, May 19, Pentecost – Acts 2:1-21. Also Psalm 104:24-34, 35b, Romans 8:22-27, John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15. A core theme of our readings today is the movement of the Spirit of God through the world and the transforming work it does. And a major symbol of that Spirit is fire. Fire is one of those aspects
Sunday, April 14 – Luke 24:36b-48 Also Acts 3:12-19, Psalm 4, 1 John 3:1-7 I’ve had a few unusual experiences of God, but one of the most unusual was the time the Holy Spirit rode with me in my car down interstate 85 on my way to Pensacola, Florida. Let me explain. This would have
Sunday, April 7, 2024 – the Sunday after Easter For this day, I decided to repeat something I did in 2023 that I plan to keep as an annual tradition. After all the intensity of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, rather than writing a sermon based on the readings, I shared an incredible short story
Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 – Mark 16:1-8, Acts 10:34-43, Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24, 1 Cor 15:1-11 Many years ago, when I was living in Marietta, Georgia, I held season tickets to the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. I used to love going downtown for those Sunday matinees. There are two productions I saw there that
Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024 – Mark 14: 17-31 Mark 14: 32-50 Also Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 When Jesus and his followers gathered the night before he was crucified, they weren’t just meeting up for a friendly meal. They were marking the feast of the Passover, the Jewish commemoration of their ancestors’
Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Mark 15:1-39 [40-47] Also Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 31:9-16, Phillippians 2:5-11, Processional Gospel, John 12:12-16 In the great archetypal stories of myth, fairy tale, and sacred texts, we see represented the deepest truths about the human condition that can only be told symbolically because of the limits of human language and
Sunday, March 17, 2024 – John 12:20-33, Also Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 51:1-12,Hebrews 5:5-10 We’re surrounded by plants. We walk on lawns of green grass. We’re sometimes shaded by tall trees. Flowers bloom everywhere we look. Even in our kitchens, we see food that came from plants – plants that began as seeds somewhere. We probably
