This sermon, for the first Sunday in Advent, shares a true story from the current Israel-Hamas war. (It’s a hopeful sermon, but also disturbing in places; parents of young children are advised to view this before sharing it them.)
The Parable of the Talents is one of the most annoying parables of Jesus. There’s a reason for that.
Some literary characters are models of virtue. They serve as a celebration of an ideal, and as a reproach to pretenders. Maybe we could too!
How can the church avoid turning into a Halloween horror: a Bates-Motel Church, a Vampire Church, or a Mummy’s-Tomb Church?
Why didn’t Jesus always give simple answers?
The Apostle Paul has some advice for all of us: not about what to believe, but about what to do, to have peace.
The Parable of the Tenants in the Gospel of Matthew is strongly allegorical. The version found in the Gospel of Thomas is quite different.
Last week, we heard the story of how Jonah tried to run away from God’s call. Not all call stories are so conflicted, of course. There are some much simpler ones from the first chapter of the Gospel of John: the callings of Andrew, and Peter, and Philip, and Nathanael. I have song to go with them: come and see!
The book of Jonah is a comic masterpiece, and Jonah himself is both a warning and a comfort to all of us. This sermon includes a dramatic interpretation of a part of the book of Jonah, and ends with the hymn, “Welcome, Thomas, Doubts and All,” which has a verse about Jonah. The hymn-sing is led by Ron McCutchan. (Sheet music for “Welcome, Thomas, Doubts and All” is available in our Free Stuff area.)
The concluding part of “Cherishing the Harmony,” delivered at the Pilgrim Park church camp on the occasion of the Open Prairie UCC’s twentieth anniversary.