Text: Isaiah 25:1-9 What would you count among your best days? The day you got married. The day you landed your dream job. The day you completed your first half marathon. The first day of retirement. Or the day your child was born. Really, how would you describe your best days? For me, some of […]

Text: Exodus 17:1-7 “One hundred hours. That’s the oft-cited statistic for how long a human body can typically survive at ‘average’ temperatures without access to water.” (Anathea Portier-Young, Commentary on Exodus 17:1-7) I had never heard of Flint, Michigan until 2014. Probably most of us never had. But in 2014 the town of Flint, Michigan […]

Text: Matthew 18:21-35 “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” How many times have you heard that line in your life? Teachers, especially, are fond of using this phrase but it has a shelf life way beyond the classroom. The quote comes from Carl Sagan’s work, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle […]

Text : Matthew 16:21-28 If you could have dinner with a dead person, who would you pick? That is the question Nora asked Karla and I at dinner one night last week. Each of us paused and thought carefully before answering. I gave my answer. Nora shared whom she would choose. And then Karla said, […]

Text: Mark 2:1-4 It was the spring of 1986. The “Rag-Tag Radicals” were up against “Paul’s Preachers.” I was on the “Rag-Tag Radicals” team. No surprise there. “Paul’s Preachers” were…well, they were exactly who their name said they were. And in case you haven’t figured this out yet, these two teams were a part of the […]

Text: Mark 5:25-34 This morning I offer the third sermon in a series that I have entitled: Living a Centered Life in a Splintered World. If you needed to be convinced that we are living in a splintered world the events of the past ten days should be persuasive enough. The first sermon of the […]

Text: Mark 14:32-36 “At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.” This thought by Maya Angelou describes the tension that we have witnessed this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the presence of such violence and hatred that is being played out […]

Texts: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Ephesians 5:15-16 Our world is splintered. Maybe it has always been that way. The history books tend to tell the stories of a splintered world. Wars, famine, disease, conflicts of all sort, including holy wars, indicate that for centuries our world has been splintered—fractured, cracked, broken. However you understand or see or […]

Text: Romans 8:26-39 Paul, the New Testament Paul, is a fascinating complex man. He was born a Roman citizen to Jewish parents in Tarsus (modern day Turkey). His given name was Saul. As a young man, he studied Torah in Jerusalem and became a Pharisee. After his studies, he was best known for persecuting the […]

Text: Matthew 13:24-30 All of us have perceived enemies. My earliest memory of an enemy was in the ninth grade. Her name was Madam Niver, my French teacher. Madam Niver was a tall, kind of lanky lady with a voice that reverberated through the halls of Crest High School. From day one, she scared me. […]