Paul tells us how it really is: If you can do all these wonderful things and you don’t have love in your heart… you’re a grade-C garage band.
Read MoreThe brown bag sermon – where everyone puts something in a brown paper bag and then Mother Sare incorporates every thing inside into the sermon – brings home the idea that we can find God where we least expect it, and that everything we touch and everything we do can remind us of God’s love for us.
Read MoreThe miracle of Christmas is more than perhaps you thought it was. What if the second coming is not what Hollywood says? What if the second coming is you and me? What if the second coming is learning how to love like Jesus lived, and loved like Jesus loved?
Read MoreWriting from prison, and knowing he’ll die soon, Paul writes to the church at Philipi and encourages them to be happy despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Read MorePreparing for Christmas happens in two ways: we get ready to remember the coming of baby Jesus (so exciting!), and we get ready to experience the second coming of Jesus. No, we don’t stock up on water and toilet paper.
Read MoreJesus answers the questions of his students about the apocalypse… Don’t put your faith in buildings. The building is a tool, it is not the footstool of God. The altar is a tool. It’s a way to help us worship our God. But we should not worship the altar. All the things we want to put our hope in – we’ve built this beautiful thing and it will last forever! – no, it won’t. Life continues on – there will still be horrible things and beautiful things, and they’re not signs from God.
Read MoreDeath is not the end. God waits for us. The merciful God that we love will not hold our sins against us. Even in our grief and mourning for those we love who have died, we have a hope to hold onto: Jesus has gone ahead of us, and prepares a place for us.
Read MoreHow do we forgive the nitwits in our lives? How can we not when we realize how much power we have over the other people in our lives? We have the power to crush the spirit of others, and make this world a hell for each other. We also have the power to forgive and wipe a slate clean.
Read MoreEver have one of those days where the absolute best you can do is to yell at God? Job has one of days. But we’ve been wrestling with this question – why do bad things happen to good people – for a really long time. We’ve considered many different answers. The conclusion in Job’s time: the gods place wagers on when we’ll crack. The conclusion in Jesus’ ministry: … a slightly more complex answer to be found in the sermon.
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