Pastor's Blog - Sermons

It is Lent. Let us walk to the cross. Let us tell the truth. Let us face the brokenness of life. We look long and hard at the wounds we have inflicted on one another. We taste the sour . . . as it slowly melts into the sweetness that is ours in Christ.

→ Continue reading Jesus Dies: Sour but Sweet

All of us become impatient when things have not gone our way. Our child dawdles when we are trying to get to church on time. Our impatience irrupts into angry words. Our child responds with tears. Then we realize that our impatience has gotten the best of us. We are ashamed. A similar eruption of impatience takes place in today’s First Reading. In the midst of their 40-year journey in the wilderness, the children of Israel have become impatient with their life. They get angry, complain . . . and suffer the consequences.

→ Continue reading Living in the Midst of Snakes

Tonight, as you came to worship, you were given some thorn branches. Already you have discovered that you must hold them very carefully because, if you do not, they will pierce your flesh. They will prick you. They may even puncture your skin and make you bleed. They will hurt you. The danger in these thorns is obvious. Now, you can clearly see the sharp and dangerous barbs. However, in a few months those barbs would have been hidden under the lush and luxuriant cover of green leaves and the beautiful blossoms. That will make them all the more dangerous as they lurk like enemies in camouflage waiting to attack us. We reach out to touch a beautiful blossom only to be stabbed by a cruelly sharp thorn. We are unexpectedly wounded. If we had known that such danger was hidden in such beauty, we would never have so foolishly reached. We have learned a lesson. We will never again be so careless.

→ Continue reading Jesus Is Crucified: Pierced

Some years ago at Duke University, TV newscaster Ted Koppel delivered one of the most popular commencement addresses ever. He encouraged the graduates to follow the Ten Commandments. If people would only follow the Ten Commandments, most of the world’s problems would disappear. The graduates, their parents and the media loved it. I could preach that: Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not covet your neighbor’s house or wife. And, as Ted Koppel demonstrated, most of us would love it. “Pastor, give us some old-time religion.” However, according to today’s Gospel, that is exactly the kind of religion Jesus was against.

→ Continue reading For and Against Religion

Tonight when you came into the sanctuary, you were given a bunch of stones. I want you to take them and put them in one of your pockets. Leave them there. Don’t take them out when you leave this place. Those rocks are not small. It will not take too long before they will bother you, rubbing against your skin, making you uncomfortable, becoming a bigger and bigger source of irritation, feeling heavier and heavier. They will become a burr in your saddle, a sliver in your hand, the boulder in your shoe transforming every step you take into painful torment. Even though they may not feel like much now, the stones will soon become such a burden and pain that you will start desperately looking for the first opportunity to get rid of them.

→ Continue reading Jesus Carries Our Burdens - Stones in Your Pocket