2007 Sermons...

All Things ... July 8, 2007
I’ve been thinking about circles and lines: circles of wonder and those other circles, the ones that swirl with anger. And lines: dividing lines and the rare gift of lines that form bridges. Some of the lines are obvious. At national boundaries there are walls and fences, guards and passport checks. Languages change at many national boundaries and, often, travelers shift from the comfort of home to the excitement mixed with discomfort of that which is foreign. .....(read more)

Freed Up ... June 17, 2007
Commencement addresses dish out advice, offer humor and seek to find a broad perspective to look at life. Every year at this commencement time the New York Times collects excerpts from such speeches for a combination of fun and a sampling of the mood of the land in a given year .....(read more)

On Truth Telling ... June 10, 2007
Tell the truth in love. I’ve always understood this as a guiding principle in leadership. Truth and kindness: they can go hand in hand. For example, when I have a funeral service for a person known to be a real scoundrel there is often a terrible blanket of discomfort as the people gather for worship. Assuming that a funeral is a time when people gather to say nice things about the deceased, folks are afraid they we will come into God’s presence and either outright lie or at least ignore the truth. .....(read more)

A Journey Called Hope ... June 3, 2007
These are well know words, oft quoted: “... we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” Marvelous words of encouragement. Yet true? Does it work like a formula: suffering to endurance to character to hope? Not always, one might quickly add. For all of us know the other formula at work, namely suffering to anger to violence to despair. .....(read more)

Strong Women ... May 13, 2007
The most important feature of our home is the dining room table. It’s a fine table even if a bit worn particularly on the side where I rest my arms while typing. We bought it used - antique is a better sounding word and I suppose that it does qualify. It is a round, claw foot, oak table that has three leaves so that it can go from a comfortable round table for four to six then to an expanded oval table for a tight dozen or a squished fourteen. But, as you’d guess, it’s not really the details of the table itself that are so important, it is what goes on top and happens around it that makes it so special. .....(read more)

Loving our Mother... April 22, 2007
From the position of hindsight it is easy to forget the confusion and chaos that comes in the midst of powerful moments, either powerfully good ones or powerfully painful ones. On the other side of chaos we claim all kinds of wisdom and insight, forgetting that life, as we live it, is most often messy and confusing .....(read more)

This I believe:Life out of Death.. April 8, 2007
What a wonderfully powerful and hopeful message! Whether it is shouted with joy or whispered with an anguished kind of hope, the words “Christ is Risen” break through all that is destructive and death-dealing with the power of life. These words shatter what is predictable and upset what is normal. In a Good Friday world where the most we can count on is death and taxes, Christians announce that death does not have the final word, that death is not the end. Welcome to Easter and the news that even in a world that knows Good Friday, the worst that can be delivered, God’s response is Easter. .....(read more)

This I believe:The Passion of Commitment.. April 1, 2007
What a wonderfully bold, procession. There he is, the rabbi from the countryside preaching of the Kingdom of God, riding right into the middle of the Kingdom of Caesar. It is the capital, Jerusalem, at the crowded, festival time of the year, Passover, and the one called Lord is processing into the same city where Caesar is proclaimed as Lord. .....(read more)

This I believe:The Church.. March 25, 2007
Leon Haring only knew me by name when I entered his pastor’s study as a college senior. My parents, who were known in the large suburban Chicago Presbyterian Church, told me that the aging Rev. Haring was seen as a somewhat quirky, old liberal right in the middle of a strong and fairly conservative Presbyterian congregation. Looking back, I realize that it was strong enough to welcome diversity so Union grad. Haring had a place alongside the charismatic and evangelical senior pastors. I had gone through confirmation class in my first year in the church, following our move into the area from Minnesota, then was present in Sunday worship with my parents but not much else. .....(read more)

This I believe:Human Folly and God's Mercy. March 18, 2007
It is so familiar that in the rush to the end of the story we forget how closely connected this parable grows out of real life. For many, as soon the words are spoken, “There was a man with two sons,” the mind is already at the end with a father embracing the son, the band warming up for the party and the smells of a calf roasting on a fire. But wait a moment. Bring to mind the passion of the story, experiences that you may well know: the agony of a child in trouble, the young adult wondering, “What in the world am I going to tell Dad?” and the incredible emotion of the father running to his son, as Jesus tells us, “he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” .....(read more)

This I believe:Spirit of God.. March 11, 2007
I believe in spirits. No, not swarming little cherub angels or devils with pitch forks, but spirits that exist within groups of people that push and pull, spirits that are life giving - like the spirit of justice - others that destroy - like the spirit of racism or hatred. I also believe in the Spirit of God, what I understand to be the presence of God in the here and now, the reality of the divine, interacting with creation, a real force within all the forces of our lives. .....(read more)

This I Believe: Jesus is Lord ... March 4, 2007
Who is Jesus, this Jesus of Nazareth who lived in the first Century, that even time is dated from his life? Who is this man we call Lord, son of Man, Son of God, messiah, savior, rabbi .... the titles are so many and, yes, varied. And what about this Jesus of history and the Christ of faith: one and the same, two distinct realities? Who is Jesus .... for you, for your world? .....(read more)

This I believe:God ... February 25, 2007
Recently, when the news was full of wonderment about the possibility of life within other solar systems, the esteemed churchman, Martin Marty, was asked if the discovery of life in other forms or on other planets would shake the foundations of faith. With joy in his voice, Marty responded with words to the effect that, in contrast to crisis, it would be wonderful to expand our imaginations of just how grand and big is the reality of God. .....(read more)

Touching Holiness ... February 18, 2007
Let’s call them what they are: holy moments. These are the times when time seems to stand still and we see a glimpse within time or beyond time. Our experiences vary; it might be the expanse of the stars or the presence of a new born child that stops time. Yet, regardless of he event, I trust that you know of something that interrupts in order to reveal, that intrudes in order to enlighten, that startles in order to give life .....(read more)

The Beauty of Holiness, The Holiness of Beauty... February 11, 2007
I have long loved this little vignette from Mark’s account of Jesus’ life. The time is the last days before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, and as he so often did, he is eating at the home of someone most folks wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. He’s at the house of a man called Simon, a leper, eating for heaven’s sake. As was the custom then, only men would have been present at the meal, probably in this instance, Simon, Jesus, and the disciples. But comes a woman into that circle of masculinity, a woman of enormous courage and insight and generosity .....(read more)

2006 Sermons...

2005 Sermons...