July 11, 2021
Video
Have you ever noticed that bad stuff always seems to happen just when you thought things were great? I’m a pretty optimistic person, but as I get older, I notice myself becoming wary whenever things start going well. I start “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” And I think I know exactly when I started this business of anticipating the worst whenever life was really good. Continue reading
July 4, 2021
Video
Can you believe it’s already July? The year is more than half over! During the month of July, we’ll be spending some time in the sixth chapter of Mark’s gospel. We will be looking at stories that focus on what it means to live like Jesus. If we want to be real followers of Jesus Christ, true disciples, we have to put ourselves in the original disciples’ sandals and walk with Jesus day by day. We have to observe what he does and hear what he says, and mirror that behavior and speech in our own lives.
Last week, we looked at the way Jesus finds opportunities for ministry in the interruptions. While we might consider such an interruption to be a nuisance that upsets our plans, Jesus sees it as a way to touch lives with compassion and offer healing. Over the next few weeks, Mark will show us how to live like Jesus in the way we look for grace when evil seems to overwhelm us, in the way we show compassion to others, and the way we can take courage from God’s miraculous work in our lives. Continue reading
June 27, 2021
Watch a video of this sermon here.
Early in my ministry, I was complaining about not being able to get anything done for all the interruptions – people in need, questions from people in the church, phone calls …. The senior pastor I called “boss” at the time smiled and said, “Interruptions are where real ministry begins.” Continue reading
June 3, 2018
Watch a video of this sermon here.
One sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 2:23-3:6)
We’re back in Capernaum, or almost there. Jesus and his disciples are on their way to church on the Sabbath, and the disciples are hungry. So they pick grain as they walk through a wheat field, and eat it on their way to synagogue. Apparently, the Pharisees use this same route to church, because they are right there, asking Jesus why he lets his followers break Sabbath laws. Jesus tells them a story they already know, but as he does, he likens himself to David – claiming a kind of kingly authority that comes only from God.
In effect, Jesus tells the Pharisees, “Don’t get so bound up in your rules that they become your purpose for living. Let Sabbath do its job, which is to provide rest and refreshment, and an opportunity for worship and study. God gave the Sabbath for your benefit. God didn’t create you for the sake of the Sabbath. Continue reading
We all want to belong. When we are kids, we want to belong to the right group of friends. As we grow older, we look for places where “everybody knows your name,” places where we know we will be accepted, places we can call home. As Robert Frost put it, “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”[1] The desire to belong is a deeply felt need, and when it isn’t met, the consequences can be devastating. Continue reading
It’s been fifty days since Easter. Fifty days of praying. Fifty days of anticipation. Fifty days of wondering what comes next. During these past fifty days, we’ve been reading from the book of Acts instead of the Old Testament each Sunday. In every story, the Holy Spirit has been on the move.
It’s time to go back to the beginning. Sometimes, we need a little refresher course in why we do what we do, who we are, and what our mission in life truly is. It’s easy to get off track. It’s easy to get lost in the details of day-to-day activities, and forget what our purpose was for doing those things in the first place.
The gospel writers knew this. As the church was forming and reforming in those early years, it was important to stay focused on the gospel, the Good News. It was important to know what to believe, and even more important to remember who to believe. The best way to keep things straight was to write down everything, from the beginning. Continue reading
Our readings from Acts during this season of Eastertide have given us a glimpse of the early church. We have seen a healing miracle provide a way for disciples of Jesus to tell others about their personal experience of Christ’s resurrection. Thousands have come to believe in Jesus. Last week, we saw the Holy Spirit nudge Philip to follow a chariot on its way to Gaza. That encounter changed Philip as much as the man in the chariot. The Holy Spirit is on the move.
It’s Good Shepherd Sunday. Every year, the fourth Sunday of Eastertide gives us a reading from the 10th chapter of John’s gospel, and we hear the 23rd Psalm. But this year, we are in the middle of “Getting Our Acts Together” so our focus today is on the reading from Acts. I think you will find Jesus showing up here, too, not only as the Good Shepherd, but also as the Passover Lamb. Continue reading
April 15, 2018
On Friday, this deck was clear. Then the hail came, followed by a couple inches of rain and sleet. 
When the snow started early Saturday morning, there was no way to know how much we would get, or how long it would last. By early afternoon, however, it was clear we needed to cancel worship. Highways and county roads had been closed, and the blizzard warnings had been extended into Sunday afternoon. By Sunday morning, we had more than a foot of snow, and it was still coming down.
So we tried something new. We broadcast the worship service from my living room on the church’s Facebook page. With only a couple of small changes from what would have been the order of worship at First United Methodist Church, my husband played the piano for all the hymns. We even had an Offering! – inviting people to contribute via the church PayPal account.
Using my laptop to run the presentation slides for the service, and my phone to record the video, I preached from my tablet – a technological trifecta. Here is the order of worship, with the link to the Facebook Live video and a link back to the sermon text. Here’s the best part: about six times as many people have watched the video in the first few hours of its existence than would have participated in corporate worship on a normal Sunday at First Church. Here’s the Order of Worship we used: Continue reading
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