Last week’s lectionary passage is one of my favorites. Here’s what I had to say on Sunday. __________________________ Right after Ginger and I got back from our trip to Durham last month, we noticed a plant that had sprung up along our back fence line. It was not there because we planted it, but since…

I think this is the first time that thinking about prayer took me to both Robert Frost and ice hockey. Here’s my sermon for this week. ____________________________ My twelfth grade English teacher Ms. Morse is responsible, in part, for my love of poetry—particularly the poems of Robert Frost. When Ginger and I lived in Boston,…

Mary and Martha have been compared for years. Maybe there’s a different way to look at it. ___________________________ I find it interesting that Luke tells the story of Jesus’ visit to Mary and Martha’s house right after the parable of the Samaritan that we read last week. We don’t have any real indication that one…

The parable of the Samaritan who stopped is well-worn and often told, thanks to the Revised Common Lectionary. This year, I found him in the supermarket parking lot, straightening the carts. Thanks for reading. _________________________ We reveal a lot about ourselves in a supermarket parking lot. Specifically, we reveal a lot by what we do…

I am playing catch up after forgetting to post my sermons from the last couple of weeks. The title of this sermon came from the first words of The Message version of Galatians 6:1-10: “Live creatively, friends.” Thanks for reading. ____________________________ I love the way our passage for today begins: “Live creatively, friends.” These words…

For the past four summers, as most of you know, I have spent time in the north of Ireland as a part of peace retreats intending to learn about and from the centuries of division in that land that culminated in violence the refer to as The Troubles and then in the Good Friday Agreement,…

The first Sunday of the month is Communion Sunday in our tradition, so my sermon ends at the Table, wandering first through the legacy of love that lets us all belong there. ____________________ One of the scenes that replays often around our house around mealtime, is Rachel my mother-in-law telling Ginger how good a cook…

I have always been drawn to the story of Jesus’ encounter with a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and I got to talk about it in my sermon this week. __________________________________ Our passage this morning tells an odd story. It’s odd because of where it takes place. In Jerusalem there was a…

We understand some words better when we tell stories. Here is my sermon for this week. ________________________ About fifteen years ago, when my parents were both still living, Ginger and I were in Texas seeing them as well as friends, which meant we did a good bit of driving. As we were going from Houston…

I veered from the lectionary this week to look at Jesus’ encounter with the two on the road to Emmaus, one of the stories I most love. ____________________________ One of my favorite things about reading scripture is coming across the gaps that remind us that we don’t have the whole story. We have talked about…