Sermons from 2018
Star Child
Preached FCCW December 23, 2018 Advent 4C Luke 1:39-56 Like many of you, lately I have been spending more time in shopping malls than I typically do other times of the year. Since everybody else seems to have been doing the same thing, I have also been spending more time waiting in check-out lines. I’m not complaining though, because it turns out to have been time well spent. It has in fact, made me pause and pay attention to some…
The Other (Not Quite As) Immaculate Conception
Preached FCCW. December 9, 2018 Luke 1:68-79 Improbable pregnancies are a recurring theme in the Bible. None more so than the one we celebrate every 25th of December. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was found to be with child even though she was a virgin. What has come to be known as “The Immaculate Conception.” While the Immaculate Conception is the one and only perfect 10 on the scale of miraculous births, highly unlikely pregnancies can be found scattered…
Signs
Preached FCCW, December 2, 2018 (Advent 1C) Luke 21:25-36 Jesus once told a parable about signs. He said. “Look at a fig tree. As soon as it sprouts leaves you know it is a sign that a change of seasons is just around the corner.” With the season of Advent, comes the many signs that Christmas is coming soon. There are signs in homes and public places, in the form of Christmas trees and bright lights. Even Black Friday…
Truth on Trial
Preached FCCW November 25, 2018 John 18:33-38a Many courts of law, in various different nations throughout the Western world share a common feature. That common feature would be a certain statue. A statue of a woman named “Lady Justice.” Lady Justice may not look exactly the same in every courthouse where you find her. Some details of her appearance differ according to the differences in how the sculptors who created her, envisioned her in their minds. But you know…
Provoking One Another
Preached FCCW November 18, 2018 Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25 When you open up the Bible, what do you expect to find? Stories that teach us about what God is like? Moral lessons to guide us? Personal comfort for difficult times? Inspiration? All of that is there in the Bible. But, when you open your Bible to the passage we just read from the Epistle to the Hebrews, what you read there is something you might not expect to find.
The War to End All Wars
Preached FCCW, November 11, 2018 (Veterans Day Sunday) Isaiah 2:1-4 Hebrews 9:24-28 This morning we will mark Veterans Day by joining with houses of worship in many other communities by our participation in the Bells for Peace event. Bells for Peace is a commemoration of the armistice that was signed 100 years ago this day, to bring the First World War to its conclusion. World War I was billed as the War to End All Wars. As we all…
Between Alpha and Omega
FCCW 11-4-2018 All Saints Day Revelation 21:1-6a S. Eliot’s poem “East Coker” begins with the verse, “In my beginning is my end.” And, it concludes with the words, “In my end is my beginning.” Eliot seems to be pointing us towards an understanding of the ways our origins and our destiny shape the people we are in the in-between times of our lives. The Bible also has a lot to say about beginnings and endings, and their…
First Hand Faith
Preached FCCW, October 28, 2018 Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Hebrews 7:23-28 A new bride was preparing a ham dinner for her parents and in-laws, when her husband noticed that his wife cut off two apparently good ends of the ham before it went into the oven. When he asked her why she did that, she thought about it for a moment, and then said, “That’s the way my mother always fixed a ham.” After dinner he asked his…