Sermon

“The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not `What a lovely sermon!’ but `I will do something.’”                                                                      Francis de Sales After sitting through a long and tedious sermon on Sunday morning, a six-year-old boy asked his father what the preacher did the rest of the […]

Sermon: “A Sermon on Sermons”

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I think the fact that we’ve been doing a lot of baptisms over the past few months is a wonderful thing; baptisms for people of all ages. And it’s great that so many of our young families have been having new babies. It means that our little extended church family […]

Sermon: Body Language

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I really appreciate what BJ shared during the Children’s Time this morning, about the `circle of the church.’ It makes an important point about the beliefs, the values and principles that get passed down – transmitted from one generation to the next – and which defines our faith and our […]

Sermon: Faith of our Fathers

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A Vermont farmer was sitting on the porch with his wife. As he sat there, he started realizing just how much she meant to him. And it was about time—they had been married for forty-two years; and she had been such a huge help to him, a tireless worker, and […]

Sermon: Created to Praise

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In the first congregation I served, in Cleveland, there were these two extremely elderly gentlemen – both widowers – who would always sit together in worship on Sunday morning. I remember distinctly, in the middle pew section, just about six rows back from the chancel/pulpit. And I can see their […]

Sermon: RESTORING SABBATH

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zthe Cross
One of my college art professors at Wichita State University, who grew up on a farm outside of St. Louis, told me that the first time he drove into Kansas he was fascinated by the fact that all the trees and vegetation were leaning toward the north. “It really baffled […]

Sermon: Listening to the Wind

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Do you remember, when you were a little kid in school, out on the playground for recess or PE, and you were playing a team sport? And do you remember the playground politics involved in picking a team? There would be captains (usually the best players/natural leaders) who would chose […]

Sermon: Chosen

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When Diane and I moved into our house in New Mexico several years ago, we found a tangle bramble of twisted branches spanning half the length of the stucco wall that enclosed our backyard. Seeing it for the first time, I remember wondering, “What in the world is this contorted […]

Sermon: THE FAMILY VINEDRESSER

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A number of years ago, late one Saturday morning, I received a phone from one of the parishioners of the church I was serving in Cleveland, Ohio. It was Karen, a young mother of four small children, and she was just beside herself. She told me that her youngest child, […]

Sermon: The Shepherd’s Fold

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