The Psalms of Lent was our theme for the season at Woodridge United Methodist Church. as we prepare to enter Holy Week, I thought it would be fun to collect all the Psalms we used in one place...so I did. Each Sunday in Lent we first heard the Psalm from the New Revised Standard Version …
Tag: preaching
“Eat the Bread…For a Stronger, Kinder Faith: Redefining Liturgy, part 2” Oct.7 sermon
Here's my sermon from Sunday (October 7). As I'm sure you've figured out, I called it "Eat This Bread...For a Stronger, Kinder Faith: Redefining Liturgy, part 2." Part 1 was last week. Part 3 drops next week (October 21) at our Evening Worship. Again, this sermon was inspired and informed by my reading of Brian …
Jonah, Jesus & Us: Jan. 22 sermon “Changing Speech, Speaking Change”
I always feel inadequate when it comes to posting my sermons. Most all the blogging pastors I know are great at posting brilliant manuscripts, and most of them manage to do so by early Sunday morning. Meanwhile, I usually don't have a manuscript. But that's ok because I think sermons are auditory (and visual) events …
Continue reading Jonah, Jesus & Us: Jan. 22 sermon “Changing Speech, Speaking Change”
Sermonating for Sunday…night!
This Sunday night is the first trial run for a new alternative worship gathering at my church. I'm definitely experiencing that typical emotional cocktail of excitement (We're doing something new! An idea of mine that others have helped birth!) and nervousness (What if no one attends? What if we suck? What if we think it's …
Sermonating for Sunday: Gleeful Outsiders?
The texts for this week (we almost always follow the lectionary) create an odd juxtaposition of themes. Matthew 22:1-14 seems, at least at first glance, to be yet another affirmation that God is capricious tyrant, a violent bastard with a terrible temper. Meanwhile, over in Philippians 4:1-9, Paul gently and beautifully reminds us to "rejoice …
Pondering Pentecost
As I continue to prepare my sermon for tomorrow’s worship - it’s Pentecost Sunday! - I seem to have a lot of different ideas swirling through my head. So I thought I would share them with you. Welcome to the chaos that is my brain function! 1. First of all there’s the scripture for the …
Mighty Waters
Greetings from warm and sunny Pasadena, California! I am here for a conference called Mighty Waters: Preaching and Living God’s Passion for Justice. If you know me at all, you can probably already tell why I was drawn to this gathering. I’m all about striving to understand ourselves as called to live in – to …
Sunday’s coming
It's Saturday night. That means you've made it through Maundy (Holy) Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. For us pastor types it also means it will soon be time to share cogent, coherent thoughts in the form of an Easter Sunday sermon! That's the mounting pressure, anxiety-inducing meaning of "Sunday's coming." If you're still figuring …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 