I know today is Indigenous Peoples Day. But I started to write this last week on International Day of the Girl. Is it ok to celebrate women today too? I think so. It seems like a good time to share a post I wrote this summer for my church blog. As I often proclaim, I …
Tag: Woodridge UMC
‘Temptation Wilderness’: a sermon on Matthew chapter 4
This is probably a bit odd, but despite the sermon title, I never did make a connection between the temptations Jesus faced in chapter 4 of Matthew's* gospel and any of the recent TV shows that play on that theme. Boy howdy, did I make a slew of other references and winks, though. 'Cause, you …
Continue reading ‘Temptation Wilderness’: a sermon on Matthew chapter 4
‘Now for Something Completely Extra’: a Christmas Eve sermon
I know it's New Year's Eve, but let's get in the WABAC Machine and set it for...one week ago. Way back when it was Christmas Eve. I don't know if you've heard, but Christmas Eve is kind of a big deal in (most) Christian churches. It certainly is in our congregation. Christmas Eve at Woodridge United …
Continue reading ‘Now for Something Completely Extra’: a Christmas Eve sermon
‘Everybody Move’: a sermon on Luke 2 & ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’
The fourth and final Sunday of Advent happened the day before Christmas Eve.* So it was already a challenge to separate Sunday's message from one to give the next day. Add on the bonus level challenge of the same scripture reading as Christmas Eve (Luke 2:8-20)...and the result is one confused preacher. Fortunately, I had …
Continue reading ‘Everybody Move’: a sermon on Luke 2 & ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’
An arresting thought
"Some things are worth losing for." I was driving, listening to a podcast (my current preferred in-car entertainment) when I heard that statement. It was arresting. Almost literally. I was so struck by that thought that I had to pull over to process it for a moment. "Some things are worth losing for." Ta-Nehisi Coates, …
A Halloween unlike any other…
...(said in Jim Nantz voice, of course). A peek into our office today: That's Lead Pastor the Rev. Danita R. Anderson with me preparing for our church's preschool to parade by our offices. It's a tremendous gift to work with Danita, who is always ready to laugh. One of the reasons we work well together …
Wise Words?: a sermon on 1Kings 3
Yesterday, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi walked into Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 people as they worshipped. This terrible, tragic, heart-breaking, hateful, and hate-filled act must be renounced -- especially by Christians. Our faith has for too long and too often been used to justify violent anti-Semitism. I hope resistance to such …
‘Exit Stage Left’: a sermon on Exodus 14
For most weeks this fall, we're following the Narrative Lectionary. Because the best narratives -- the best stories -- are powerful, moving, inspiring, and endlessly fascinating. (More on that in upcoming, non-sermon posts.) I usually chaff when the assigned readings skip over the difficult parts, so instead we read almost all of Exodus chapter 14. …
Ruth: The New Order, a sermon on Ruth 3&4
Our Ruth trilogy comes to an end this week as we look at the last two chapters of this fantastic and, as it turns out, fantastically relevant story. I feel like there is still so much to be said about the book of Ruth. Which, I suppose, is part of what makes it so great -- …
Ruth the Rom Com? a sermon on Ruth 2
Genre matters. We know this. Almost instinctively, we know this. Genre helps determine what we expect from a story and how we understand that story. We read and react much differently to, say, an issue of National Geographic than we do to an issue of a superhero comic. Sometimes it only takes a few words …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 