Pentecost Dramatic Reading
Pentecost Dramatic Reading Pastor: We start in a room.Voice 2: It is crowded with disciples.Voice 3: They are waiting.Voice 4: They are full of questions.Voice 5: Jesus rose from the dead.Voice 6: He told them to wait here, in Jerusalem,Voice 7: and they saw Him rise into heaven.Pastor: He told them they would receive the Holy Spirit. Voice 2: The city is filling up…
Psalm 67
I thought I’d try something different this morning. So I’ll be using Psalm 67 as a framework to speak a new prayer for us this morning. 1: May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord’s face shine on us with grace and mercy. The Lord look upon us with favor and ☩ give us peace. 2: And we pray for this blessing for us–us writ large, not just those of…
Joy
Sermon Text: Psalm 148 Our psalm today made me want to laugh and sing. God is good and powerful! Let us worship together! It filled me with joy. And–look. I know that worship is not always an act of joy. We can come to worship and be too sad about the griefs of our life to do anything but be here. We can get distracted by shopping lists and worries and whatever’s…
Easter, Again
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18; Matthew 28:1-10 Back when all this COVID-19 stuff first started–so, you know, 10 years ago–and we closed the church building, Council and I also decided that when we returned to in-person worship we would celebrate Easter again, together. This was very early, back when we all were picturing that we’d be worshiping again in a few…
Longing
Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 What do you long for? That was how I connected with this passage, this story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Maybe it’s because of having lived in the desert: at noon, the sun is high above and beating down on you and washing the colors out of everything. The heat is so intense that…
Good News
Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a, Psalm 121, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, John 3:1-17 This story of Nicodemus and Jesus in the garden–the way Nicodemus seems to have snuck away to see Jesus at night, Jesus’ teachings, this image of two men surrounded by the sounds of crickets and big green trees (fine, that last one’s my own image, and Israel is nothing like that, but…
Heroes and Villains
Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Psalm 32, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11 I think you all probably know by now that I love a good fantasy novel. I love a good Star Wars–well, anything, really. I love a good superhero movie. I love a good sci-fi series. I love all of it! And one of the things that I love about all of these types of stories is the fight: the struggle of…
Ashes and Croaking
Scripture: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Psalm 51:1-17, 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Apparently there’s this application for your smartphone called WeCroak. Five times a day, at completely random times, it will remind you: Don’t forget, you’re going to die. Ash Wednesday is the church’s equivalent of WeCroak. Remember, one day you will…
Transformers
Scripture Readings: Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9 Does anyone else remember the Transformers TV show? Or perhaps the apparently never-ending series of action movies by the same name? They are about alien robots who come to earth and befriend humans while defending humanity from the evil Decepticons. They often hide in plain sight by being able…
Beautiful Gifts
Scripture: Isaiah 60:1-6, Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12 One of my favorite things about any holiday, or really anything else I love and enjoy, is snarky internet commentary. I can click through witty tweets about Harry Potter or Star Wars or Christmas for–let’s just say longer than I should. So I really enjoyed the following tweet when I saw…