Texts: First Reading Isaiah 40:21-31 Psalm 147:1-11, 20c Second Reading 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 Gospel Mark 1:29-39 Manuscript: My first Sunday in this church was Transfiguration Sunday, which, last year, fell on February 22. The church and civil calendars do not always line up perfectly. The beginning of the church year, Advent, can fall either the last Sunday in November […]

Texts: First Reading Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalm 111:1-10 Second Reading 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Gospel Mark 1:21-28 Manuscript: It is probably a good thing that I am preaching to a camera today. Not only because of the continuing, and mutating pandemic, not only because of the snow that continues to fall, but because it prevents me from asking for a show […]

Texts: First Reading Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 Second Reading 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Gospel Mark 1:14-20 Manuscript: I expect many of you know the children’s Sunday School story version of Jonah. I think most people remember the story about Jonah and the whale, or, more properly, big fish. The story about how, like Jonah, we cannot run from God, […]

Texts: First Reading 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20) Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 Second Reading 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Gospel John 1:43-51 Manuscript: This is another week that has been hard to write. We have heard threats of more domestic attacks, some for today, on state capitols, the federal capitol, and even on perceived “liberal” churches, particularly in Arizona and Montana. We have […]

Texts: First Reading Jeremiah 31:7-14 Psalm 147:12-20 Second Reading Ephesians 1:3-14 Gospel John 1:(1-9) 10-18 Manuscript: A few weeks ago, the Session had a special meeting for the sole purpose of discussing plans for a return to in-person worship. We had already taken some steps. Over the summer, we added hand-sanitizer stations at the doors. We had all the […]

Texts: First Reading 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Response Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 Second Reading Romans 16:25-27 Gospel Luke 1:26-38 Manuscript: I hope our call to worship this morning seemed, at least, a little familiar. Last week, we talked about how Mary was, let’s say “undervalued” by the Reformation and remains so by many Protestant churches. There are other practices the […]

Texts: First Reading Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Gospel Luke 1:46b-55 Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Gospel John 1:6-8, 19-28 Manuscript: I once heard a story about a Dutch Reform Church in the Netherlands. A new minister arrived and noticed that every Sunday as the people left the church, they paused before the same spot, and many reverently touched the […]

Texts: First Reading Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 Second Reading 2 Peter 3:8-15a Gospel Mark 1:1-8 Manuscript: A voice cries out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. If you were paying attention, you might have noticed a slight difference between the passage from Isaiah and the way that passage is quoted in Mark. In Isaiah, the […]

Texts: First Reading Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Gospel Mark 13:24-37 Manuscript: Advent is, I always feel, an odd time. It’s a season often overlooked, wedged, as it is, in this country between Thanksgiving and Christmas, filled with the rush to find, wrap, and possibly mail gifts, and, in a normal year, studded with […]

Texts: First Reading Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Psalm 100:1-5 Second Reading Ephesians 1:15-23 Gospel Matthew 25:31-46 Manuscript: Today is Christ the King Sunday, it is, as Maggie mentioned, the end of the liturgical year. It is also a bit of an odd day. Pope Pius XI first instituted the Feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday of October […]