Sermons & Worship by Rev. Laurie DeMott (Page 12)

Revelation 2:1-7 Last week, I preached about the ways in which our institutions and corporate lives develop certain characters that endure even when individuals within those institutions come and go.  Those corporate cultures are persistent over time and resistant to change, and consequently when that institutional culture includes injustice or inequality, it can feel like we are, to use the metaphors of the book of Revelation, battling dragons.  I left you at the end of that sermon with a promise…

Revelation 1:9-2:7 This past week, I was listening to a discussion on the radio in which one of the broadcasters was relating a story about his attic and he said, “My attic has those drop down stairs, you know the ones that you can pull down that turn into steps… what do you call them?”   The other speaker said, “I don’t know.  I think they are just called drop down attic stairs,” and then he added, “But I bet…

The Revelation to John 1:1-8 Our book group is reading a book called “75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know”.  1 We’ve been working on it for a long time because every chapter elicits so much discussion that it is hard for us to cover more than three masterpieces per week, but a little while ago, we finally reached the 20th century, and this past week were introduced to the work of French composer Olivier Messiaen who wrote his most famous work…

I Peter 2:1-5 Like most occupations, the ministry has collegial associations which meet on a periodic basis supposedly to give clergy an opportunity to share ideas and provide support to one another. My first encounter with such a group came when I was a nervous new minister of the tender age of 26 and I was invited to attend the monthly meeting of the Allegany-Cattaraugus American Baptist clergy, or as they called themselves, the Alley-Cats. The presiding minister of the…

John 12:8 Easter is typically about bunnies and chicks and little cuddly lambs like we saw in Children’s Time because as I told the kids these baby animals represent new life and the possibility of a new beginning but in this sermon, I want to put aside those typical Easter animals and hear a message for us in an animal you will not find in your Easter basket, unless you were foolish enough to leave that basket unguarded, because that…

Romans 5:1-5 According to the apostle Paul, one of the characteristics of the Christian life is hope. Even when every indicator would lead the average person to hunker down in despair, Paul says, the Christian will remain a person of hope, and “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” ‘Hope does not disappoint,’ Paul claims. Try telling that to the crowds who…

Luke 14:25-30    One of the most popular game shows in the history of T.V. is the show, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”    Apparently from the ratings it has received, the answer to the question “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” is, “A whole lot of people.”  The show first aired in 1999 and has run continuously since, occasionally changing networks or hosts and adding new rules to keep the format fresh, but it has remained at heart a…

James 1:22-27 An Arabian proverb says, “All sunny days make the Sahara desert.”  The Arab who coined the proverb was not really foretelling the problems of climate change but was using the common knowledge that we all hold about the natural world to comment on the human condition. Just as the world needs some gloomy days of rain in order to nourish the roots of its plants, so too, the proverb’s author said, the human spirit requires occasional tribulations in order…

Ephesians 2:4-22 My grandmother, who lived to be 93 years old, was one of five children — the only sister to four brothers — and at the end of her life if you had asked her how many siblings she had, she would have replied, “I have four brothers.” Notice the present tense: have. My grandmother outlived all of her siblings, starting with her twin brother who died in infancy leaving his sister to grow up without him, and yet…

Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11; Mark 8:27-30 [Intro to scripture]  During the weeks of Lent, I will be preaching a series on “Essential Questions,” looking at things such as “What Matters most?” “What about Suffering?” “Is There Hope?”  In the interest of full disclosure, I want to acknowledge that I have borrowed the series idea from a minister named Martin Thielin 1 but while I credit him for the inspiration, all blame for the actual sermons I produce in this series should fall on me because…