Sermons & Worship by Rev. Laurie DeMott (Page 2)

Scripture: Acts 11:19-26; Galatians 2:7-13    Introduction to scripture: I have been preaching this fall through the historical periods of the Hebrew scriptures, talking about the faith lessons the Bible wants us to learn from those periods and we are now going to turn to the Christian scriptures, the New Testament. While the Hebrew scriptures form 2/3 of our Bible and cover a period of about 2000 years, the New Testament, the last 1/3 of our Bible, covers only about 100…

Scripture: Sirach 5:9-12; James 1:19-26 Introduction to scripture: I have been preaching through the Hebrew Scriptures and the historical periods of the Jewish people, and before we turn to the New Testament next week, I want to look briefly at a genre of biblical writings that don’t fit easily into a historical category and that is the genre of Wisdom writings. The biblical wisdom writings are those writings that are less concerned about sweeping theological arguments or historical events and…

Scripture: Job 12:7-8 Tomorrow, October 4th, is the Feast of Saint Francis in the Catholic Church and so today around the globe many churches are participating in the ceremony of the Blessing of the Animals dedicated to his memory. St. Francis is one of those cross-over saints who has become popular among Protestants as well as Catholics because of his dedication to the other creatures with whom we share this planet. Born in Italy in 1181, Francis renounced his wealth…

Scripture: Daniel 1; Zechariah 7:4-10 IntroductionI have been preaching through the historical periods of the Hebrew scriptures discussing the lessons that we can learn from each of them. To review: we heard about the call of Abraham and Sarah to follow a God who can accomplish what seems to our human minds to be impossible. We listened to the story of the Exodus and God’s assurance that God knows our suffering. Through the period of the Judges, and the story…

Scripture: Daniel 3:1-30 A couple of weeks ago, I gave the ceremonial prayers at Alfred University’s convocation. As the platform party waited to process, I watched the flock of incoming students shuffle by us to take their seats and noted, as I do every year, how awkward and self-conscious they all seemed. There wasn’t much chatter in their straggled lines and many faces were strained with anxiety, their postures tight and insecure. Most of them had only bid their parents…

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:2-9, 33-34 Traditionally Rally Day has been the start of our Sunday School year when we not only launch our program year but dedicate our Sunday School teachers. Because of Covid, we were unable to have Sunday School last year and this year is still undecided but just because we haven’t had a formal Sunday School program in a while doesn’t mean that no teaching has been going on. In fact, I believe that when a congregation is…

Scripture: I Samuel 17 I am preaching through the historical periods of the Hebrew scriptures and the lessons we are supposed to draw from each of them. In the stories of the father and mother of our faith — Abraham and Sarah — we learn that what seems impossible to people is possible with God. In the story of the Exodus, the Bible tells us that God hears and knows our suffering and will be with us until we are…

Scripture: Judges 9:1-21 The Bible is a book for all ages.  For the tender young ears of our littlest ones there is the story of Noah with his floating zoo or the story of Jonah swallowed by a whale like Pinocchio.  For the graying seniors, there are the psalms of comfort to sustain them, knowing that the Lord, their shepherd will guide them beside the still waters.  And for the pre-teen crowd, there is the book of Judges.  11 years…

Genesis 18:1-15; Isaiah 61:1-3   The story of Abraham and Sarah’s visitation by angels begins with this sentence:  “God appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre.”  God appeared at the oaks of Mamre; not God appeared at the crabapples of Mamre; or God appeared at the buckthorns of Mamre or at the honeysuckles or the weeping willows or the poplars or at the spiny hawthornes of Mamre, but “God appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre.”  When those first listeners of…

Paul’s Letter to Philemon     The Bible says that, as Christians, we are called to spread the gospel. While conservative Christians believe that that means winning souls to Christ, as progressive Christians we accept the legitimacy of other religions and we believe that Christianity is not the only pathway to God so what does spreading the gospel mean for us? I believe that it means that we are called to create a society grounded in justice; that we are called to convince…