Sermons & Worship by Rev. Laurie DeMott (Page 3)

Galatians 4:1-9 Let’s begin with an exercise.  I want you to close your eyes for a minute and visualize the scene I am about to describe to you.  It’s just a one sentence description so listen carefully: “The girl ate the cake and her mother came in and said, ‘What are you doing?’”  In your mind’s eye, visualize that scene.  There isn’t a right or wrong way of imagining this; I just want you to take a second to create…

Galatians 3:27-29 Some time ago, in the pre-pandemic years when people went out to eat, I was at a fancy restaurant for a family celebration of some sort when the couple at the next table ordered Sannakji.  A few minutes later, the server brought out a dish of raw baby octopus, their tiny tentacles spilling out over a plate doused in sesame oil, and as I watched, the couple popped those fleshy heads into their mouths with glee.  I cringed…

II Corinthians 4:7-11; I Corinthians 15:51-54     Today is the longest day of the year and today summer officially begins.  It is finally safe to put away your snow shovels, to switch out your long johns for shorts, and enjoy the outdoors.  When I was a child, before the days of ticks and Lyme disease, summer was also the time to put away shoes and socks and run barefoot through the grass picking wildflowers, chasing butterflies, tasting the clover, and chewing…

Genesis 28:10-17; Luke 7:36-50 One of the central paradoxes of the Christian faith is that we talk a lot about God guiding us, helping us, and being with us in times of trouble, and yet for all of our talk about God’s presence, most of us have had few, if any times, that we can point to and say without doubt that we knew in that moment with undeniable clarity that God was present.  Even if you have had an occasional mystical…

I Corinthians 6:12     I want to begin by asking you a question.  It seems to be a simple question, but I want you to consider it carefully before you answer. “Is there a Christian ethic?”  In other words, is there a set of ethical principles that you must adhere to if you claim to be a follower of Christ? I would answer “yes” to that question because if there is no ethic, then your behaviors don’t matter: you do what…

Acts 2:1-6 I want you to imagine for a minute that you are an artist and someone has hired you to paint a picture of God.  Now, I know the Ten Commandments tell us not to make any images of God but I want you to imagine not only that you are an artist but that you are an artist who has no religious morals.  The patron is willing to pay you a lot of money to violate the commandment…

John 3:1-10    May 16, 2021Union University Church   Reverend Laurie DeMott Nicodemus, cloaked in the darkness of his own uncertainty, came to Jesus in the night seeking the light of understanding.   “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God,” he said, hoping to open a conversation with Jesus about spiritual matters but Jesus didn’t even wait for Nicodemus’ question.  He went…

Matthew 18:23-24May 9, 2021Union University ChurchReverend Laurie DeMott Before preaching today’s sermon, I want to make a note on the translation I used.  Most modern translations quote Jesus as saying that you should forgive seventy-seven times,” but as a child I learned seven times seventy times which is based on an alternative manuscript.  I’ve always preferred the alternative version because I think it sounds more poetic, but either translation boils down to the same thing — a lot! What is…

I Corinthians 11:23-26 In 2010, an Anglican minister in Toronto ignited a Canada-wide controversy when she gave communion bread to a German Shepherd named Trapper.  The dog’s owner had been harassed by the police earlier in the week for sitting on the church’s steps and when he called the church to complain, they apologized and in a gesture of reconciliation invited him to come to worship with them that Sunday.  He accepted their offer and when he came, he brought…

Matthew 6:7-13; Philippians 4:10-14 Spring is finally arriving here in western NY and the birds are returning to my property.  Although I put out seed all winter, I’ve had to increase my offerings in order to accommodate the additional traffic.  Over the winter, I hosted chickadees, nuthatches, and red polls, but the red polls have flown north and purple finches, gold finches, juncos, and mourning doves have taken their place.  The finches and juncos were actually here all winter but…