Sermons & Worship (Page 28)

Luke 16:19-31 When my daughter Stacy was on the Alfred-Almond Track team, she had a T-shirt that read, “You know Track and Field is not your sport if you stop at each hurdle waiting for someone to open the gate.” If we go by today’s Dexter Time, we would have to conclude that Dexter is not made for track and field.  (For those listening to this as a podcast, I refer you to our Youtube channel and the video of…

Mark 4:26-32 As of today, 2.65 million people across the world have died from Covid-19, half a million of them in the US.  In his speech Thursday night, President Biden tried to come up with a comparison that would help us comprehend those numbers: “This is as many people as died in World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and Sept 11th,” Biden said trying to drive home the scope of the tragedy.  After he was done speaking, journalists…

Mark 3:13-19; Romans 16 How are you at remembering names?  Some of you might have a mind like a steel trap, able to retain names and faces for years after you have met someone.  Others of us are more mediocre and it may take a couple of greetings before the name gets engraved in our memories.  The worst I have ever seen, however, were Troy and Trevor, two boys I met one summer at Camp Vick, the American Baptist Church…

John 2:1-11 As I have mentioned, I have been preaching on the passages that each gospel writer has used to introduce us to Jesus and his ministry, because these opening passages set the tone for everything the gospel writers are about to say.  Authors recognize the power of the first impression and you can often anticipate the nature of the story to come just from the first few sentences of a book.  Listen, for example, to the opening paragraph of…

Luke 4:14-22, 31-32 One day in the land of make believe, the pastor of a small church announced during worship that there would be a meeting of the Church Board following the service. After the Postlude, the members of the Board gathered at the back of the sanctuary but just as they were about to begin, a stranger came in and sat down with them. It was a visitor who had attended worship for the first time that Sunday. The…

Matthew 5:1-9 This past Wednesday, the actress Gina Carano lost her job with Lucasfilms.  Carano was on the television series “The Mandalorian,” and for those not familiar with it, the Mandalorian is a show set in the Star Wars universe.  Even those of you who have never watched it may have heard of its most beloved character, Baby Yoda, and in the show, Gina Carano played a ‘tough as nails’ mercenary who helped the Mandalorian protect Baby Yoda from evil…

Mark 1:35-39     When I was in seminary, my New Testament professor, Beverly Gaventa, was a young mother of a three year old and I remember during one lecture she described what it was like to juggle child care and teaching.  “A few weeks ago,” she said, “I thought the ball joint on my car’s rear view mirror must be loose.  Every morning, I’d get into the car and adjust the mirror to perfect alignment but as I drove to child…

Mark 1:16-20 “Immediately:  without lapse of time; without delay; instantly; at once, with no object or space intervening.”  This is the way the dictionary defines the word ‘immediately’ but if you want to see what immediately looks like, just observe Peter, Andrew, James, and John in the first chapter of the gospel of Mark.  Mark says that when Jesus called to them, these four responded “immediately”, without delay, at once, with no thought of what they left behind. Have there…

John 1:35-42     Before I read you today’s scripture, I want to give you a little biblical background so put on your student hats.  Today’s scripture concerns the call of Jesus’ disciples but it is probably not the story that comes to mind when you think of that event.  Most of us think of the story in which Jesus comes upon Peter, Andrew, James, and John fishing and he says to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of…

Matthew 4:1-11 The theologian Karl Barth once said, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both,” as a reminder to preachers that sermons must be relevant to current events and that current events should always be seen through the lens of the Bible.  Well, this year, I have been taking Barth literally.  During the week as I am preparing my sermon, I have a Bible open on one side of my computer screen and on the other side…