11th Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 19:9-18 Psalm 85:8-13 Romans 10:5-15 Matthew 14:22-33 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes to us in the midst of storms. Amen Faith is simple, Paul seems to say in our reading from Romans this morning, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” that’s it and it is a universal option

10th Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 55:1-5 Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14"13-21 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who has compassion for us. Amen The crowds were hungry for more than food. In fact the food part of this story, which is amazing and what we tend to focus on is really only an incidental part of the big picture, the food was not the reason they were out there in the wilderness, following J

9th Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one whose grace assures us that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. Amen “Have you understood all this?” Jesus asks his disciples at the end of his barrage of parables. “They answered, ‘yes.’” A yes which seems a tad overconfident to me but then what else were t

8th Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 44:6-8 Psalm 86:11-16 Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who will sort everything out. Amen So It’s always a fun week when the gospel mentions sinners burning in a furnace of fire and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Welcome back from vacation…. It’s a dramatic image that captures our imagination and there is a certain tradition of preachers wh

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 28:5-9 Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who brings the kingdom of God. Amen We have a very short gospel for today, only three verses, and on the face of it, it seems like a pretty simple message, that all kinds of welcome, even small gestures, are important to Jesus. Indeed many congregations, including ours, like to empha

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 20:7-13 Psalm 69:7-10, 16-18 Romans 6:1b-11 Matthew 10:24-39 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who values us more than many sparrows. Amen The other morning when I asked my husband how he’d slept the night before he said he’d had some trouble falling asleep but on the plus side he used that time to do some reading and then proceeded to excitedly tell me that he had learned that t

2nd Sunday after Pentecost Hosea 5:15-6:6 Psalm 50:7-15 Romans 4:13-25 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Amen Abraham was not perfect. Paul really oversells Abraham as he lifts him up as the exemplar of faith, of what an ideal relationship with God looks like. Which is kind of funny because doing so runs c

Palm Sunday * Matthew 21:1-11 Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 21:12-16, 33-46 Matthew 26:1-16 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the truly powerful one who comes riding on a donkey. Amen From the very beginning of his gospel narrative Matthew has been contrasting the power and authority of God with those who claim authority and power in the world. After Jesus is born, the magi come to King Herod as

First Sunday in Lent Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes to bring justification and life for all, amen. Why? It’s the question that leads to other questions, especially from curious four year olds such as the one who resides with me. Why? is an important question but after the fourth or fifth or sixth why? In a row it is tempting to respond: “Tha

Ash Wednesday Joel 2:1-2, 12-*17 Psalm 51:1-17 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the source of life, amen. The call of Lent is the call to return to God. Often in this call to return we hear it urging us to acknowledge the worst of ourselves, to reform to avoid punishment from God. It doesn’t seem to be the most uplifting of messages. To be fair we hear this perspective in the

Transfiguration Sunday Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 2 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who reveals the glory of the Lord to us and raises us up out of fear. amen Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation is his scientific and mathematical explanation for how gravity works, while even the briefest of internet searches will yield formulas and detailed explanations it can be most simply summed

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Micah 6:1-8 Psalm 15 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who richly blesses us. Amen God begins with blessings. This is the truth that Jesus points to as he begins teaching the disciples and the crowds that have gathered around him in our gospel for today. It is a truth that may not be so apparent in their lives. Matthew tells us that after he calls

Third Sunday After Epiphany Isaiah 9:1-4 Psalm 27:1, 4-9 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who proclaims the kingdom of heaven and calls us into relationship. Amen How do we know when it’s the right time? The right time for something new, the right time to take a stand for or against something, the right time to repent, the right time to change? Is it, as some have suggested

Baptism of Our Lord Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes alongside us to fulfill all righteousness, Amen. “What then are we to say about these things?” This question from Paul in Romans chapter 8(v31-39) echoed in my heart this week, not only was I spending time with the passage in preparation for Denny’s funeral but also I was, to paraphrase Karl Barth

4th Sunday in Advent Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7,17-19 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from love who says we are necessary. Amen Have you ever wondered if Joseph is really all that necessary for the Christmas story? He doesn’t say anything, he really just seems to be there for his family connections, which I’m sure God could find another way to make, and let’s be honest, God and Mary are really

3rd Sunday in Advent Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm 146:5-10 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is to come. Amen Are we there yet? Growing up we took several long family road trips and my parents always packed a large bag of mixed candy - something only seen around our house in such quantities at Halloween, and when we were on the road as the day stretched on and my brother and I were done bein

2nd Sunday in Advent Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from our coming peacemaker. Amen Today we lit the second candle on the Advent wreath, the candle of peace, and in our scriptures we have a vision of the peace that the messiah will bring from the prophet Isaiah, most vividly imaged in the pairs of animals that are naturally at odds with one another, or rather one usuall

First Sunday in Advent Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is on the way! Amen Happy New Year! Yes, once again we are at the beginning of the church calendar, the annual cycle we use to mark time that guides us first through Jesus’ life and then through considering how to live as disciples of Jesus, and as always we begin with a call to Wake Up! God is comin

Due to weather we are not having Ash Wednesday worship. We will be offering ashes at the service on Sunday. In the meantime, if you would...

Ash Wednesday Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 51:1-17 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 “Home is Where the Heart Is” Dear fellow...