You might not expect a minister to dislike a Bible story — but I really am disturbed by the Old Testament story of Abraham being instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac.  So this is a sermon of protest, I guess …

 My Least Favorite Story

Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13:1-5

One of the curious gifts of coming to faith as an adult was seriously encountering many of the stories in the bible for the first time. Some stories turned out to be full of meaning and delight for me – the story of Esther, for example, whose courage saved her people, or of the Syrophoenician woman who challenged Jesus when he tried to brush her off. Other stories, however, turned out to be horrifying; what Biblical Scholar Phyllis Trible [1984] called Texts of Terror.

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Sometimes stories in the Bible, especially from the Old Testament, seem harsh to our modern ears.  Still, there is something for us to learn from this tale of Hagar and Sarah.

Hagar and Sarah

Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17  Hagar and Sarah

This summer we are following the story of the Patriarchs of the faith: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But as we do that, we are also following the Matriarchs of Israel: Sarah and Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. They are an interesting bunch, these women of the ancient past. They often appear by wells or springs, particularly when they are about to become wives. They are often barren, but those who are to have children receive divinely sent annunciations of one kind or another. Some engage in trickery or deception to further the careers of their husbands or sons.

It is hard to know, from our modern perspective, just what to make of all of this.

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Sarah (whose story is told in book of Genesis) was an old woman when she learned she was going to have a son.  Reasonably enough, she laughed.  That got me to thinking about the theological meaning of laughter …

Laughter

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7  and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Do you know what happened when Sarah laughed? Well, yes, God noticed and asked Abraham about it, and Sarah denied it; it is a nice bit of dialogue between God and Sarah. But do you know what happened when Sarah laughed?

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I try to post my sermons here every week, but we missed some during March and April. 

You can find all the sermons since February 1 2008 by clicking on Sermons on the right hand side of this page. 

Here are the ones I just posted:

February 24, 2008   Water and Witness

March 2, 2008         Sticking with Your Story

March 23, 2008        Do Not Be Afraid

March 30, 2008        Book of Life

April 13, 2008          Awesome

April 27, 2008          If You Love Me

The story about the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand got me to thinking about storms, sand, and rocks.

Storms, Sand, and Rocks

Psalm 46      Matthew 7:21-29

We know about storms. We know about sand. The rock is the challenge.

There is something almost eerie about having this text this morning, when storms have been so much in the news lately. There was the cyclone in Burma (aka Myanmar), the tornado in Hugo, Minnesota, and the heavy rains that followed the earthquake that did such terrible damage in China. Meteorologists tell us that severe storms seem to be increasing, part of the larger pattern of climate change that we are watching with growing alarm, but our ancient ancestor who wrote Psalm 46 saw the same chaos as we see today.

But not all storms come from atmospheric disturbances.

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I may love my laptop, but for lots of young adults, it is all about the phone — the cell phone, that is.  Since we were honoring our high school seniors today, I decided to try to speak their language — the text message!

Baccalaureate Sunday

Psalm 131    Matthew 6:24-34 

Text Messages

Those of you who have been watching the website over the last few weeks have no doubt figured out that I have become very interested and engaged in that form of electronic communication. In fact I went to a continuing education event at the end of April that was designed to introduce pastors to the way the Internet and other electronic media are being used by young people – and how the church can use those media to be part of their world.

One of the things I learned at that seminar was that for teenagers, it is all about the phone. Among those with the financial means, the laptop or home computer is just for homework; everything else is on the phone: calls, text messages, surfing the Internet, reading e-mail – all on the phone. Presumably if I really wanted these seniors to pay attention to my sermon, I wouldn’t preach it, I would text it.

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Many folks were moved by Damen’s sermon last Sunday, his response to UCC President John Thomas’ invitation for us to begin a Sacred Conversation about Race.

And it Lingers

Gen. 1:1-2:4a  and 2 Cor. 13:11-13

It seemed like an innocent idea. It was a Friday at the YMCA day camp in Duluth. I was working as a counselor and every Friday we did some sort of special event as a way of ending the week on a high note. This week the counselors decided to have a carnival with various stations. There was limbo, face painting, musical chairs, and pie throwing. I volunteered to let kids throw whip-cream pies at me. Only one other counselor was brave enough to volunteer for the duty. So she and I took turns letting kids throw whip-cream pies at us. We took our punishment for about and hour and a half. By the end of the time, my head, chest and arms were covered in whip-cream. The kids were amused, I was amused and I ate more whip-cream in an hour and a half than I ever thought I would.

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In my sermon today I talk about Strengthsfinder, a really interesting on-line inventory that — as the name suggests — helps people to identify what their strengths are.  I met Strengthsfinder through Jane Burg, a local “Strengths Coach” at a retreat with some clergy colleagues.  As you’ll see in the sermon, it got me to thinking about St. Paul’s words, “Now there are a variety of gifts …” [1 Corinthians 12:4]

Many Gifts, One Spirit

Earlier this year, I went on a retreat with my clergy colleagues with whom I do Bible study every week. We spent part of our time together working with an interesting inventory called the Strengthsfinder. We each took about a half hour to fill out the questionnaire on the Internet, and then printed out the list of the five strengths that were identified by our responses. Jane Burg, who is a local Strengths Coach, then met with us to help us make use of this information.

This exercise turned out to be valuable in all sorts of ways.

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 We had a great Earth Day on May 4 — lots of displays and information after the service, and a sermon during the service that invited everyone to dig in the dirt, play in the water, and says Thanks to a tree.

Here’s the sermon — the title comes from the story of the Ascension in the book of Acts.

The Ends of the Earth

Acts 1:6-14 ;1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11 

It is an irresistible image for the artist: gather up your crayons, stir up the paints, unfold the easel, grab your camera. Jesus is lifted up to heaven on a cloud. The problem for us, of course, is that all of those wonderful works of art seem either quaint or naïve to us – we who know that heaven isn’t up and that clouds are not elevators.

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If you are going to be Christian, you have to talk about Jesus.  I have learned that lots of people in our congregation are somewhat self-conscious (or even embarrassed) to talk much about him.  So in this sermon from April 27, 2008, I explored what it might mean to talk about loving Jesus ..

If You Love Me

Acts 17:22-31  John 14:15-21 

Most of the time I object to scripture study and sermons that treat individual verses from the Bible as though they were “sound bytes.” With a few notable exceptions (like the book of Proverbs and some of the Psalms), every verse has a context – it is part of a story or a letter, for example. Understanding the verse requires that we study that context as well as the specific words. Well, today I am going to make an exception and look at just nine words from the Gospel of John.

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I had the pleasure of preaching at Kathy’s ordination on April 19, and of presenting her the gifts from our congregation — a beautiful red stole that Mary Wood brought home from Bethlehem, and a quilt filled with signatures and good wishes of members and friends.

She chose First Corinthians 13 as the text for the sermon — the famous words about love that are often read at weddings.  Here’s what I had to say about that …

Love and Work

This is not a wedding. I know it seems like it could be: we received beautiful invitations, many of us have traveled to get here, the church is decorated with flowers, the people are dressed in special clothing, promises will be made, there will be a reception afterwards, and – of course – we just heard a reading of First Corinthians 13.

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Reading the Bible can be like going into a time machine — we go back to another age when life was quite different than what we experience today.  In this sermon for April 13, 2008 — which was Confirmation Sunday in our congregation — I reflect a little about the particular kind of time machine that the Bible can be …

 Awesome

Psalm 23 (sung)  Acts 2:42-47

Even though it has probably been overused in recent years, the word “awe” is a wonderful word – wonderful because it conveys not just one single emotion, but a whole set of emotions that seem like they ought to be incompatible: dread, veneration, and wonder. It is the feeling we get when we are overwhelmed by an experience: not just surprised or impressed, but moved to a sense of the holy, and suddenly aware of our own small place in the universe.

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The New Testament tells us a lot about Jesus — but even so, we really only get the highlights.  In this sermon for March 30, 2008, I reflect about what makes a story worthy of being a “highlight.”

Book of Life

1 Peter 1:3-9  John 20:19-31; 21:25 

Last Tuesday evening, Jean, her mom, and I went to the Ordway theatre in St. Paul to see a performance of “The Drowsy Chaperone” (which was, by the way, quite a charming evening of musical theatre). On the way back to our car we couldn’t help overhearing the conversation behind us. A young woman looked across the street and asked what the building was. “The library,” answered her companion.

“That whole building is full of books?”

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Most of the angels in the Bible greet humans by saying “Be Not Afraid.”  These are hard words to hear  — especially in our world where there seem to be new things to be afraid of nearly every day.    Easter has something to teach us about living without being controlled by our fears. That’s the theme I explore in this sermon for March 23, 2008.

Do Not Be Afraid

Jeremiah 31:1-6  Matthew 28:1-10 

The angel of the Lord said it to Zechariah: “Do not be afraid, for your prayer is heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.” [Luke 1:13]

The angel Gabriel said it to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” [Luke 1:30]

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Here is the sermon preached by our seminarian, Damen Heitman, on Mar. 9, 2008.

John 11:1-45
Ezekiel 37:1-14

Officially, this Sunday is known as the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Not a very exciting or exhilarating moniker. We are still a week away from Palm Sunday and two weeks away from Easter Sunday. See those title are intriguing, I want to know more about those. But the fifth Sunday of Lent? That sounds like just another Sunday. Boring, dry, etc. etc. So what can be done about that? More…Well, I don’t who is on the Commission on Sunday Titles Committee, but if they ever ask me to rename the fifth Sunday in Lent, I would recommend they call it coming attractions Sunday or perhaps sneak peak Sunday. Continue…