Jason Micheli: The Syntax of Salvation
Jason Micheli says God speaks to us just as any other person speaks to us—through words. If you want to know people, you have to listen to what they say. And only by listening to what they say, outside of you, do they eventually get inside of you. Same is true with God.
Ben Dueholm: A Scarce and Precious Word
The story of God's call of Samuel reminds us that God remains free to speak and to act in ways we do not expect. We need to hear this today amid a long winter of a stubborn pandemic, food insecurity, power politics turning us into competing audiences divided by mutual suspicion and hostility
Tom Kenny: The Story of God
In his sermon on Mark 1, The Rev. Tom Kenny says God is ready to reveal the Good News to anyone who is ready to listen and hear the story of God.
Beth-Sarah Wright: Look Again! Choose Dignity
God knows each of us intimately, Dr. Beth-Sarah Wright tellsus—all our blemishes, our joys, our missteps—and yet God chooses to see our dignity. What might happen in our lives, our communities, our world, if we actually did that?
Kate Moorehead: The Word Among Us
In her sermon for the 1st Sunday after Christmas, Dean Kate Moorehead notes that when God said, “let there be light,” God spoke us into being. We are God’s communication, God’s joy, God’s dance. Just as Jesus is the Word, the Logos, we too are God’s messenger, God’s very message.
Kate Moorehead: Stepping Aside
The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead says that when the angel Gabriel announces God’s invitation to Mary, Mary steps aside for God’s will in her life. She bows before the glory of God. It is often the smallest acts of surrender, when we give up control rather than try to take it, that we allow God to enter the world in the most powerful ways.
Aisha Brooks-Lytle: Mary's Song
For the 3rd Sunday of Advent, the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle encourages us to consider Mary's song, and to write our own songs of hope, love, joy, and peace--to be inspired, to be anchored, and to be a witness.
Nate Phillips: To Be with the Baby
In his Advent sermon, Dr. Nate Phillips says God loves us and wants peace for us, and we can’t get there all by ourselves but we do have a part in it—not in making God love, but in turning around to experience how God loves.
Tyler Tankersley: "Jesus Is Coming—Look Busy"
Advent often gets lost in the shuffle between Thanksgiving and Christmas, says Tyler Tankersley. It’s a time of waiting for the coming of the Savior. And yet we start the season of Advent with this text about keeping alert and awake. In other words, “Jesus Is Coming, Look Busy!”
Dock Hollingsworth: It's Not Donkeys & Elephants, It's Sheep & Goats
Dr. Dock Hollingsworth says according to this teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25, we know there is going to be a final exam, and we’ve been given the single question on it in advance—that question being, How did you respond to human need? Let's prepare for it!
Donna Mote: The Right Armor Is Light Armor
The Rev. Dr. Donna S. Mote explores the armor of light in 1 Thessalonians 5, and says God’s armor is counter-intuitive: knowledge of it gives us courage to make ourselves vulnerable as Jesus the Christ made himself vulnerable by coming to us and living among us.
Peter Wallace: Answering the Big Question
The Rev. Peter Wallace looks at Joshua's invitation to serve God and Jesus's parable of the 10 bridesmaids through the lens of stewardship, and discovers a gracious encouragement to live generously.
Carolyn J. Sharp: Witnesses to the Kingdom
On this holy day of All Saints, Dr. Carolyn Sharp tells us, it is our joy to sit at Jesus’s feet as he speaks of the kingdom of heaven, and in the Sermon on the Mount we find a foundational teaching in which Jesus shows his disciples the radical good news of blessing for all who struggle.
Jarrod Longbons: Don't Overlook the First Command
Dr. Jarrod Longbons says loving others as ourselves--the second great command--may seem easier, to treat another person with justice, compassion, charity, and grace. But don't neglect the first great command, even though it’s not easy to imagine loving a God who is beyond being, ineffable, and mysterious with our whole being.
Taylor Meador Fuerst: Rabbit Trick
In foiling the Pharisees' attempt to trap him, Jesus offers a response that in effect declares the people free, even though they are residents of an occupied land. This is who they are, this is how God values them. God will still be God and they will still be God’s children.
Jarrod Longbons: An Answer for Our Ruminations
Dr. Jarrod Longbons offers helpful guidance in dealing with toxic ruminating. Paul’s words in Philippians 4 can help as well: to ruminate instead of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy—to think about such things.
Julie Boone: A True Romance
The Rev. Dr. Julie Boone takes us to Assisi, Italy, home of St. Francis, who made the difficult decision to give up everything he had to follow Jesus, just as St. Paul did. We can appreciate these stories of sacrifice, suffering, and service for God, but surely that is not expected of us today, is it?
William Flippin Jr.: A Rock and a Hard Place
In his sermon on Exodus 17, Dr. William E. Flippin Jr. asks, how can we receive refreshment during a dry place? It’s found in the solution of God’s command to Moses: strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink. Our rock is the Lord.
Greg DeLoach: God Is...Good?
As we conclude our 75th Anniversary Series, Dr. Greg DeLoach says that when we know that God is good, when we see that God is good, it changes how we see the world, how we see others, and how we see ourselves.
Bishop Michael Curry: Not Just Me, But We
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says Jesus of Nazareth began the most profoundly revolutionary movement in history—a movement of love. It’s a movement that says it’s not about just me, it’s about we.