Sermon Podcast
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Forgiveness Implies power
Sometimes people in positions of power demand that people they have hurt and abused “forgive” them even though they haven’t done anything to attempt to make it right, or even stopped engaging in the harm they’ve caused. Is it right to forgive them? Is it even possible?
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What is Bread and Who is Us?
When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” what are we asking for, exactly? It is not just bread; it is everything we need for our lives. And who is “us”? The whole human family. That being the case, can we become part of the answer to our own prayers?
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What God Wants
When we pray “Thy Will Be Done,” what are we asking for? Will God’s will be done no matter what? How does God’s will relate to evil? How can we do God’s will in our lives? Our version of the Lord’s Prayer this morning is from The Message.
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God’s Good Road
With all that’s wrong in the world, Jesus appears saying God’s kingdom is near and teaches us to pray “Thy Kingdom Come.” God’s Kingdom, defined loosely (but never explicitly defined by Jesus) is God’s alternative re-imagining of the way the world works. Ada María Isasi-Díaz borrowed the term “kin-dom” from a friend who was a…
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God’s a Little More Holy Than That
In this second message on the Lord’s Prayer, we discuss “Hallowed be thy name.” Holiness is often imagined as something scary, perhaps God killing people for not being appropriately respectful, or sending tornadoes because the Wrong People are being included, but if our understanding of God is to be (rightly) rooted in the person of…
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To Whom Do You Talk, When You Pray?
In this first sermon in a series on the Lord’s Prayer, we consider what it means to call God “our Father” or “our Mother” through our own experiences of having an earthly father or mother, or, for some of us, our own experiences of being a parent. Note: In the story David tells of the…
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The New Year
Ruling Elder Marlene Smith preaches about looking forward to a new year with an openness to new paths God may reveal.
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The Barest Flicker of Hope
Most of us know Isaiah’s prophecy, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son” from Matthew’s gospel, but the story of King Ahaz, trapped by two kings who united were more powerful than him, to whom Isaiah’s prophecy originally came, is less well-known.
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God Has Cast Down the Mighty
Starting with God.
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A Hermeneutic of Hope
John the Baptist appears on the scene with what seems like a message of wrath, but Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” We explore what it might look like to read…