Listen to the "Take 2" Sermon Podcasts
(Sermon preached December 15, 2024 – Third Sunday in Advent) Mary’s singing about a revolution as she announces the dethroning of the powerful. Luke 1 gives us a Mary that is anything but meek and mild. She resists her status as a lowly girl and births a revolution of love.
(Sermon preached December 8, 2024) Isaiah 7:10-14 and Matthew 1:18-25 speak about the promise of a child to be born who will be “God with us.” Jesus pointed to children as signs of God with us. How do we receive the child?
(Sermon preached December 1, 2024) Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-15 both speak of preparing a way forward toward the Kindom of God that God imagines for creation. And yet, sometimes a hope this big can seem too out of reach and become discouraging. We need our big hope for direction, but our journey is one of doing the next right thing, one after another. We can build our resilience and find joy as we “micro-dose” on hope.
(Sermon preached November 24, 2024) Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian year. John 18:33-37 describes the moment Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king. Is he? What does it mean to say Christ is King today?
(Sermon preached at an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on November 17, 2024) 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us to “rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances.” How is that even possible? And yet, when gratitude becomes a disciplined practice, we discover it is not only possible but essential.
(Sermon preached November 3, 2024) The scripture associated with this sermon is the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Frederick Buechner makes the association of the stewardship of pain and this parable. This sermon asks, “What do we do with our pain? How do we steward it well?”
A comment related to the parable. This sermon does not exegete this parable. If I were to preach on this parable, my post-election analysis is that this parable describes the way things are and why the rich get richer. Profiting from interest was forbidden in Jewish culture. And any master that reaps where he doesn’t sow, and gathers where he didn’t scatter, is exploiting those who do sow and scatter. The outer darkness might be an apt description of the margins where so many people are relegated by poverty, illness, tragedy, sexual identity…
(The sermon preached October 27, 2024) Many congregations with property, like FCCO, are approaching the crossroads of declining numbers and rising costs. Tough decisions have to be made when the property ceases to serve the ministry. This sermon explores how our campus is currently used and appeals to steward it well.
(Sermon preached October 20, 2024) 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, along with passages in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, name spiritual gifts. Everyone is gifted by the holy spirit, but our gifts differ so that we can work together, like parts of a body. What’s your spiritual gift? Who are you, really?
(Sermon preached October 13, 2024) In John 6:1-12 we read John’s version of the story of the feeding of the 5,000. With just five loaves and two fish the whole crowd is fed. The story challenges us to imagine God’s abundance when our default is scarcity. What are your five loaves and two fishes?
(Sermon preached October 6, 2024) Micah 6:8 tells us that God requires us to “do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” This sermon invites us to think about ways we can steward our citizenship to love our neighbor, do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.