Sermons (Page 106)
Fifth Sunday in Lent
If I had to describe 2018 with one word, I’d use “unexpected.” Back on New Year’s Eve, I did not expect that we’d have a flood in the church basement. When that famous ball dropped in New York City, I did not imagine Puerto Ricans would still be without power today. When midnight struck, I hadn’t pondered that high school students would take a lead in gun control legislation. So far, it’s been a year filled with surprises. In today’s reading from John, we have an opportunity to explore God’s presence in the midst of the unexpected…
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Today’s gospel reading has, arguably, the most recognizable verse in the Bible. On a long car trip, I usually see it posted on a billboard. At sports games, I see it on a poster. In confirmation class, I had to memorize it. It’s the infamous John 3:16. And, while today’s translation from the New Revised Standard Version was decent, I want to offer you an alternative translation from the original Greek. It goes like this, “For this is the way God loved the cosmos: to give the Only Begotten One, that whoever believes may not die, but have eternal life.”…
Third Sunday in Lent
In my imagination I picture the scene from our Gospel reading today: the crowds of Jewish people coming from all over to make their sacrifices in the Temple, the mooing and cooing and baaing animals – unblemished of course – that will be sacrificed, the money-changers waiting to convert foreign currency to the acceptable coinage for the Temple Tax. Everything going according to plan, the way it was every year…