Sermons
Place and Privilege
Wow! The last time I stood in this place, this pulpit, to deliver a Sunday morning sermon was February 2, 2020. A year and seven months ago! It’s a bit disorienting to stand here again. I wonder if, no, I wonder how my preaching needs to be different after the experiences of the past nineteenth …
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13th Sunday after Pentecost
“Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” . . . “Oooh, Jesus, this teaching is, um, difficult.” If that isn’t a biblical understatement, I don’t know what is. Well, let me start by assuring all of you, especially any new people, we are neither Cannibals for Christ nor Zombies for Jesus. Ah, so it’s just …
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“Get Up and Eat” – Remarks for Shared Homily
We’ve all had our pandemic firsts, haven’t we? That first trip to the grocery store. First meal at a restaurant, even if it was outdoors in 40 degree weather last winter. The shock and the joy of seeing that first friend, unexpectedly, on the sidewalk and recognizing them behind their mask. First hug. First excursion …
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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
We contemporary people tend to wrestle quite a bit with stories like we just heard in our Gospel reading. Grains of barley loaves multiplying in the hands of Jesus; a midnight stroll across the turbulent sea to join the disciples. The category of miracle is most often justified away to make stories like these palatable. …
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You can’t drive a parked car
Bible Text: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 | Preacher: Rev. Mary MacKenzie | Series: 2021 | How is the church different from other charitable organizations, social service agencies, or organizations working for social justice? I would say it’s that we do acts of charity and we strive for justice and peace …
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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Bible Text: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19, Psalm 24, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark 6:14-29 | Preacher: The Rev. Natalie Johnson | Series: 2021 | For many of us, we have been “trained” through our years of hearing Scripture read and sermons preached to look for the redemptive line in a gospel narrative. There are times, perhaps, that we find it …
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Stymied
Bible Text: Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 | Preacher: Rev. Mary MacKenzie | Series: 2021 | Jesus is stymied. He’s been on a roll, going from village to village, crisscrossing the lake and attracting crowds everywhere he goes. He has been teaching, healing, casting out demons, even raising the dead. He has decided …
“Letting Go and Drawing Near”
With just three days to go until June 30, it’s hard for me not to hear some of the Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy more personally than usual. “The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7). For …
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Third Sunday after Pentecost
Bible Text: Ezekiel 17:22-24;2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17;Mark 4:26-34 | Preacher: The Rev. Natalie Johnson | Series: 2021 | Our Gospel reading today comes from a unit of text that is often referred to as Jesus’ Parables Sermon. Mark has strung together four parables (along with one allegorical explanation) into a narrative sermon in which Jesus conveys …
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Solidarity
Bible Text: Genesis 3:8-15; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 4:13- 5:1; Mark 3:20-35 | Preacher: Rev. Mary MacKenzie | Series: 2021 | Solidarity is one of those words that’s bandied about pretty freely these days. Kind of like they do with awesome. I may be pleased to get a dinner reservation and the person taking the …