Parables of Growth: The Prodigal

by | Nov 14, 2004 | Uncategorized

Download a PDF of this text Texts on Sunday, November 14, 2004Malachi 3: 7-12 ; Luke 15: 11-31 Remember the joke about the Joke Teller’s Club? They got tired of the time it took to tell the old jokes, so they assigned each a number. A member would stand to tell a...

Parables of Growth: Walking in Darkness

by | Oct 17, 2004 | Uncategorized

Download a PDF of this text Texts on Sunday, October 17, 2004Job 29: 1-13, Matthew 25: 1-13 Last Monday afternoon, I hiked into the Adirondack wilderness for a three-day sojourn. I have been making this solo pilgrimage into the woods nearly every fall for half my...

Parables of Growth: Already All Right

by | Aug 29, 2004 | Uncategorized

Download a PDF of this text Texts on Sunday, August 29, 2004:Mark 2: 1-12; Romans 5: 18-21 You have a sense, don’t you, how hard it is to be a human being—what an immense weight is a human life; what an heroic feat to carry this soul, your own self, from the cradle...

Parables of Growth

by | Jul 18, 2004 | Uncategorized

Text on Sunday, July 18, 2004     Matthew 20: 1-16 hat labor is there yet undone in your vineyard? I don’t mean work undone in your yard or your attic or your kitchen or your office. It’s summer and this is the Sabbath day of rest. Let’s not concern ourselves for any...

If Christ Was Always Is

by | Jun 6, 2004 | Uncategorized

Download a PDF of this text Texts on Trinity Sunday, June 6, 2004    Proverbs 8:1-8, 22-31; John 1: 1-5 When scientists think about the very beginning of creation, they speak of a “big bang.” The science and equations that lead to the theory of the big bang make a...

Holy City

by | May 30, 2004 | Uncategorized

Download a PDF of this text Texts on Pentecost Sunday, May 30, 2004      Acts 2: 1-18; Revelation 21 & 22 (selections) When at the Pentecost outpouring of Spirit, Peter hears that cynical accusation— They’re all drunk! —he instantly, ardently, powerfully charges...

“Why Not to All the People?”

by | Apr 11, 2004 | Uncategorized

Texts on Easter Sunday, April 11, 2004Matthew 28: 1-20; Acts 10: 34-43 “God allowed him to appear, not to all, but to us who were chosen” It doesn’t seem quite fair of God to allow the risen Lord to appear only to some, but not to all. If everyone who believes in...

The End of the Passion of Christ

by | Mar 7, 2004 | Uncategorized

Text on the Second Sunday in Lent, March 7, 2004     Luke 13: 31-35 What is the point of the passion of Christ? (The real one, not the film.) What is God’s end, or purpose? To say “to save the world” begs the question, how that man’s appalling execution can help the...

Set Up Waymarks For Yourself

by | Nov 16, 2003 | spiritual practice

November 16, 2003Readings: Jeremiah 31: 16-21 & Philippians 3: 10-21 But this, this! Forgetting the things which are behind and straining forward to the things before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. How do you...