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The Authority of Breath
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was Matthew 21:23-32. Let’s take a minute, and breathe. Get comfortable. Quiet your mind. Close your eyes. Relax. And breathe. Breathe in and out. Breathe slowly and comfortably. Feel the Holy Spirit enter you as you inhale, filling you up.…
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God’s Alternative to Comparisons
This is an adapted version of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was Matthew 20:1-16. Three brief stories. Story One. One December many years ago, a church youth group learned about a family in their community that was in very bad financial straits. There were some young children in this family, and…
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Healing a Broken Church
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached at a special service called Order of Corporate Reconciliation. We offered this worship experience at my congregation as one of several opportunities for healing following a very contentious and conflicted congregational vote a few months ago. The most powerful moment in the service for me was during…
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Forgiving an $8,000 Debt
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel lectionary text was Matthew 18:21-35. Forgiveness is hard. It’s challenging. Let’s look in the gospel. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if someone sins against me, how often do I have to forgive? Seven times?” Ah-ah. Nope. Not seven. Seventy-seven. In fact, the…
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Follow Where Jesus Leads
This is an adapted version of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was Matthew 16:21-28. By now most of you have seen the devastation that Hurricane Harvey has wreaked on Houston and surrounding cities in Texas. And perhaps some of you are wondering why things like this happen. What did the people…
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Lo, the Lord Makes Merry, World Without End
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. We were using an old Lutheran liturgy as part of our year-long commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. The gospel text I preached on was Luke 15:11-32. The liturgy we are using today was published in 1958. Things sure have changed…
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Mustard and Poison Ivy
This is an adapted version of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. Did you ever feel like you’re banging your head against a wall? Like no matter how hard you try, it doesn’t make a difference? I think we all feel that way in our faith sometimes. No…
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No Power, No Control
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. One of the professional hazards of being a pastor is the temptation to think that you’re a superhero. Many of us slip into thinking that we can and…
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God is Like a Dandelion
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel reading was Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. I am no expert on farming, but it seems to me that the guy in this parable is irresponsible and wasteful. He goes out to sow seed, and what does he do? He just throws it…
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On Being a “Good Christian”
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning. The gospel text was Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. There are people in this room who are not good Christians. And in this sermon, I am going to identify who those people are. That got your attention, didn’t it? So a “good Christian.” That’s a…
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