Telling Our Stories of Jesus

Apr 23, 2023   ·     •   Luke 24:13-35

…we pick up the stories, and we re-tell them again and again. We roll them around in our mouths, good storytellers try new ways to start them, and we see what sparks an interest. More

Feels like Me. Feels Like Home. Always Has.

Mar 12, 2023   ·     •   Luke 19:41-44

Being seen. It’s a powerful thing. To know that another human being has truly seen you, understood you,
received you for who you really are: That is pure grace. It is being seen. Most of us would do anything for it. More

Break Down the Dams! (And let justice roll on like a [free-flowing] river)

Oct 30, 2022   ·     •   Luke 19: 1-10

…Particularly as seekers, as people of faith, the danger of supporting these dams, these divisions, is creating for ourselves a finite God of our own image and our own making. By deciding who is in and who is out; who is acceptable and who is not. And oftentimes when we exclude others, we also end up excluding ourselves from God’s grace, love, and mercy….we are all responsible for breaking down the dams around us….After all, what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. More

Faith and Certainty

Oct 02, 2022   ·  

  The sermon can be viewed here. More

Moving Forward: The Rich Man and Lazarus

Sep 25, 2022   ·     •   Luke 16:19-31

It is an unrelenting focus on the present and the future that marks our faith. Early Christianity was called “The Way” by its adherents. It’s not “the meander.” It is not “the look backwards.” Even when we remember, as we do, every time we celebrate the Eucharist, it is to anchor our present and to guide our future. More

Blessing the Sabbath

Aug 21, 2022   ·     •   Luke 13:10-17

Although we don’t often do a good job recognizing it, or valuing it in our own lives, it’s true that we all need rest. We need rest after we have performed a strenuous task, and we need rest to prepare for strenuous tasks that lie ahead. Thinking of rest as part of an essential part of a cycle of preparation, action, and recovery, is a good way to understand the Sabbath. More

Following Jesus

Feb 20, 2022   ·     •   Luke 6:27-38

“The Church missed its high calling to be the new thing in the world when it decided to worship Jesus instead of following him.”
Verna Dozier in The Dream of God More

Dr. James Cone and the Urgency of the Call

Feb 13, 2022   ·     •   Luke 6:17-26

James Cone, in the Cross and the Lynching Tree, and Luke in his Gospel, each drive home two key messages. Each is as provocative today as in past generations. Chris Phillips’ sermon doesn’t mince words or images in drawing parallels and getting us to think deeply about our own attitudes and beliefs in these times of grief and hope. More

Christmas Day

Dec 25, 2020   ·  

Our story is to be with God, or if you rather a selfless way to go through the world.  Seeking and serving Christ in ALL others.  This Christmas morning is the start.  Like my young couples being reminded that the wedding is the start of the marriage and that they will have to work to keep it alive, and creative and ongoing and generative.   Christmas morning the birth of this child, the breaking of God into the life of Humanity is the start.  WE are called people to move towards others so their lives will not have to be one of suffering we are called this morning to realize that this is the start not the fulfillment of God promise to this world and we are called to change the world, to be apart and to help as we can  so that any child born outside has a chance to grow up and be apart of this world in new and amazing ways.   More

Christmas Eve 10 Pm

Dec 24, 2020   ·  

Yet this is a story where the people are ordered around by the powers that be and yet the Shepherds who are called to announce the good news, to come and see the baby to companion this brand new family.  THEY ARE  outside the power structure.  They are immigrant and they are outsiders That is part of this story, too.  

THIS IS A STORY OF HOPE  and we hear it every year so that we can be reminded to be the part of the good of the story the people struggling the ones calling out the powers that be.   More