Category Archives: Sermons

Four-part harmony surrounded me as I sat on the padded pew, legs not quite reaching the floor and I balanced that blue songbook in my lap as I added my little voice to the congregation’s song; there were many aspects of the Christian tradition that raised me, but none so much as the hymns weContinue reading “Now My Soul is Troubled”

All around was the throbbing hum of insects; underfoot was a lush bright green grass and in every direction, there were giant trees, every shade of green imaginable. The summers of my childhood were spent out in the wilds of middle Tennessee, not too different from Southcentral Kentucky, catching frogs and fishing in the creek.Continue reading “What is the Fruit?”

Against the backdrop of the misty mountains, an older man carrying a hiking pack stands in front of a stone monument with the shape of a shell on its side; his heels balance on the edge of the rise of the hill and his eyes are downcast and reflective. The cover of one of myContinue reading “A Communal Lent”

Having a penchant for good stories, I love to read and also to watch TV. There are some shows whose characters are just so compelling and engaging and I can’t wait to follow along with their story. While my go-to will almost always be a well-written comedy like the Good Place or Parks and Rec,Continue reading “Blessing and Curses: On Earth as it is in Heaven”

The camera pans across a beautifully decorated church, flowers and candles are in abundance, beautiful people stand in front of a minister, who is inexplicably wearing the liturgical colors for a penitential season; yet as the couple gazes into each other’s eyes we hear the familiar, “Love is patient, love is kind, love is notContinue reading “Hard Won Love”

Growing up in a tradition that sang four-part harmony with no instrumental accompaniment, I learned to love signing quickly. Hymns are some of the fastest ways to learn something; singing about something is a sure-fire way to begin to internalize some of the great truths of this world. Christmas songs might be the greatest exampleContinue reading “Tell Me the Story”

Traveling the sparse distance between Boulder and Denver, we were in Colorado to visit friends and see the city; younger and much more suited to cross-country road trips, we pulled over in the middle of the night amidst that long stretch of road. The whole of our group climbed out of the car to wanderContinue reading “Fear and Joy”

Outside, it was blazing hot, the bright sun shined without relent as it does in the intensity of the Texas summer. Inside, though, it was dark; inside that hospital room, in the aftermath of his death, it was dark. His death was unexpected and heavy; it was an accident, and no one was prepared. PerhapsContinue reading “Repentance and Freedom”

Every generation has its markers; every generation has things that are so quintessential to those critical years during which you become aware of the world around you. They can be big things like watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon for the first time or watching the Twin Towers fall during Economics class. Or theyContinue reading “The Hope of the End Times”