Evergreen Sermons
Our Stories Shape Our Choices: Telling About and Choosing the God of Liberation
Text: Joshua 24 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." For the whole decade of the 80's, my formative years in childhood, these words hung on a felt and burlap banner in our dining room. Very 80s More-With-Less coded, tbh. Gold and brown. 40 years...
The Law of Love: Following the 10 Commandments Toward Connection and Liberation
Text: Exodus 19:3b-8; 20:1-17 A little over a week ago our family went to curriculum night. Following our kid's schedule, we went from class to class, staying in each for about 10 minutes and hearing about what the students were learning and about the teachers'...
God’s Presence in the Power Plays
Text: Genesis 39:1-23 Well, here we have yet another Biblical story that I have to struggle with liking or appreciating. I look at this story and at Potiphar's wife (who, by the way, I really wish had a name that I could use) and I think, you're making us look...
Altars All Along the Way: Finding and Following God at Every Stage of Life
Friends it was my birthday yesterday. I turned 49. This past month or so I have been thinking about how I will spend the last year of my 40s and make the transition to a new decade. I'm looking forward to this year with hope and optimism in a way that as I turned the...
My Soul Said No: Intersections of Militarism, Medicine and Conscientious Objection
Our guest for International Peace Sunday was Dr. Karl Rieken (REE-ken). Dr Riecken is a family physician trained in human performance physiology and functional medicine. He is a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Veterans for Peace, and...
The Gospel Yardstick: Good News for the Poor
Text: Luke 4:16-21 and Luke 18:18-31 Do you think Jesus was nervous? When he stood up to read at the synagogue? These are people he knows. And they know him in a certain kind of way, which is not as public figure. This is a kind of coming out; he's declaring...
Walk While You Wait: Empowering Each Other for Justice, Mercy and Humilty
Text: Micah 6:6-15 and 7:1-7 Since it is Primary voting season, as I was spending time with the biblical text from the prophet Micah this week, I was also sitting down with my ballot and my voter guide to learn about candidates. Including judges, a role which...
Why Do We Love…Even Strangers and Enemies?
Leviticus 19:9-18, 33-37 There is no recording of the sermon this week. Pastor Amy suggested that worship today focus on the Lev 19. So… We find ourselves at Leviticus Command Central. Our goal is to make the Leviticus Commands a productive mission. Ready yourself at...
Cancel All Debts. Period.
Text: Deuteronomy 15:1-11; 24:10-15 Every seventh year you must cancel all debts. That's the end of the sentence. Cancel all debts. Period. And in some ways it's the end of the sermon. There's really nothing more clear. The problem is humans are gonna human. So...
A Trickle, A Torrent, Trees and the Temple
Text: Ezekiel 47:1-12 Ezekiel is a book of visions. It's categorized as prophetic, but really it's more like Revelation in genre - a series of visions that the prophet experienced and shared for warning or encouragement. And because it's a vision, it's a little...