Mark 12:28-34 (Watch the video here.) Listen, Israel:Our God is the one God,and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,with all your being, and with all your strength. Listen, Israel. These are the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9,also known as the shema. It’s called the shema because in Hebrew the text starts,Shema, […]
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Mark 10:46-52 I was chatting with another pastor recently,and I asked her: What is the purpose of a sermon? She replied,“The purpose of a sermon is to create an experience of God.” Ooooo. Isn’t this the purpose of all church life? To bring us into an experience of God.The holy. That sense of something more. […]
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James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a James writes,If you are wise and understand God’s ways,prove it by living an honorable life,doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. James conveys to uswhat is at the coreof the Christian lifestyle:humility. Another translation reads,Show by your good life that your works are donewith gentleness born of wisdom. Draw […]
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James 1:16-27 (Watch the video here.) With a word,our lives changed: coronavirus. With a lack of words,our world shrinks in size. With a dearth of words, our souls ache with hunger; if only we could listen, watch, think, scroll, read our way to satiation. We thirst for words. Immersed in an ocean, we long still. […]
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James 2:1-10, 14-17 (Watch sermon here.) James writes,“My siblings, your faith in our glorious Savior Jesus Christmust not allow favoritism.” Do you play favorites? How do you know when you are playing favorites? Hm. At the core of our faith,Jesus provides an orientationto a life of transformation. Jesus begins this orientation by urging us,leave your […]
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James 3:1-12 Watch video here Our passage today is a snippet of a letter.I am going to continue reading it,so you hear how James emphasizes wisdomafter speaking of the dangers of speaking. James writes,“Are any of you wise and understanding?Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestylethat comes from wisdom.However, if you have […]
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Scripture: Matthew 21:23-32 It’s the third of July. Bonfires blaze around Conesus Lake as everyone celebrates the holiday. Fireworks boom in the sky, their light crackling into cascading chandeliers. As I stand on the dock, water laps beneath me. A bonfire on the other side of lake catches my eye as it does every year. […]
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Readings: Poem written by Hafiz The small man Builds cages for everyone He knows. While the sage, Who has to duck his head When the moon is low, Keeps dropping keys all night long For the Beautiful Rowdy Prisoners. Matthew 18: 21 – 35 Peter came up and asked Jesus, “When a sibling wrongs […]
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Scripture: Matthew 18:15-20 Toilet paper. The man walked around with a sad piece of toilet paper tagging behind his shoe. As it dragged, a stranger turned and said, “If I had toilet paper on my shoe, I would want someone to tell me.” One of my mentors told me that story of their real-life experience. […]
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Scriptures: Exodus 3:1-15, Matthew 16:21-27 In the article, “Nothing to Say”, written in 1854, philosopher Henry David Thoreau comments on new technology. Thoreau writes, “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end which it was already too easy to […]
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The First Baptist Church in Essex 