James 3:17 Mark 6:1-13 It gleamed in the sunlight. Clear and radiant, the emerald was set in a simple gold ring. “That’s beautiful,” I said to my mother. “Oh, I got in the Smoky Mountains,” she replied, “There is a place where you can buy pails of dirt and sift for gems. If you find […]
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Mark 4:26-34 A riot of bittersweet. A riot of bittersweet spilled over the stone wall by our church, flinging itself on each bare patch of dirt it could find, weaving its way through the crevices in the rock wall, poking itself through the holes. On our church clean-up day, Lisa Laing and Patty Rolfe worked […]
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2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Paul says to us: “We do not lose hope.” I want to know: Does he know how hard the uphill climbs of life can be when he says that? This week a friend was telling the story of someone who went for a bike ride and became utterly exhausted mid-ride. They had […]
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Text: Acts 2:1-21 Before preaching, I want to share this story with you called the Cyclist by Mark Nepo: On the day of the race, he waited with the others and felt that life was waiting in the hills. He couldn’t quite say why, but a blessing was about to happen. As the gun went […]
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John 20:1-20, a sermon for the sunrise service “Early on the first day of the week, while it [is] still dark, Mary of Magdala [comes] to the tomb.” What a fool she is: Grief floods her body with every step. Her heart feels like it has broken in two. The Roman empire has killed Jesus, […]
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John 13:1-17, 31b-35 It isn’t quite foot washing, but it is close. In 1968, Mr. Francois Clemmons, who played a black police officer on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, filmed a scene with Mr. Fred Rogers, a white Presbyterian minister. Mr. Clemmons hadn’t originally wanted the job as the police officer. He reports that he grew up […]
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Psalm 118:1-5, 19-29 & Mark 11:1-11 The psalmist writes: “Out of my distress I called on The Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.” What does it meant to be set in a broad space? Two years ago, during Lent, my friend and colleague Jennifer Zogg came to Essex and […]
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Mark 8:31-38 Let’s face it. How do we learn to face things? What does that look like? I was pondering that question this week while I was reading the book Second Chances by Cat Hoke. In the book, Cat talks about visiting a prison one day, and seeing the entrepreneur talent of the prisoners. She […]
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Joel 2:12-17 American Poet Langston Hughes writes: “Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust Not for sale.” Great things come from dust. Hughes reminds us of that with his words; the book of Genesis reminds us of that when it tells us that God fashioned humankind out […]
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Mark 1:21-28 What do you see? As a child, I used to leaf through the pages of the Magic Eye books in wonder. Each book contained the promise that the pages within its covers would reveal a 3-D image not noticeable at first glance To perceive this promised image, it instructed you to take the […]
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