No If's, And's, or But's

On April 26 Westminster Church accepted 5 new members and we did an infant baptism.  I took a few minutes to explain membership and baptism and what we believe about them.

27 Apr 201510min

In James 5:7-12, James encourages his readers to be patient and establish their hearts because Christ is coming back. But shouldn't Christ's return mean we should be doing more?

27 Apr 20158min

James has some harsh and bity words to say to the rich in this passage.  But does God think we should all be poor?  Here I compare a few other texts to try to develop a theology of wealth and possessions.  More than that, I make the argument that we should be going through this same process for every area of our lives.

21 Apr 201520min

I recently took a trip to Toronto, Canada to do research on Henri Nouwen.  Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest who taught at Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School.  He wrote a number of books about Christian spirituality, leadership, and loss.  He spent the last 10 years of his life living in L'Arche Daybreak.  This is a community of disabled adults and their assistants where I went to stay for a couple of days.  I wanted to understand how Henri's personal story impacted his ministry.  I was surprised to learn a lot more about life, ministry, and myself on the trip.  This sermon is my attempt to share this experience with my congregation.

13 Apr 201523min

This is my sermon from Easter 2015.  I use the story of the road to Emmaus to talk about the meaning of Christ's resurrection.  It is about more than "God-talk."  It is about living the Resurrection Life.

11 Apr 201516min

When Jesus comes into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday He is actually walking into a ton imagery and expectation.  As we begin to see all of this symbolism we begin to have a richer understanding of what happens on the rest of Holy Week.

30 Mars 201520min

In this sermon I develop the symbol of the cross.  How could this "emblem of suffering and shame" become such a symbol of hope and power?  I also talk about different types of crosses, the motion of crossing yourself or doing the sign of the cross, and the idea of carrying your own cross.  I reference a Powerpoint slide that is posted here.

23 Mars 201522min

In Acts 8 Philip talks to the Ethiopian eunuch about the good news of Jesus based on the passage from Isaiah 53 that the eunuch is reading.  This sermon looks at that same chapter to find Jesus in it.

17 Mars 201521min