Videos of Sermons
Most Recent Sermon
Previous Sermons
“The Christian Elevator Speech: Toward a Healthy Understanding of Sin”
September 4, 2022 Sermon: “Ever Present”
“With Us Always” Aug. 14, 2022 Sermon Video
“Your One Wild and Precious Life” (sermon starts at 26:05)
“Called to Freedom” Rev. Sue Koehler-Arsenault, preaching
“The Path of Recovery”
Baptized in Love
Who remembers the day of your baptism? Anyone? Maybe a few of us were baptized as adults. Perhaps some of us have not been baptized. But, I imagine most of us were baptized as infants. In some ways, this is really too bad because we cannot remember what it felt like or what it meant in the moment to be baptized.
Please close your eyes and let’s begin to imagine the day of your baptism.
Keep Awake
In preparing to light the Advent wreath at the beginning of worship, Wendy said, “We hardly know how to describe the year we are living through.”
Mark, the Gospel writer who will be our companion over the next liturgical year, which begins today, would know exactly how to describe this year. Apocalyptic.
The section Ben read from Mark’s Gospel is referred to as “The Little Apocalypse” because of its resonance with the Great Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. Often written in difficult times, this type of literature is meant to offer hope to people who are suffering.
Generous Jud
Weeks ago, when I was selecting scripture for our worship today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I could not have known that the message would be so fitting days after the death of our beloved, Jud Gale: “Your great generosity will produce thanksgiving to God through us.”
We gather this morning both broken-hearted and thankful:
Broken-hearted by Jud’s death and thankful for his life;
Light in Liminal Days
Friday morning as I sat down to begin writing this sermon, I looked out my window to see the snow racing towards the ground, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. At one point, I looked over at my cat, Chloe, and she had her paw covering her face. I could relate. Halloween festivities in many places were cancelled or truncated last night. The city of Gloucester decided to temporarily remove its Ballot drop boxes from outside of City Hall because of threats of vandalism.
Peace in the Midst
A day does not go by that I do not hear someone say, “I am just so worried about….” It might be the election, or climate change, or the results of a COVID test, or the health of a loved one… these days, the list goes on and on. We are living in an anxious, a deeply anxious, age.