Sermons

By guest preacher, Lindsay CrouseHow do we move a mountain? I think it’s a question I think we’re all asking ourselves at this moment. In the passage in Matthew the mountain seems huge and impassable, and the mustard seed insignificantly small. But Christ is saying...

Text: Matthew 13. 24-30, 36-43 Jesus presented another parable before those gathered: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a farmer who sowed good seed in a field;but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away....

One of the great mysteries of the human experience is why some of us flourish and others do not. Some years ago when I was in graduate school, I dated a man, whom I will call Dan, who was intelligent, strived to do good in the world, and had a strong belief in God. He...

I remember as a young girl sitting in the pews, the priest describing the church as “here comes everybody.” Above the doorway to the sanctuary were words from the prophet Isaiah, “My house will be a house of prayer for all the peoples.” Church, I was led to believe,...

Successful. Able to provide. Generous. Compassionate. Ever Hopeful. Seeking the best for you. Warm Hearted. Affectionate. Joyous. A Good Listener. Forgiving. Wise. These are all qualities of the father in today’s Gospel reading. This parable, of course, is meant to...

"See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me... Brother will betray...

This week in an email chain I was on, someone referred to 2020 as “the year they want to forget.” No doubt this has been a tough year so far. Truly painful for many people. But, I don’t think it's a year we want to forget. Rather, I propose that it’s a year we will...

On Tuesday, I had an amazing experience with a group of people from this church community. And I wasn’t even in the church. I was sitting at my computer on Zoom in the parsonage. Thirteen other people were sitting at their computers, too. Afterwards, here is how some...

Sometimes we desperately need the assurance that God is with us, that love will not forget or abandon us. It’s often when we are standing at a threshold - when our lives are about to radically change that we need to know that God’s blessing goes with us. Thresholds...

How are we going to get through this? How are we going to get through this? This was a question on the minds of the disciples as they began to realize at the Last Supper, from which Jesus’ words today are taken, that he was leaving them, that he would be taken from...

The story that I like to call “The Mothering of Moses” has always been a favorite of mine. More than anything it speaks to me of the ways three women came together for the benefit of Moses, each doing her part, the work of God,  to be sure that he not only lived, but ...

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Many of you who live in Gloucester may have heard the story of the confrontation near Goose Cove earlier this week.  For those who haven’t heard the story, here it is - at least as I understand it. A young...