Sermon Archive

For those of you who were at the Wednesday night Vespers service, you heard the poem, “Rough Translations” by Jan Richardson. I’m not going to read the whole thing again today, but I really want to focus on the first stanza, as it helps us think about the Scripture readings for this week. The poem begins, “Hope nonetheless. Hope despite. Hope regardless. Hope still.” I…

If you aren’t familiar with it, Psalm 91 is the basis for the hymn, “On Eagle’s Wings.” This hymn is one of my favorites, and it makes me cry every time I listen to it because this has been one of our family funeral hymns on my mom’s side. It was played at the funeral for both of my grandparents and my uncle. Despite its difficulty to sing, it is one of the popular hymns…

For the first time in my pastoral career, we get an overlap of Lent with Ramadan. I’ve been blessed with many interfaith relationships over the course of my lifetime, including with several Muslim friends who have taught me a lot about the beauty of Ramadan. While Christians often complain about giving up meat on Fridays or some other beloved thing for the 40 days of…