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John 14:15-21
Easter 6A
It’s possible I suppose to read a passage like John 14 and do so with a sense of detachment. Jesus packs a lot of theology into these Farewell Discourses across John 13-17 and it can be a little tough sledding to get through it all. Thus, it is tempting to be a little cut-and-dried, a…
John 14:1-14
Easter 5A
“Let not your hearts be troubled . . .” If ever there were a word for our COVID-19 moment, this would be it. And in more ways than the merely obvious one. As we will explore, most of the time when someone—even when it’s Jesus—tells you to NOT let your heart be troubled it is…
John 10:1-10
Easter 4A
Sometimes your need for a Shepherd hits home. Like during a global pandemic. I don’t know about you, but I spent the first 9 weeks of this year in one of the busiest stretches of my life. And when you run from day to day, from event to event, meeting to meeting, class to class,…
John 20:19-31
Easter 2A
Locked inside because of fear. Sound familiar to anyone? Well, alas, yes it does just now. We will loop back to this COVID-19 related thought below but first let’s look at the disciple at the center of this post-Easter story. Poor Thomas. He is the classic example of the old saying, “Make just one little…
John 20:1-18
Easter Day A
In a recent article on preaching in these days of COVID-19 isolation and fear, I suggested that despite the sadness we are all feeling at not being able to gather for Easter services in 2020, we don’t want to preach downer sermons. We don’t want our own disappointment at not being able to preach to…
John 11:1-45
Lent 5A
Sample Sermon: “Just about Everywhere” : In one of her short stories the writer Annie Dillard has a scene in which a family is sadly gathered at a grave to commit a loved one’s body to the earth. At one point the minister intones the familiar words from I Corinthians 15, “Where, O Death, is…
John 9:1-41
Lent 4A
Sample Sermon: Now I See: It was probably the big goofy grin on his face that kept some folks from recognizing him. Oh, they’d seen him for years. But rarely had they seen him at eye level. Instead they’d long ago grown accustomed to seeing this hapless man sitting, legs akimbo, on the ground near…
John 4:5-42
Lent 3A
Across the centuries people always gather where beverages are available. Even today we sometimes call a restaurant or lounge our favorite “watering hole” because it’s the place where we go after work to unwind with our friends over a glass of wine or something. In fact, even the phrase “scuttlebutt” has similar origins from the…
John 3:1-17
Lent 2A
In John 3 Jesus does something quite unexpected: he reaches back to Numbers 21 from the Old Testament and evokes the image of that bronze serpent Moses lifted over the people as a cure for snakebites. The Israelites had to look at an image of the very thing that was afflicting them, and somehow doing…
John 1:29-42
Epiphany 2A
The lamb of God. Agnus Dei. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Agnus Dei tolle peccato mundi. It is so familiar to us. Even if you Google that Latin phrase Agnus Dei, you instantly get over 10 million hits. And that’s in Latin! (Maybe these days quid quo pro…
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