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John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
Pentecost
The Holy Spirit does the work of God, just like the Father and the Son, because the Spirit is God. Though the Spirit has always been at work in the world in the ways that Jesus describes here, there is something unique about the time after Jesus’s death and resurrection. After all, Jesus uses the…
Romans 8:22-27
Pentecost
It is a grace that patience is one of the Holy Spirit’s fruits. Otherwise patience would be in far shorter supply, if not non-existent in 21st century society. After all, in an age of things like high speed internet and microwave ovens, we just don’t get much practice at being patient. Is that a reason…
John 17:6-19
Easter 7B
Jesus prays for our protection. He prays for our protection so that we may be one, as God is one (v 11). Our unity is a witness to the Trinity. He does not pray that we will be removed from the trials and temptations, from the pressures of the world, or isolated from alternate ways…
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Easter 7B
Image: May often signals a season of transition in the church. Graduations, maybe the end of a Sunday school season with thanks to the teachers and time off in the summer. These ends often don’t immediately lead to new beginnings but, rather, to in-between times. It’s hard to live in “in between” spaces — in…
1 John 5:9-13
Easter 7B
North American culture struggles to define “life.” That shows up in some ways most visibly in our struggles to determine human life’s boundaries. Some of our most contentious debates about ethics, including abortion and euthanasia, revolve around just when human life begins and ends. So preachers might follow the Spirit’s guidance to explore with our…
John 15:9-17
Easter 6B
A couple of weeks ago Jesus compared being the Good Shepherd with how a hired hand works: the Good Shepherd is committed to the core, the hired hand high tails it when trouble comes. Now, in the second half of his discourse on being the True Vine, Jesus describes his disciples as friends rather than…
1 John 5:1-6
Easter 6B
One of the first Christian songs I ever learned was “Trust and Obey.” Its chorus still echoes in my memory: “Trust and obey/, for there’s no other way/ To be happy in Jesus/ than to trust and obey.” This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson strongly suggests that the song’s link between trusting and obeying would please the…
Acts 10:44-48
Easter 6B
Sermon Introduction/Set-Up Consider: what are the activities, practices, traditions, theological convictions, sacred cows that make your congregation unique? What gives your church its sense of identity? Now, before beginning the sermon, consider making an “announcement.” Effective immediately, the church will no longer be doing any of those things. No Sunday worship. No programming. No prayer….
John 15:1-8
Easter 5B
Do you prefer to translate Jesus’s oft-repeated menō as “remain” or “abide”? Remain surely carries the tone of a command, but Jesus also uses the word descriptively, relating a mutual being together. Maybe it’s just me, but when I hear Jesus say, “Remain in me…” I picture him simultaneously reaching out his arm and gently…
1 John 4:7-21
Easter 5B
The New Testament uses some form of the Greek word agape (“love”) more than 140 times to describe both God and humans’ actions. But in few places does the Spirit inspire its writers to link God’s love to God’s people’s love more closely than in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. God’s dearly beloved people can hardly…
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