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1 Peter 1:17-23
Easter 3A
A few years ago the University of Maryland’s football team found itself in trouble at halftime of one of the biggest games in its history. It didn’t just trail North Carolina State’s team. Maryland’s team also hadn’t played very well. Maryland’s head coach Ralph Friedgen knew he had to motivate his team to play better…
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…
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Easter 2A
For those who follow the RCL, Easter is not just a one off event. The RCL devotes 7 Sundays to the Easter season, so that the church has ample opportunity to reflect on the most earthshaking event in history. As a relative newcomer to the Lectionary, I think that is a superb idea. But it…
1 Peter 1:3-9
Easter 2A
When my wife and I drew up our first will after our oldest son was born, we didn’t have many material assets. So our will mostly addressed who would care for our children if we predeceased them. We later revised our will to include instructions about who will inherit what when we die. Yet, candidly,…
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…
Acts 10:34-43
Easter Day A
In this (Old Testament?) reading, we hear not the original story about how Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified by Roman soldiers, but a retelling of that story to a Roman soldier. If you want to emphasize the fact of the resurrection in your Easter sermon, choose the Gospel readings for your text. …
Colossians 3:1-4
Easter Day A
On that glorious first Easter morning an angel shocked people by insisting that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Two thousand years later an aging apostle may no less shock Colossians 3:1-4’s proclaimers and hearers by insisting that God also raised us with Christ. After all, if it’s sometimes hard to believe that Jesus…
Matthew 21:1-11
Palm Sunday A
Liturgy of the Palms “Who is this?” Few questions are more important than this one Matthew reports the “whole city” of Jerusalem asks on the first Palm Sunday. Yet the answer to that question is even more important. The Holy Spirit inspires Matthew to answer, “This is Jesus.” But just who is this Jesus? Matthew…
Matthew 26:14-27:66
Palm Sunday A
Some years back I heard what was reported to have been among the final gasping words of the famous singer Frank Sinatra. Sinatra’s signature song was “My Way” in which he crooned that when looking back on his life, although he had a few regrets, in the end “I did it my way.” But at…
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…
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