Have you been born again? Perhaps we can put aside the childish idea that being born again is about creeds or statements of faith. It’s not a simple a prayer or a manufactured moment in a mega church, is it? Nor is it going back in time and starting over – we can’t do that. We’ve got to let the earthly concerns that hold us down and separate us from God’s loving spirit pass away. We need to name the sins and addictions that prevent us from reaching renewal so that we can surrender our control and let God in. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

A good woodsperson knows that the moss always grows on the north side of trees, that rivers and streams run south. They can tell which berries are safe to eat, and know how to make a shelter out of snow. A person of faith, likewise, can tell what leads to God and what takes us in the wrong direction. The promise of earthly riches, a kingdom as Satan promises Jesus, takes us outward to earthly satisfaction. Single-heartedness toward God sustains the inner journey, our own soul’s migration and leaning to the divine end. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

There’s no shame in doubting our faith, and none in wanting to stay on top of the mountains, either. I would say no faith is complete without both – we can’t stand up without reassurance, and we can’t move forward without doubt. Often we need to experience the hardship of uncertainty to ask the right questions for our lives right now. If we don’t get curious, or stumble on the way every now and then, we won’t learn news ways to be or new roads to follow; we won’t find the truth God wants to reveal – and worst of all, we won’t come to the next mountain that’s waiting just a little further on. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

Our small group of adventurous students, professors, and pastors set out to India with a singular task: to gather information as we sought to answer the question “What does it mean to be a Christian in India?” To many of us it seemed like a vague and broad question – after all, most of us had only experienced one kind of Christianity in our lives. We live by the notion that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is universal: the same in all times, and all places. What could be so special about Christianity in India – could it really be so different from Christianity in America. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

The countdown is on. In less than 48 hours from now, the year 2007 will over and done with forever. There will never be another year like it. As we come to this transitional moment, ready for a fresh start let’s look back with gratitude for all God has given us. There will surely be more blessings to come next year. And yet with this new beginning comes a chance to make up for the mistakes of the past, and God is ever calling us to be just rulers of our lives. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

Mary could sing because joy is not always and foremost a reaction to circumstances, but a state of mind that springs from trusting God to guide us in the future. I called this sermon “Enter With Joy” because Mary’s song teaches us not just to have joy when the circumstances deserve it, but to keep that joy even when they don’t. Entering each day with joy allows us to be thankful and positive even when the road gets rough. Holding joy in our hearts grounds us in God and allows us to find peace and happiness not because circumstances are great, but because we know that the future is in God’s loving hands. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

We can think of ourselves, in the great Christmas story, as like the shepherds tending their flocks by night. These shepherds were yet another people in darkness who see a great light: the star in the east that leads them to Jesus. The metaphor in this story is inspiring for us, because it reminds that when we need to locate meaning and hope, we have Jesus, the star, to guide back to the simple truth of God’s great love. The complicated issues that surround us are secondary. Important, to be sure, but we can hold fast to the mighty anchor of what we can say to be true and absolute: that God is love and loves us. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

The news announces the day’s horrific tragedies, more accidents, murders, crimes, and sadness. If we look to the world itself for hope, we are certain to be disappointed, and walk away empty handed, because the world itself sometimes appears to have nothing but despair to give. It is precisely in this situation of anxiety and despair that a vision of hope is required and reminds us of our deepest need to place all of our trust and security in the our God. Isaiah is correct; our ultimate hope is in God, not in the ways of the world. All around us the universal pain in every heart is evident, but we need not fear that pain. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

Jesus exemplifies the new logic of faith – though heralded as a ruler, a Lord, and a Savior, Jesus becomes an advocate and friend of the fringe of society. He repeatedly offends people by smashing social norms of the culture in the name of radical love: dining with sinners and tax collectors, embracing lepers and women, and calling the wealthy out for their selfish ways. Though a ruler and sent by God, Jesus lives the life of a servant to all, following his own proclamation that “those who humble themselves are exalted.” And while people called for Jesus to mount an army to take on Rome, Jesus declared boldly that the proper response to one’s enemies is love and prayer. Read this sermon...(Microsoft Word Format)

Like Israel I imagine that many of us feel overwhelmed by the task of rebuilding our faith. We don’t want to change too much, and of course we should still remain true to core of our convictions. Changing ourselves or changing our churches is a frightening idea, in many ways. God says – have no fear. Our faith has been changing all along, God’s been guiding us on a unique journey. When we feel we’ve hit the bottom God’s gentle reminder is “ok, it didn’t work that way, but let’s try it again a new way.” Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

For all of human history, we’ve bought into the myth of redemptive violence. Where has it brought us – are we closer to being the people God wanted us to be? In just the twentieth century alone, about 150 million people perished in wars, or under the rule of tyrants and dictators. We will continue to bear that cost forevermore? Let us give the souls of the millions of the honor they deserve by committing ourselves to make the peace they believed in, so that no will ever hear the approach of annihilation again. Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

Boker tov, friends – Hello, my name is Zacchaeus. I am speaking to you through the centuries because I want to tell you my story. I know that we come from different times, different cultures. Your world is strange to me, and mine would be completely alien to you. But my story…how I long to tell it. Have you ever felt such joy that you thought your heart would burst? Do you know the feeling when you realize truly and unquestionably that God loves you? My chaverim, my friends, I know this feeling. And I would like to tell you how I know, I would like to tell you of that day that Jesus brought salvation to my house. Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

Perhaps too much emphasis is given to the darker aspects of the life cycle in the complimentary holiday to All Saints Day, the more secular celebration called Halloween. All around us are scary costumes, morbid home decorations, and movies promising to frighten us out of our wits – and its all in good fun, of course. In all the festivities let’s not lose sight of the fact that as Christians we aren’t here to remember people for the fact of their death; we are who we are – stronger, more loving, more grateful – because they lived. Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

What does it mean to hear the word of God? The Old Testament recounts many instances where God’s word was spoken through supernatural appearances: in a burning bush, through a talking donkey. We have difference expectations for how God speaks to each of us today. Most of us are skeptics when it comes to supernatural manifestations, and I think if we heard any common object speaking to us, we’d be racing for our medicine cabinets to check the expiration date on our prescriptions. Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

One of the forbears of our faith, the Congregationalist Richard Baxter, left us with a useful philosophy when we said “Unity in things necessary, liberty in things unnecessary, and charity in all.” What Christians have perhaps done over the years is focus far too much on the unnecessary things. Let’s ask ourselves: will it matter that much, really, in the end which hymns we sung in church, whether we sprinkled water or immersed in it for baptism, or whether we used wine or grape juice for communion? Will the deciding factor in our eternal fate come down to whether we said “trespasses” or “debts” in the Lord’s Prayer? Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)

As Christians, we don’t have a Holy City per se, not a physical space or a nation that we call the promised land. But we do believe in a figurative city of God that we call the fellowship of faith, the community of Christians across the world. All of us who believe in God and the teachings of Christ share a common bond that is in many ways like citizenship in a nation. And, my friends, that city – which dwells in our hearts first, in the physical building of a church second, and finally in the body of Christ that we call The Church, is very much under siege. Read this sermon (Microsoft Word Format)