Sermons

Think of what the disciples experienced over the 50 + days from Good Friday to Pentecost. I believe it is also a pattern for our own lives. Something comes to an end, or someone dies. The disciples were shattered and had no way to cope. Everything they had expected...

The First Letter of John reminds us that God is love, and that love is real, down to earth, and practical. If we can’t love the people who are around us (especially those in our church family) then we can’t claim to love God, whom we can’t see. Love isn’t just a warm...

I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep…I know my own and my own know me. John 10:11,14. When I was a country pastor in WA in the 1990’s, there were lots of farmers who had sheep, but only one of our many farming members actually enjoyed sheep work....

We are children of God. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1,3. There is a God-space inside each one of us, because we are all made in the image of God. That God-space is not something we earn or create. There are many...

Then he showed them his hands and his side. John 20:20. By his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53: 5 The Risen Christ proudly shows off his wounds from the cross. They are still very visible, and help the disciples know that it really is him. I find it utterly...

‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee.”’ Mark 16:6-7. The Gospel writer Mark does not have the risen...

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is probably the actual site of the crucifixion and the resurrection. In the time of Jesus it was a worked-out quarry. Part of it had been redeveloped into a garden, with some expensive tombs for sale. The other part, next...

Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24. When a seed gets planted, it’s like it dies. The moisture from the soil enters, the seed swells, and the...

Mary Maclead Bethune (1875-1955) is listed as one of the 100 most influential black American women. She actively worked in getting herself educated, then, when her hopes of becoming a missionary to Africa were denied, she set up a school and a hospital in Florida that...