A sermon preached at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California August 1, 2021 Ephesians 4:1-16 We don’t know much about the origins of this letter. It likely wasn’t written by Paul, even though his name is on it. The vocabulary and understanding of the church is not quite the same as the letters we…
A sermon preached at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California. October 25, 2020 Matthew 25:31-46 I’ve got this great image of ALL THE NATIONS gathered together in a gym as Jesus begins dividing them into 2 teams. “I need Libya and France over here on my right, please. And Great Britain and Iran on…
A sermon preached at University Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, TX Sept 16, 2019 Luke 15:1-10 note–this weekend, Covenant Network hosted an event at University Presbyterian in San Antonio. I am thankful to their pastor, Dries Coetzee, for allowing me to preach in worship Sunday after the event. UPC was my church home in college.…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church June 8, 2019 Romans 8: 14-39 Acts 2: 1-4 Our passage from Romans tonight is one of my favorite passages in scripture, but it’s not what we usually hear on Pentecost. We also heard the more traditional story from Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit came upon people…
I’ve been thinking about my birth mother lately. Maybe because thinking is all I really can do. She doesn’t want to be in a relationship with me, and even if she did, she’s not in very good health. Maybe I’ve been thinking about her because her 91st birthday is around the corner. My birth mother…
……I got all my sisters with me. That’s about all the lyrics I know from the Sister Sledge song, but they are enough. This weekend I flew to Seattle, stayed with my sister, visited another sister, and met a new sister. I have one more sister yet to meet, and one other sister I have…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho Aug 26, 2018 Psalm 139 (read it all) If you’ve been here a while, you may already know that this is one of my very favoritest passages of scripture. Maybe it’s because I’m adopted, and it is such a powerful idea to have always been…
We saw the film Three Identical Strangers last night. Here’s the synopsis of the film from its website: Three strangers are reunited by astonishing coincidence after being born identical triplets, separated at birth, and adopted by three different families. Their jaw-dropping, feel-good story instantly becomes a global sensation complete with fame and celebrity, however, the…
I haven’t published much lately about my birth family discoveries, mainly because some of the more recent ones are taking me a while to process. There continues to be much gift for me through all of the experiences I’ve had, whether they’ve been the joyful reunion kind or the painful answers kind. I’m the kind…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church on May 27, 2018 Exodus 3:1-17 Today we begin a sermon series about Moses. We will only hit some highlights (and a few lowlights). If you don’t know much about Moses, other than that he looked a lot like Charlton Heston, I hope it will inspire you to…
