A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho June 28, 2020 Genesis 22:1-14 As I’ve confessed before, there are scripture passages I’d just as soon never read. This is one of them. I confess it is hard to find the “good news” in a passage of near child sacrifice. It makes me wonder…
A sermon preached for Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho April 26, 2020 John 20:19-31 We’re moving through the resurrection texts, and today we move to John’s gospel. In John’s gospel, Mary encounters Jesus in the garden, early in the morning. And she goes and tells the disciples, and Peter and John race back to…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho February 24, 2018 John 13:1-17 I try to understand Simon Peter. I want to understand him. He’s impetuous and wears it all on his sleeve. He says things the rest of us may be thinking, but aren’t bold enough to say out loud. Lord? Are…
A sermon preached at Southminster’s Sabbath service October 14, 2017 1 Samuel 3 Last week, we were with Israel in the wilderness, as they received manna after complaining to the Lord about dying from hunger. In the intervening generations between that story and this one, Israel has settled the Promised Land, planted their own fields…
Acts 15 A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church May 13, 2017 I don’t know if you caught it in last week’s story about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch he met on the wilderness road. But when the Ethiopian man said, “what is to stop me from being baptized?” the good Presbyterians probably all thought,…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho November 6, 2016 Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10; 4:1-11 We humans often have a bad habit of “othering” people. By that, I mean we look at someone’s life that seems very different than our own, and we place them in some category at a remove from our…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church Aug 7, 2016 Job 42:1-6, 10-17 We’ve spent more time this summer with the book of Job than some faithful Christians have ever spent with the book in their whole lives. We’ve wrestled with its complexity and the nuance of its argument. We’ve heard the discussion with his…
It was a bad week. So it is good for us to gather together. There were two high profile shootings of men of color by police last week–Alton Sterling and Philando Castile–one in Baton Rouge and one in the Minneapolis suburbs. There were two other similar deaths that didn’t get much news at all. They…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho May 22, 2016 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 Last week, on Pentecost, we spoke of how God empowers our gifts; of how our gifts become more than they are when the Holy Spirit moves among us and inspires us. That same “empower” word is in the Greek…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho April 24, 2016 Acts 11:1-18 John 13:31-35 The musician Prince passed away this week at the age of 57. I know there are lots of other people in the world, in our own community, who died that day and who won’t be getting non stop…
