A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian in Boise, Idaho. Ezekiel 37:1-14 December 9, 2017 Our passage from Ezekiel’s prophecy is full of evocative language and imagery. We can picture a valley where life is nowhere to be seen. Cracked and parched earth, piles of bones wherever you look. And what can we do in…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho. December 3, 2017 Daniel 3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits. If my biblical math is correct, that’s about 90 feet tall, and about 9 feet wide, which is maybe not a hallmark of…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho Nov 11, 2017 Amos 5 What does justice look like to you? The image of justice in our nation is of a woman, with a blindfold, holding scales that are perfectly balanced, equitably balanced, just. I’ve always liked this image of Lady Justice. She’s strong.…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho June 25, 2017 There are so many images in this psalm, and each of them is lovely and memorable. It’s not surprise it is one of the most famous passages of scripture. Is there one for you that resonates more than another? Lately, I’ve been…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho May 21, 2017 Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21 I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking of scripture as a straight up “reporting” of events that happened 2,000 years. An account of “just the facts”, without any editorial influence. In some ways, it is, a chronicle…
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 April 23, 2017 Luke 24:13-35 My friends and I pass books back and forth. If there is a book we enjoy, we’ll pass it on when we’re done with it. One of my friends sent me a book a while back. I read it and loved…
Luke 22:1-27 A Maundy Thursday meditation April 13, 2017 This is the night where all of our theology and traditions and practices as a church come together. Where the rubber meets the road, as they say. Because this is the night we lift up our praise of God as the psalmist tells us in the…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho April 8, 2017 Palm Saturday Luke 19:29-44 You get extra Jesus points for coming to Palm Sunday worship on Saturday night. We joke about traditions and how sacred they can be, but we know there are good reasons for tradition. I’m grateful to…
(At this link, you will find a video of just the sermon and a page with the liturgy from the service.) A sermon preached at the 2017 NEXT Church Conference in Kansas City. March 14, 2017 John 4: 15-18; 29 It’s a little jarring for me to tell only that small portion of the story…
Glass Overflowing 