Sermons

Sermon on May 10, 2026“Loneliness”By: Mae Barnes, lay preacher Loneliness is haunting our society. We all are aware of it from time to time, but never has loneliness been so powerful and so dangerous. Truth be told, the fear of loneliness is a very old fear. So advanced are we, living in an age of endless information and boundless communication, that we keep on trying to come up with new and exciting ways to defeat that specter, yet it feels as if the specter only gets stronger with each passing day. Despite our best efforts, we have only strengthened its…

Sermon on May 3, 2026“Satisfaction”By: Rev. Pamela DolanGospel: John 14: 1-14 There’s a reason that one of the most enduring and popular rock songs of all time is the Rolling Stones’s “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which was released before I was born and still gets airplay today. Okay, one reason is definitely that guitar riff by Keith Richards, but another reason is that we live in a society that is rooted in dissatisfaction. If that sounds like a too-sweeping generalization, I invite you to imagine what would happen if one day everyone in this country woke up completely emotionally…

Sermon on April 19, 2026“Jesus the Stranger”By: The Very Rev. Pamela DolanGospel: Luke 24: 13-35 I was listening to a science podcast recently and was intrigued to hear that “research shows” that people enjoy small talk a lot more than they think they will. I know it’s dangerous to start off any assertion with “research shows,” but I decided not to go down a rabbit hole trying to find that research and examine its methodology and results. Instead, I found myself thinking about how much our society seems to go out of its way to make it possible to almost…

Sermon on April 4, 2026“Practicing Resurrection with Easter Courage”By: The Ven. Margaret GraydenGospel: Matthew 28: 1-10 Some of the most amazing, awesome things start in darkness. Like new life. New life takes root in the darkness of the earth, in the darkness of space, in the darkness of the womb, and in the darkness of the tomb. We don’t see its beginnings or the long slow process of growth until new life suddenly bursts forth into the light. The Resurrection is like that. There are no eyewitness accounts of the moment when God raised Jesus from the dead. We are…

Sermon on April 12, 2026“Doubting Thomases”By: The Rev. Ernie Lewis Today we find ourselves in a locked room where some of Jesus’s closest followers are huddled together as they try, in the midst of their grief and fear, to make some kind of sense of his death and the rumors of his resurrection as reported by some of the women in their group who were closest to him. (Even in those long-ago times dead people didn’t routinely come back to life!) Yet, right in the middle of their discussions and to their utter astonishment, Jesus himself appears! They’re all present…

Sermon on April 5, 2026“Jesus the Gardener”By: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan A few months ago, I did something I’d never done before and bought a piece of art for myself. It is an icon of Jesus the Gardener, and I first saw it on the Facebook page of the artist, Kristen Wheeler. The primary image is of a dark-haired, dark-skinned, slightly dishevelled-looking Jesus, holding in his cupped hands a big scoop of rich brown soil with a plant in full flower at its center. I love gardening, and I’m convinced that soil is one of the most miraculous things…

Sermon on April 2, 2026“This Love Thing”By: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan In a recent podcast, the author and historian Kate Bowler told a story about visiting her aging parents with her young son in tow. She has a great relationship with her parents, and it sounds like it was one of those really nice visits that families sometimes have when the generations come together. On the way home after, maybe because they were talking about some of the challenges and changes that come with aging, Kate’s son blurted out, “It just feels like the better I get at this…

Sermon on March 15, 2026“Remember”By: The Rev. Debbie Hawkins The language of the New Testament and particularly of the gospel of John at times feels like a physical assault and leave us wondering why we are here. We heard some of that in the story Margaret proclaimed to us today. The exact reasons the writer had for using ‘the Jews’ or ‘the Judeans’ as the name of those who worked against Jesus are complicated and not completely understood. It is confusing. It is as obvious to us as it would have been to the earliest congregations that Jesus and his…

Sermon on March 8, 2026“Is God Among Us or Not?”By: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan “Is the Lord among us or not?” If you believe the testimony of the Psalm, the Israelites were punished for asking that question. Maybe. But I’d like to think that, when keeping the whole narrative arc of Scripture in mind, the God we meet in Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, is not a god who punishes us for asking questions. Moses questioned God many times. Abraham asked questions and even bargained with God. Sarah laughed at God’s messengers. We don’t think of…

Sermon on February 18, 2026“Ashes and Dust”By: The Ven. Margaret GraydenReadings: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 I’ve always found more than a little irony in the Ash Wednesday service.  We’ve just heard Jesus warn us against wearing signs of piety on our foreheads like the hypocrites.  Yet later in this service, we will have an opportunity to receive the imposition of ashes in the form of a cross on our foreheads.  Wait, what?  A large, dark, smudged cross seems like an obvious sign of piety, doesn’t it? Some of us debate each year what to do about the ashes on our foreheads…

Sermon on February 15, 2026“The Mountaintop”By: The Rev. Ernie LewisReadings: Exodus 24:12-182 Peter 1:16-21Matthew 17:1-9 This is the last Sunday after the Epiphany. The baby in the manger has become a grown man. He’s gotten quite a reputation as a teacher and a miracle worker. He’s gathered a small group of close followers who travel the countryside with him. Some of his followers even dare to suspect he might be the Messiah, the One promised so long ago to the Jewish people. His name is Jesus and he has a growing following, as well as a particular ability to send…