Sermons

Sermon on July 19, 2026“Stay in Your Lane“By: The Ven. Margaret Grayden If you’ve been out and about lately, riding a bike or driving a car around Davis, you may have noticed that many of our streets are not in good shape—crumbling pavement and lane lines so faded in some places as to be practically invisible.  Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I learned how to drive, one of the phrases I heard a lot was “Stay in your lane!”  This, it turns out, is good advice, not only for driving but for many other activities in life.  I’ve…

Sermon on July 12, 2026“The Sower”By: Kimo Kimokeo I think that we’re fortunate to live in the Central Valley of California, especially this time of the year when garden vegetables and fruit are coming into season. In my neighborhood, plums, peaches, and English walnuts are being shared. Today’s Gospel touches on growing things and harvesting. In the 13th Chapter of Matthew, we read about Jesus sharing His story or the Parable of the Sower. We learn that it is a large crowd that Jesus is speaking to. If you’re like me, you may wonder did Jesus always draw a large…

Sermon on July 5, 2026“Come on Up“By: The Rev. Mike Kinman Hear the Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen Can’t see nothing in front of me Can’t see nothing coming up behind Make my way through this darkness I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me Lost track of how far I’ve gone How far I’ve gone, how high I’ve climbed On my back’s a sixty-pound stone On my shoulder, a half-mile line Come on up for the rising Come on up, lay your hands in mine Come on up for the rising Come on up for the rising…

Sermon on June 28, 2026“Graduation Sermon”By: James Hochbrueckner Hello my name is James Hochbrueckner. I’ve been at St. Martin’s for the past three years and you may have seen me dabbling in everything from acolyting, to convention, to choir.  As you may have guessed, either from the announcement or that I’ve been here suspiciously long for a college student, this is my Senior Sermon and soon I’ll be heading off to Argentina and Uruguay to do a service year with the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program. As with any major or sometimes quite minor changes in life, I…

Sermon on May 31, 2026“An Ecosystem of Love“By: Rev. Pamela Dolan When I was in middle school, I briefly took part in a confirmation class at my local Roman Catholic parish. I say “briefly,” because I’m not sure how many classes I attended, but I know that I did not go on to be confirmed with the rest of the class. I vaguely remember being told that Confirmation is an affirmation of faith, a time when we choose to make a mature commitment to the promises made on our behalf at Baptism.  And I definitely remember telling my mother that…

Sermon on May 17, 2026“Set Free“By: Rev. Debbie Hawkins Set free. Sometimes I worry about being found acceptable in God’s sight, about accumulating enough “brownie points,” as someone recently put it, to be considered worthy of heaven or God’s care. I worry I need to do something to make sure God loves me, notices me, but maybe not too much, hoping whatever it is I am doing will lead God to say, “well done, good and faithful servant, now enter into the joy of your master.” Jesus even suggests we should be thinking like this or at least he tells…

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 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 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…