From The Pulpit of DUMC

Kevin and Karen are back along with our new Pastor, Rev. David Hockett! In this second episode, Kevin graduates again, the three discuss Sunday's service with Confirmation, and then define/explain the Trinity. David shares what our on-campus Covid guidelines will look like starting on June 1.

This week we gather to celebrate Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Church. Pentecost reminds us that we are not alone; God is with us in all times and places. As we celebrate this holy day in the life of the Church, we also gather to celebrate the confirmation of 33 DUMC youth. This is a significant day for our youth as they will affirm for themselves the faith into which they we...

On Sunday we observe the Ascension of the Lord, recalling that bit of the Creed where we affirm that Christ “ascended into heaven.” This does not mean that Christ has retreated to his heavenly home and we stand idly by hoping one day to follow him there. Rather, the ascension means that the risen Christ is now present everywhere, and earth and heaven “overlap and interlock”. This is why Jesus taug...

Watch (or listen) to our new Zoomcast called This Thing Called Church. Kevin and Karen are back along with our new Pastor, Rev. David Hockett! In this first episode hear about Kevin's unexpected house guest, what you can do with any extra coffee cups you have, and meet/learn more about David. Karen puts him in the "hot seat" and has him answer the "famous" eight questions.

Last Sunday, we heard from one of the letters of John where the writer encourages us to love like Jesus. In the epistle the writer reminds us that how we love others is a reflection of our love for God. In this Sunday’s gospel reading, John tells us that our ability to love like Christ loves grows out of our relationship with Christ. John suggests that when our relationship with Christ is organic,...

The word “love” appears in the Bible hundreds of time, and is one of the central themes of scripture. But we would be hard-pressed to find a more definitive analysis of God’s love than this Sunday’s passage: 1 John 4: 7-21. John tells his readers that God is the source of all love (“love is from God” and “God is love”). Therefore, our very ability to love is the result of our first being loved by...

The late Gordon Cosby, founder of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC, often wrote about the shape of the Christian life involving our Journey Inward, Outward, and Together. Last Sunday we reflected upon the importance of listening to Christ, the Inward Journey, as a necessary practice for faithful discipleship. Listening well shapes our doing or the mission and activity of the Church. At D...

As we begin this new season of ministry together, I invite us to return to a point of beginning in Jesus’ own ministry with his disciples. Following Jesus’ transfiguration atop the mountain, Mark tells us that Peter, James and John are instructed to “listen” to Jesus as they descend the mountain and head back into the towns and villages where Jesus will heal, teach, share meals, and point to the c...

Our Scripture for this week comes to us from John’s Gospel, Chapter 20. It’s the part in our narrative where some of the disciples encounter Jesus following the resurrection. Upon returning home and sharing the good news with the disciples who weren’t with them, Thomas says that he doesn’t believe them. He says that he won’t believe until he sees and feels the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and side....

We enter today the most sacred hours of our Christian faith. The Paschal or Easter Triduum begins with our Holy Thursday service, remembering Jesus’ final moments with his disciples; followed by Good Friday’s solemn message of Christ’s sacrifice and death; and Holy Saturday’s time of rest and remembrance. And finally, we gather on Sunday morning for Easter, the most joyous and celebrative season o...

This is the beginning of Holy Week. It is a time to remember the many events which took place 2000 years ago. God speaks to us today through these powerful moments in time. We continue to see them lived today. People praised Christ, people cursed him. Jesus ate with his friends, Jesus wept and was in agony. Holy Week is a week of holiness, and it’s not without suffering. Let us turn our eyes toget...

In the our lectionary gospel lesson for today, we find John’s version of the Gethsemane prayer, where Jesus says, “my soul is troubled.” In this moment, he considers if he should ask to be saved from this hour. He realizes that this is what He was sent for, so instead, He asks for the Father to be glorified through it. There is the fragrance of grief and sorrow here. Our Lenten journey reminds us...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16 – NRSV). For many of us this verse was the first verse of Scripture that we memorized. We have seen it written on billboards and bumper stickers. On this Fourth Sunday of Lent, the lectionary offers this well known passage for us to consider as we prepar...

This Sunday, the third Sunday in Lent, we will look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Corinth was a fledgling church in a wealthy trading area, so these new Christians were influenced by many philosophies that contradicted the message of Christ; thus causing problems that permeated the young church. Were the people of the Corinthian church devoted to following Jesus, or more interested in...

This Sunday, the second Sunday of Lent, we will reflect on the most illuminative moment in Mark’s gospel next to the Resurrection: the Transfiguration of Jesus. On a high mountain, and with three of his most intimate disciples, Jesus becomes radiant with glory, his face and clothing shimmering with supernatural brilliance, as Moses and Elijah, two Old Testament archetypes, speak with him. Encapsul...

Shane explains the reason for his unique piece of artwork in his house. Kevin and Shane answer two questions from viewers; one about praying and the other about judgement, heaven, and hell. Shane share's some parting words and Karen discusses what is next after Page - Turner.

This Sunday, having concluded our sermon series on apprenticing with Jesus, we return to the liturgical calendar of the church and will observe the first Sunday of Lent. Each year the appointed reading for this particular Sunday concerns Jesus’s flight into the desert where for forty days he underwent intense temptations orchestrated by the devil. This week we may spend some time considering just...

It's Ash Wednesday and Shane, Kevin, and Karen talk about the importance of this holy day and how to experience this time of sacrifice for Lent. They also discuss Shane's last sermon for the church wide book study, Apprenticeship With Jesus and how to live every day as an apprentice.

This Sunday we end our series on Gary Moon’s Apprenticeship with Jesus with a word of exhortation. Our text for this Sunday will come from Luke 5 as the master Jesus calls his apprentices to follow him (Luke 5:1-11). Luke’s narrative presents an outline of what it means truly to become the Lord’s apprentice. Let’s spend time reflecting for one last Sunday on the meaning of imitating our Lord, so t...

Shane, Kevin, and Karen discuss another upcoming church holiday that has turned into commercialism, Valentine's Day. Then they dig deeper into Shane's sermon from Sunday regarding imitating Jesus on his cross and how apprenticing with Jesus also includes suffering. They answer a confirmand's question, "If God created us perfectly, why is there sin?" and give an update on events at DUMC for Ash Wed...

This Sunday we come to the fourth of our five sermons on Gary Moon’s Apprenticeship With Jesus. To apprentice with Jesus is to imitate the Lord’s life, to let him, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, live the fullness of his life in us. There is, then, another central component to the imitation of the Lord’s life, a component the Lord enjoins on all his followers, a component about which the apostle...

Did you know that there is another holiday on February 2 besides Groundhog day? Super Bowl Sunday is this week and the three briefly discuss the upcoming game. The main topic of this episode is continuing to dig deeper into the churchwide book study of Gary Moon's Apprenticeship with Jesus and Shane's sermon about the counter culture nature of Christianity. Shane and Kevin answer a Confirmand's qu...

This Sunday we continue our reflections on Gary Moon’s Apprenticeship with Jesus. We will re-emphasize another key component of apprenticing with Jesus, an implication we must embrace with all enthusiasm if we wish to assimilate our Lord’s manner of life: non-conformity to the predominant culture or what the New Testament refers to as “the world” (See Romans 12 for a glimpse at this week’s theme)....

Shane addresses the recent announcement about his leaving DUMC, and then Kevin, Karen, and Shane have a discussion about the current churchwide book study, Apprenticeship with Jesus, by Gary Moon. Confirmation classes have started and they answer a student's question, "is sin forgiven if the sinner did not really believe in Jesus?"

This Sunday we continue our sermon series and churchwide book study on Gary Moon’s Apprenticeship with Jesus. This week we will reflect on a fundamental principle of the Bible, a principle sprinkled throughout the book, the subject of our current study: the Imago Dei. The image of God. The Old Testament begins by affirming how God made human beings in God’s own image. Then in the New Testament Jes...