From The Pulpit of DUMC

This Sunday we will press on in our sermon series on the seven deadly sins (and the seven life-giving virtues!). This week we will discuss what may be the most misunderstood of the seven vices: Sloth. Recall once again that all the vices become vices through ongoing habits. A vice is the end result of habitual sinful acts. Once something becomes a habit, it shapes our character until we simply do...

This Sunday we continue our study on the seven deadly sins. This week we come to the fourth capital vice on the list: Greed. Jesus has more to say about greed than any other dysfunction in the life of the soul. Yet for every vice there is, as we have seen, an opposite virtue whose graces can offset the vice's influence. There is hope and good news as always, but swimming against the tide of greed...

This Sunday in worship, we will continue our sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins, looking specifically at the sin of Wrath. Everyone gets angry; even Jesus, as we will hear more about on Sunday. But what is it that makes our anger a sin before God; and is it always? And what is the remedy for our anger? How do we live in a world that is so filled with anger, hatred and division? Read Matthew 5:...

This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series—just before and in time for Lent, which starts on February 26, on what church tradition calls the seven deadly or capital vices. There is no one particular section in the Bible that catalogues these seven vices on a page, but the Scriptures do refer to them or (at least alludes to them) throughout: pride, envy, wrath, greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust....

In a world that seems to becoming more fractured daily, how can the followers of the Prince of Peace be counter-cultural? Can Jesus’ disciples make any real difference in our world or is it too late? What price are we willing to pay for following the way of Jesus? This Sunday we complete our sermon series on the Beatitudes as we think about the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for their ri...

This Sunday we will come to the penultimate sermon in our series on the Beatitudes. Like last week, we will consider two more of Jesus’s sayings that describe the happy soul: Happy are the merciful, for the will obtain mercy, and happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. As I said before, Jesus speaks in the indicative mood in each of these sayings. He’s hardly prescribing steps to beco...

This Sunday our sermon series on the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew's gospel continues. We will consider two of the sayings of Jesus this week: blessed are the meek and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Like all the beatitudes, and most of the teachings of Jesus, these sayings likewise overturn our expectations and reconfigure our vision of the world.

This week we continue our reflection on the Beatitudes of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. This Sunday we will reflect on Jesus's second pronouncement. Blessed or "Happy" are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Once again we find a strange, counter-intuitive definition of happiness (at least according to our culture). Mourning as the road to happiness? Really? What might Jesus mean here?...

This Sunday we will launch a new sermon series during which we will ponder the Beatitudes of Jesus as recalled by the gospel of Matthew. Think of how our world believes we will find lasting happiness. Now consider how Jesus assures us we will find happiness (Matthew 5:1-12). This Sunday we will reflect on Jesus’s first step to happiness: Happy are the poor in spirit. What does this mean? What was...

This Sunday in worship we will continue to follow the church's worship calendar and commemorate the second high Sunday of the year (the first being last Sunday, Epiphany): The feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is the moment where it all began for our Lord (at least concerning his ministry): his baptism in the Jordan River. What went under those waters was the Son of God. What arose from those w...

This Sunday we will follow the traditional liturgical cycle and observe the last day of the Christmas season, Epiphany Sunday. Every year on Epiphany the lectionary cycle has us revisit the story of those enigmatic stargazers from the East, the Magi, commonly referred to as the wise men. This Sunday let’s see what other lessons they can teach us in the new year awaiting us.

This service has its roots in late 19th century England. It has been made famous by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, who has sung this service every Christmas Eve since 1918. The music changes every year, but the readings remain the same. The readings tell us the story of God's plan for salvation for us beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing until the coming of Christ. It is our hope th...

This Sunday we will end our sermon series on the central figure of Advent next to Jesus, Mary his mother. This week will conclude things with a stroll through her great song of victory traditionally called the Magnificat. Subversive? Yes! Nevertheless, it remains fraught with good news, previewing as it does what Jesus will make his ministry about. Reflect on it this weekend in preparation for Sun...

This Sunday we will continue our sermon series on Mary the Mother of Jesus as Luke’s gospel presents her. Last week we reflected on the story of the Annunciation, that is, the Announcement by the angel Gabriel that Mary, filled with grace, would be the mother of the Lord. This Sunday we will come to Act Two: Mary’s visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45), the latter being the mother of John the Baptist,...

This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series on the central figure—next to our Lord—of the Advent season: Mary the Mother of Jesus. We will walk through the biblical account of Mary as Luke’s gospel presents her in his opening chapters, starting first with the Annunciation (this Sunday), then with the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth (the next week), and then, finally, we will conclude our study with M...

In worship this Sunday we celebrate the final Sunday of the Christian year, which is called Christ the King Sunday. As we fill the chancel area with our Harvest Procession bags, we’ll be thinking about the signs of the kingdom that are all around us every day. The text, Luke 23: 33-43, is one that we hear most often on Good Friday. As you prepare for worship, ponder what the text says about the Ch...

This week we end our series on the parables of Jesus unique to Luke’s gospel. This Sunday we will revisit what we know—and even pop culture knows—as the parable of the Good Samaritan. Long thought to be a parable of do-gooding and example-setting, let’s try to reframe some of this story and see it from another vantage point. We might find it’s really the story of our salvation.

This Sunday we resume our sermon series on the parables of Jesus unique to Luke's Gospel. This week Jesus spins a yarn about a man who experienced, in ancient terms, a hugely profitable year and then things, especially the man's character, degenerated from there. "You fool," the voice of the Lord says in response. What made the man foolish in Jesus's reading? What's the good news of this great par...

This Sunday we come to one of the highest days in the Christian year. All Saints Sunday is a day of poetry more than prose as we consider our calling as Christians and commemorate those members of DUMC who have entered the church triumphant since last year. Come this Sunday giving thanks for the saints in your life who have pointed you in the direction of heaven, the people whom you still love but...

This week we continue our sermon series on the parables of Jesus found only in the Gospel of Luke. This week we will visit the story Jesus told regarding two people who went to church one Sabbath morning, the first an upstanding and moral member of religious society, the second a downright scoundrel (Luke 18:9-14). The zinger? The scoundrel went home a better friend of God. Let’s be very careful o...

Professing faith is a lifelong response to the call of God, gift of grace and inclusion in the church as the body of Christ and witness to the coming kingdom of God. But, what is faith? * Faith is the basic orientation and commitment of our whole being - a matter of heart and soul. * Faith is grounding our lives in the living God as revealed especially in Jesus Christ. It's both a gift we receive...

This Sunday in worship we will start a new sermon series in which we will focus each week—aside from All Saints Sunday--on a parable of Jesus found only in Luke’s gospel. This week we will examine the harrowing (Lucan) parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Jesus pulls no punches with this one. What is its point? What is the good news? This Sunday let’s reflect on it together and hear what the Lord...

This weekend in worship we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Christian unity, symbolized through the act of Communion, is the focal point of World Communion Sunday. The day was founded by a Presbyterian pastor in 1933. The concept spread slowly, but during WWII the spirit of the day caught hold as people were trying to hold the world together. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit. As you pr...

This Sunday we will conclude our quick tour through the book of Genesis by reflecting on the longest story in Genesis’s 50 chapters: the story of Joseph, youngest and favorite son of the patriarch Jacob, whose adventurous tale rivals any yarn spun today. Left for dead by his envious brothers, sent into Egypt where he remained a prisoner until circumstances enabled him to become the right hand man...