From The Pulpit of DUMC

This Sunday we continue our series on a few of the stories of the book of Genesis. This week we will hear the story of someone who, at long last, responds in Genesis to the voice of God in the right and proper way: Abram, who would later become Abraham. It is from his radical response to God that Abram would become designated the father of all those who respond with a similar act of faith. What le...

This Sunday we continue our exploration of a few of the foundational stories of the book of Genesis, arriving this week at one of the strangest passages in the book itself: the episode of the Tower of Babel in (chapter 11). Human beings unite to build one common city with one common language using one common technology, and then God, sensing the danger in the project, foils their plans by scatteri...

This Sunday we continue our brief tour during September through the book of Genesis, looking at a few of the memorable or perhaps foundational stories of the opening book of the Torah. Last week we revisited the fall of Adam and Eve. This week we move to the sixth chapter, which contains the infamous story of Noah and his Ark. There is in the character of Noah, and in the story itself, great truth...

The youth have gone back to school and we will go back to the basics. For the month of September we will begin a new sermon series "Back to the Basics" during which we will explore a few of the fundamental stories of the book of Genesis, the stories you would have learned, perhaps, in Sunday school as a child. Let's hear these stories again as if for the first time. This Sunday we go back to the g...

When we hear the words “hospital” or “hospice,” we envision places that offer tremendous care, compassion, and healing for others. Chances are, we may not see “hospitality” in quite the same way, though all three words have the same origin. The Bible urges us to rethink our definition of hospitality beyond just offering a friendly smile or handshake to others. Biblical hospitality is rooted in gen...

This week we continue our August sermon series on the biblical virtue of hospitality. As a virtue, hospitality is the fruit of discipline, a discipline formed by a set of habits until those habits become second nature. It takes effort and courage to exercise biblical hospitality. In contrast to our domesticated, sentimental associations, biblical hospitality belongs to those who risk opening up th...

This Sunday we continue our study of the biblical concept of hospitality, the purpose of which, we hope to discover, is a far cry from our contemporary notions of the same concept. This week we will explore a passage that sets the foundation of this biblical virtue for the rest of the Bible, the story being Abraham's welcome of the three guests who visited him unannounced in Genesis 18. There is,...

When is the last time you received a really beautiful invitation? What did it look like? Who was it from? What were you expected to wear? What were you expected to bring? This weekend we begin our August sermon series on Hospitality. Hospitality always begins with an invitation, but maybe not the type of invitation we expect. You can read more in Luke 14: 1, 7-14. This is your invitation: Come, Wo...

It is said that we only get one chance to make a first impression. This Sunday, as we finish up our sermon series on the subject of "Sabbath," we will see how Jesus chose to begin his public ministry in Nazareth, how his words give us a good first impression for the type of Lord he will be, and the radical kingdom he ushers upon the earth. Sabbath is a key component of this kingdom. Have you ever...

This Sunday our sermon series on the Sabbath continues. This weekend we will reflect on one of the earliest healing stories in the ministry of Jesus, which occurs, according to Mark, on the Sabbath day. That Jesus healed on the Sabbath was a major source of conflict among the most devoted practitioners of Torah. In our passage this Sunday we see Jesus healing a man with a withered hand, doing so t...

9 to 5. 996. 24/7. What is your pattern of work? How we work also determines how we rest. This Sunday in worship we continue our sermon series on Sabbath as we examine our patterns of work and rest more closely. Who or what is driving our work in the 21st century? Are we trying to make bricks without straw? Is resting just another word for laziness? And for those of us who are retired, there’s an...

Now that the dog days of summer are upon us, and with so many families in the church planning, anticipating, or taking time away from the daily grind, vacationing, we thought it might be only appropriate to think during July about God's own design for our rest: The Sabbath. Lo and behold, it's still a commandment, and yet it may be the one most often broken by us (and in some cases with boasting!)...

This Sunday, three Sundays removed from the Sunday of Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit gave birth to the church, we will reflect, in keeping with the theme of the Holy Spirit, on a few verses from Paul's letter to the Galatians (chapter 5). Here Paul juxtaposes two conditions, two lifestyles: The first is a life lived according to the passions of the flesh; the other is a life lived acc...

The Father sent the Son into the world and then the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, sent the church into the world. On the Sunday following Pentecost, the church encourages us each year to pause in mystic contemplation. Now that Spirit of Jesus the Son burns with a fire glorifying the Father, it is only fitting to ask, "Just who is this God whom Jesus has revealed?" God, we...

This Sunday we end our sermon series on the book of Acts almost at the beginning, the day that started it all for the disciples and their bold witness to the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah: Pentecost. The fire of heaven blew through the gathering, Luke recounts, emboldening the disciples to continue what King Jesus had only begun. Let's think through this Sunday just what the gift of the Holy S...

This Sunday we come to part five of our six part journey through the book of Acts. This week we will reflect on the most critical interpretive moment in the church's early life, a moment without which none of us, unless my reader happens to be Jewish, would be followers of Israel's Messiah, Jesus. Acts 10 presents the moment when the plot thickened for the Jewish apostles, all of whom devoted them...

This Sunday we come to the fourth part of our sermon series on the book of Acts. This week we will meet Saul of Tarsus, the self-avowed enemy of the burgeoning Christian community, who had just cheered on the brutal death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and watch as he finds himself displaced, upended, and overturned by an personal invasion of the resurrected Christ. The greatest enemy of...

This Sunday we come to the fourth part of our sermon series on the book of Acts. This week we will meet Saul of Tarsus, the self-avowed enemy of the burgeoning Christian community, who had just cheered on the brutal death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and watch as he finds himself displaced, upended, and overturned by an personal invasion of the resurrected Christ. The greatest enemy of...

Sermons and Scripture delivered from The Pulpit of Davidson United Methodist Church, Davidson, NC. Tune in weekly for Inspiring Messages and Scripture delivered during weekly Worship Services.