Sermons at Morehead FCC

Chanting crowds, a donkey, branches and cloaks lining the road, shouts of Hosanna ringing in the air--there is always a festival feel in our celebrations of Jesus entering Jerusalem. Pastor Nancy invites us to imagine ourselves in the crowds that day. What might move us to shout Hosanna, God save us? Who is crying out, save us, today? Scripture: Mark 11:1-11 and Philippians 2:5-11.

What do you do when political structures exploit the poor and religious institutions align themselves with the powerful? According to the prophet Jeremiah you expect God to do a new thing. On the fifth Sunday of Lent Pastor Nancy explores the dream of Jeremiah of the day when God's covenant bypasses the powerful and transforms the hearts and minds of the people with God's law of love. Scripture te...

On the fourth Sunday of Lent, Pastor Nancy explores an obscure story about a bronze snake from the book of Numbers and its unexpected appearance in Jesus's late night conversation with Nicodemus. As we make our way through Lent on the way to Good Friday and the cross, we must gaze upon the cross, and if we look at it honestly, "we see humankind's rejection of...divine love lived out in Jesus....th...

"...if we've abandoned the cross and taken up the trappings of glory and power of the world, then we're left with nothing but crumbling monuments to our own folly, dollar store idols of our own creation." In her sermon for the third Sunday of Lent Pastor Nancy holds three scripture texts in conversation with one another. The Ten Commandments, Jesus clearing the Temple, and Paul's take on the fooli...

In the age of GPS mapping apps, directions are always at our fingertips. Use your current location and select destination—with just a click, each road and every turn appears. Our spiritual journey has no quick guides. One day the path seems clear, other times the way is hidden from us. The journey of faith is a walk of trust, radically trusting in the God who calls us, walks with us and paves our...

On the first Sunday of Lent Pastor Nancy opens up the story of God's first covenant found in Genesis 9:8-17. A story of a bow hung in the heavens, a sign of remembrance of lives lost and of God's vow never to bring destruction to life on earth again. What can we learn from this ancient story? How can we find inspiration in this story to meet the challenges of our day?

As the church moves from the season of Epiphany to the time of Lent, we pause for a moment with the Peter, James and John on a far away mountain top. There in a mysterious moment of revelation, the disciples catch of glimpse of glory in the person of Jesus. But what does it mean? And how are we to understand this strange story? Listen as Pastor Nancy invites us to see the glory of God in the momen...

The mind numbing realities of life during the pandemic can be exhausting. Pandemic burnout pulls us down as we wonder when this will all end. Join Pastor Nancy as she explores the questions and the inspiration found in Isaiah 40:21-31. Whether it's in the soaring majesty of eagle's wings or in the fragileness of a grasshopper's wings, you just might find some words of hope you need for today.&nbsp...

In her sermon "Tough Words on Love and Freedom" Pastor Nancy goes behind easy platitudes and thin excuses to explore the real world wisdom of the Apostle Paul's words, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" from 1 Corinthians 8. 

In her sermon "You Can't Be Serious?" for Sunday, January 24, 2021, Pastor Nancy invites us to consider two call stories, the first from Jonah 3:1-10, and the second from Mark 1:14-20. "In God’s realm all things are possible. The good news is spread by imperfect people--folks struggling with their own prejudices, or those just struggling to get by."

In this week's sermon Pastor Nancy Gowler explores the richness of the story of the call of Samuel. She lifts up the faithfulness of his mother Hannah, the blindness of his mentor Eli, the corruption of Eli's sons, and the unsure response of a young boy learning to listen to the voice of God in his life. You can find the story in 1 Samuel 3:1-20.

The events of the week of January 6, 2021 have shaken our country to its core. In her sermon on the Sunday after the violence inside the nation's capitol in Washington, DC, Pastor Nancy addresses the dangers of Christian Nationalism and looks for hope in Mark's gospel story.  You can read the text of her sermon on Pastor Nancy's blog: https://ruminari.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/dragging-the-bur...

In this sermon for Epiphany Sunday Pastor Nancy Gowler asks us to imagine ourselves invited to journey along with the magi to Bethlehem to see the Christ Child. What is this time holding for us? What keeps us from crossing the threshold? What star awaits us? This sermon was preached on Sunday, January 3, 2020 at First Christian Church in Morehead, Kentucky, USA.