West End UMC Podcast Audio Podcast

This is the fourth Sunday in advent, and in the scripture from Matthew 1, Joseph has found out that his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant, the only logical cause is that she has been unfaithful. In effect, Joseph is a minor character in the Gospels with no speaking lines at all, but this reading gives a chance to focus on his character. Here, he is faced with a problem for which the law says he can pub...

(Anna Bigelow reads the scripture.) This is the third Sunday in advent, and in the scripture from Matthew 11 John the Baptist is in prison. This was the fiery preacher who, early in Matthew, baptized Jesus and recognized him as the Messiah. But, perhaps now seeing his ministry at an end and the long-awaited king not having taken over, John is wondering whether Jesus is the Messiah and sends some o...

This podcast contains Derek Weber's dramatic reading of a passage from Isaiah 11, then the Children's Moment and Communion Meditation. This is the second Sunday in advent, and the scripture is part of a vision in Isaiah 11 that starts with the “stump of Jesse” and describes with imagery a world in which there are peace and love. Rev. Nancy Parker is preaching and gives a personal example of a fig...

This recording begins with a dramatic reading of the scripture, continues with the Children's Moment, and then the sermon. This is the first Sunday in advent, and the scripture is (part of) Matthew’s version of the genealogy of Jesus, and the focus of the sermon is the significance of family ancestry. In our own hunger to know more about our ancestry we find a richness and foundation. The genealog...

Today Jefferson Furtado is the guest preacher, and the scripture is from the vision in which God shows Ezekiel a valley filled with dry bones. When asked if they can live, Ezekiel replies to God that God knows. As a picture of the hopelessness of Israel at the time, with Jerusalem in ruins, to look beyond the hopelessness of the dry bones is to look toward a reality that is beyond what one can see...

Today’s scripture is part of a vision of Isaiah wherein God describes the creation of new heavens and a new earth. Although to us it might initially sound like an apocalyptic vision of the end-time, the promise is for a new Jerusalem wherein there will be no distress, no weeping, and people will live out full lives. Several other specific examples are given, and soon we begin to realize this newne...

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem, and today is All Saints Sunday. In today’s reading, Jesus is confronted by a group of Sadducees who want to trip him up by posing a question on resurrection, based on a law from the Torah. His response not only underscores the ridiculous nature of their question, it throws a light for us on the conce...

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. Today’s reading is the familiar passage where the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus, climbs a tree to see Jesus, and Jesus calls him by name and says he will go to the house of Zacchaeus. The story is full of active verbs with Zacchaeus going quickly, climbing the tree, and so on. In Luke’s parables to...

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In today’s reading, Jesus tells a parable about two men, one a Pharisee praying that he is grateful to be righteous and effectively leaving no room for God. The other man is a tax collector who throws himself on God’s mercy. In that day, Pharisees were the good, religious people while tax collectors...

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In today’s reading, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who repeatedly pleads to a judge for justice without result. The judge does not fear God and declines to act. In some ways it is humorous because the judge finally gives in, just to get her off his back. Widows were among the outcast and hopeles...

This is in a sermon series based on passages from Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In today’s reading, he is in an area between Jews on one side and Samaritans on the other, and he is met by a group of ten lepers, united by their leprosy and thus by being outcasts from both Jews and Samaritans. At their request he gives them instructions that will heal them. They are healed, but on...

The scripture for today is a section from Numbers describing the cloud over the tabernacle as representative of God. When the tabernacle was completed, the cloud descended upon it. Thereafter, when the cloud moved, the people packed up and followed it until it stopped again. When it was stopped and the tabernacle was reassembled, the tribes camped around it, with God, significantly, in the center....

The scripture for today is a parable Jesus tells of a rich man and Lazarus, men at the extremes of wealth. The rich man feasts daily while poor Lazarus lies at the house gate, dogs licking his sores, and longs for even a crumb. The parable changes scenes until after both characters have died, and Lazarus is with Abraham while the rich man suffers in Hades and begs for Abraham to send Lazarus with...

The scripture for today is a difficult section of Luke 16 where Jesus tells a parable of a rich man about to fire his manager who has been squandering his property. The parable’s “solution” seems to be odd and difficult to interpret because the rich man ends up judging the manager to have acted “shrewdly” and the parable clearly praises that shrewdness. Maybe in this case Jesus is saying that to u...

The Children's Moment before the sermon is the presentation of Bibles to children. The sermon is based on the scripture for today, which is a familiar section of Luke 15 with the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. We did not read it, but the parable of the “lost son,” (the Prodigal Son) follows these two. Although we know them as the “lost sheep” and “lost coin” parables, the points Jes...

The scripture for today is a section of Luke wherein Jesus tells a crowd of people what they must give up if they are to be his disciples. It is a difficult passage because Jesus is very clear, saying one must hate one’s parents, spouse, children, siblings, and give up everything. But does this give people permission to abuse others in pursuit of Jesus? Erin gives an example of a person well admir...

This is the final in a three-weeks sermon series on passages from the Letter (sermon) to the Hebrews. In Hebrews the “preacher” is encouraging a congregation that seems to be tired, and today the preacher brings the sermon to a close by explaining how keeping the faith means living the faith, and he includes step-by-step instructions. First, “let mutual love continue” by loving one another within...

This is the second in a three-weeks sermon series on passages from the Letter (sermon) to the Hebrews. In today’s reading the “preacher” is aware that the people of that congregation are getting tired, and he reminds them of the faith of their ancestors in the faith who endured incredible odds and opposition and ran the race they were called to run. In this passage he tells them to look to Jesus....

(The Children's Moment is hosted by Maggie Jarrell, Minister of Children and Families.) Today we begin a new three-weeks sermon series on passages from the Letter (sermon) to the Hebrews, and today’s reading is a treatise on faith, giving examples of several well-known ancestors, especially Abraham. Carol explains that she’s preaching to this congregation about a sermon that was preached to a cong...

Today’s reading is the introduction to and a pronouncement from the first chapter of Isaiah in which God is sending a warning to Judah and Jerusalem. Rev. Brandon Baxter recounts his family’s recent experience seeing three shows on Broadway and how magical and transformative the characters were on stage. But then, after the show, they saw those people out of costume and character backstage and rea...

Today’s reading is from Luke 12, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. In this text a man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide his inheritance with him, and in response Jesus tells a parable about a man whose crops produced abundantly, and he was concerned with storing all that wealth. In some senses, this fellow seems practical in that he does things we...

Today’s reading is from Luke 11, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. Here, as requested, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, using what we have come to view as “The Lord’s Prayer.” In a rare instance, Jesus answers the disciples’ question directly, giving them the words to say. But the lesson to the disciples goes much farther as Jesus teaches about God’s...

Today’s reading is from Luke 10, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem, and it’s the story of Jesus staying at the home of Mary and Martha. Mary sits with Jesus and listens to what he has to say while Martha prepares the dinner. Then Martha comes in to complain that she’s been left with all the work. Nancy Parker begins her sermon describing this as a pillow f...

Today’s reading is from Luke 10, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem, and it’s the very familiar Parable of the Good Samaritan, likely one of the most well-known of those parables of Jesus. One of the features of the parables is that we can always learn something from them, no matter how often we hear them. As comfortable as they feel, they can also poke us...

Today’s reading is from Luke 10, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. In this passage, Jesus sends out seventy disciples in pairs to deliver the gospel. As believers and baptized Christians we are all in mission, and this passage can give us some direction for that. That Jesus sends out seventy, not just the twelve, is indicative of the discipleship of every...