West End UMC Podcast Audio Podcast

This is the fourth in a sermon series based on 1 Corinthians 13’s treatise on love and titled, “Love, Always.” Today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 8 is a bit confusing, in part because it is addressed to a church in a multi-layered society where it was okay to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Although Paul says it is fine to eat that meat and explains why, he also says that it might be h...

This is the third in a sermon series based on 1 Corinthians 13’s treatise on love and titled, “Love, Always.” Today’s reading is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, describing how each prayed in the temple, the Pharisee saying he’s glad he’s not like others. The focus today is on love not being envious, boastful, or arrogant, all of which would be comparing ourselves to others. At t...

This is the second in a sermon series based on 1 Corinthians 13’s treatise on love and titled, “Love, Always.” Today’s reading is from 1 Cor. 12, Paul’s familiar comparison of the church to the member of the human body. The word, “kindness,” originated from the way one would treat others in one’s family, kin, and thus the sermon title, “KINdness.” Rev. Nancy gives an example of Fr. Greg Boyle whos...

Is Love Always Patient? – This is the first in a sermon series based on 1 Corinthians 13’s treatise on love and titled, “Love, Always.” Today’s focus from that chapter is “love is Patient.” Just in the last two days at West End, 1 Cor. 13 was read in a memorial service and in a wedding. Originally, it was addressed to a congregation in Corinth that was widely divergent in its membership, Paul emph...

This is our annual service to remember our baptism. The reading is Luke’s story of the baptism of Jesus, through which we hear God’s blessing on the freshly baptized Jesus applied to us, “You are my Child, the Beloved: with you I am well pleased.” We are very familiar with the role of water in baptism, but John the Baptist speaks of one who will baptize with spirit/wind and with fire. What would b...

This is Epiphany Sunday when we remember the journey of the magi following the star to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn Jesus. There are two sides of this story: one is the joy of the birth, the star, the visitors, the gifts; the other is the dark side with fear, violence, and hatred, in the face of which Joseph takes the family to Egypt. Where do we see ourselves in this story? The magi, ha...

This is West End’s traditional Christmas Eve service, held late to celebrate the joy of the birth as close to Christmas Day as possible. It is a service of holy communion. The Gospel reading is, of course, the story of that birth, and it is read, as is traditional, from the midst of the people. Although we are grateful to be together, much moreso than this time last year, the world is still not th...

This is a service acknowledging the longest night of the year, December 21, and designed to comfort and heal those who are experiencing darkness. The service includes communion, prayer, anointing with oil, and the lighting of candles. Rev. Frances Merritt delivers the message and begins with examples from the Bible of people in repentant and humble postures, contrasting that with our own attitudes...

This is the fourth Sunday in Advent. The reading is Luke’s account of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. There are many details of that story that we’d like to know but simply aren’t there, so many things we wonder about Mary’s thoughts and why and how she went to visit Elizabeth. Perhaps God knew that the two women needed time and each other to process the impending births of their sons and the significa...

This is the third Sunday in Advent. The reading is Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s words to the people that sound very harsh and not what we like to hear as we await the birth of the Christ child. But that preaching must have been compelling as evidenced by the crowds that gathered to be baptized by John. He calls the people to change, to turn, to repent, and he gives specific examples of how...

This is the second Sunday in Advent. The reading is Zechariah’s prophecy at the presentation of his and Elizabeth’s newborn son (John the Baptist) at the Temple, the first time Zechariah had been able to speak since the angel came to tell him that they would bear a son, and he would turn many people to God. The prophecy speaks of what the child will grow up to do, but it also talks of “the tender...

This is the first Sunday in Advent. The reading is from the late chapters of Luke in which Jesus offers some warnings about things to come. With recent happenings – the pandemic, fires and floods – it has sometimes felt like the world is coming to an end. Jesus tells the disciples to be alert, but also to be sure their hearts are not burdened with concerns. We do need times for rest, but we also n...

This is the last in a sermon series using selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading has Jesus in the home of Simon the leper in Bethany when a woman, unannounced and defying all custom and convention, comes in and anoints his head with some very expensive ointment. Some of the guests complain that this was a waste and that the ointment could have been sold fo...

Nancy Parker was scheduled to preach today, but she was taken ill, and Carol Cavin-Dillon is preaching. We are in the midst of a sermon series using selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading has Jesus and the disciples coming out of the temple, and the disciples are admiring the temple’s structure. Jesus, however, gives them warning that at some point the tem...

Today is All Saints Sunday when we remember those members of our church who have died in the last year. We are in the midst of a sermon series using selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading is the familiar story of “The Widow’s Mite.” Although we often hear the story as an affirmation and example of this poor woman’s offering of her gift of everything she ha...

This is our annual gathering to hear reports on the state of our church. Leaders of various groups in the church give updates, and those include specific areas of ministry and financial reports: the current status and the upcoming budget. It also includes a report from last week’s meeting in Kansas City about the issues surrounding the United Methodist denomination and what to do about maintaining...

This is the sixth in a sermon series on selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark. In today’s reading, a scribe, hearing Jesus debating with other scribes and appreciating his knowledge, quizzes him as to the greatest commandment. The familiar response from Jesus, who quotes two commandments and says there are no other commandments besides those two, is recognized by the question...

This is the fifth in a sermon series on selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading is about Jesus encountering a blind man, Bartimaeus, who is asking for healing. This man was off to the side, disabled, poor, unseen by most of the crowd, but the gospel writer wants to bring him forward as an example of discipleship. That the end the account says he “regained h...

This is the fourth in a sermon series on selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading has two disciples, James and John, asking to be on Jesus’s right and left in the kingdom. Rev. Brandon Baxter says posture matters and has a lot to do with our positions in the world. These two “Sons of Thunder,” clearly having some status, make a move posturing toward their pl...

This is the third of a sermon series on selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading is the familiar story of the rich man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ response to the rich man can be a tough message for us: how hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. What do we do with this difficult message from Je...

This is the second of a sermon series on chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading is the familiar passage wherein Jesus rebukes the disciples who have just told some children to leave him alone. In Mark, especially, the disciples just don’t seem to get it, and this is one of those times when they don’t. Here Jesus invites the most vulnerable to himself, a model not only for...

This is the first of a sermon series on texts from the Gospel of Mark. The conversation Jesus has with the disciples in Mark 9 is a reorientation of values as he puts before them a child, the lowest of the low in society at that time, and tells them that to welcome a child is to welcome him. But then one of the disciples, John, complains that there’s someone doing good deeds in Jesus’ name without...

This is the third of a three-week sermon series on homecoming. The Bible often gives us the good and the bad of its characters, and that is certainly true with David, one of the greatest figures in Israel’s history. In today’s reading, David brings the ark, believed to be the very presence of God, to Jerusalem. David is dressed in a linen ephod and dancing, and Michal, his wife, is horrified. It i...

This is the second of a three-week sermon series on homecoming. The reading for today is as the Hebrews have crossed the Red Sea and are celebrating. It is a time of rejoicing, but in the background the Egyptian army is being drowned in the sea. How do we deal with that? Is it a celebration of the defeat and death of enemies? Does it teach us to celebrate such victories?