Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria VA

*PLEASE NOTE* There is no audio recording of this sermon due to a technical error. Why Church? Fall Sermon Series The series will lead up to our stewardship campaign, in which we each decide how much of our financial resources we will pledge to the work of Westminster in 2019, but it will not be limited to that focus. In some ways, the series will ask basic questions about why we are here, why we...

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead meant that everything first disciples of Jesus had thought they understood was now to be re-thought in the light of God's surprising action. They experienced various kinds of change: individual and communal, mind and heart, circumstance and vision or point of view. Sometimes change brought struggle, even conflict; more often, it brought joy and a new appreci...

"I know that there have been times in my preaching where I have read to you writings that are too dense, too complex, too long for most listeners of any age to follow. I plan to commit this sin again today, and challenge you, once again, to listen well." Larry Hayward preaches on Proverbs 1:20-33.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead meant that everything first disciples of Jesus had thought they understood was now to be re-thought in the light of God's surprising action. They experienced various kinds of change: individual and communal, mind and heart, circumstance and vision or point of view. Sometimes change brought struggle, even conflict; more often, it brought joy and a new appreci...

Today’s sermon is about maternal, parental, even grand-parental love. It is a sermon about how such love can be ever so close to God’s love. It is a sermon about how the love we have for children is akin to the love we receive from God. As the body of Christ in the world, it is important for the church to embody and foster such love. Larry Hayward preaches on Mark 7:24-30.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead meant that everything first disciples of Jesus had thought they understood was now to be re-thought in the light of God's surprising action. They experienced various kinds of change: individual and communal, mind and heart, circumstance and vision or point of view. Sometimes change brought struggle, even conflict; more often, it brought joy and a new appreci...

In the passage we read today, the Gospel writer Mark expresses a critique of Jewish ritual. Jesus, however, appears less concerned about the specific practices Mark is critiquing than with the intention and motivation that lie behind both the ritual and its critique—a focus more on the heart than the practice the heart produces. Larry Hayward preaches on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

Israel has been waiting for a fixed locale to faithfully worship, to experience the God of Abraham, Isaac, and and Jacob. Now Solomon is in the Temple, dedicating the space after what has to be one of the longest house hunting expeditions in Israel history. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on 1 Kings 8 (selected verses).

In the story of Solomon, we see both divine revelation and humble human response. It is complicated Biblical legacies like Solomon's that are a staple of understanding the story of us: us the fallen, and us the faithful. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14.

In Stephen, we see the dignity of all kinds of work. We are reminded, too, of the ways we often impose limits that God, in God's dynamic power, seeks to break down. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches today on Acts 6:8-15.

In this final sermon in this summer series on ordinary but obscure characters in the Bible, we turn to the most obscure character of all: “the mother of Rufus.” When we do detective work around the family of Rufus and his mother, we begin to encounter a tragic division that appears to have arisen within the family. Larry Hayward preaches on Romans 16:13 and Mark 15:21-24. Summer Sermon Series: Ord...

There is so little in the text itself about "Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus" that we are left to carefully reading the text for clues about him and then using our imagination and common sense to move him from being a stick figure to at least an etching in whom we might see some of our own characteristics and experiences under God. Larry Hayward preaches on Acts 1:12-17, 20-26. Summe...

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? In Luke, we are given the portrait of a man whose history we might otherwise have forgotten, that we might not have celebrated. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on Luke 23:50-56. Summer Sermon Series: Ordinary People. It is in the loves and hates, the hopes and fears, the strides and stumbles of ordinary people that God is both known and active in the world and...

We cannot explain the crucifixion to our fullest satisfaction. We can only cross ourselves, bow our heads in silence before it. We can only trust that through the death it brought to the Christ who faced it heroically, God has in fact been “absorbing” into his very heart and mind and soul, all the suffering and sin we know. Summer Sermon Series: Ordinary People. It is in the loves and hates, the h...

In Huldah, the person who is the focus of today’s sermon, we see a different kind of love: love for the pages of a book and the words written on those pages which she attests are God’s Word and which eventually become a part of the Bible we read. Summer Sermon Series: Ordinary People. It is in the loves and hates, the hopes and fears, the strides and stumbles of ordinary people that God is both kn...

Orpah appears only in the Book of Ruth, and while she is named (not always a guarantee for women in scripture), she appears in only the first chapter and doesn’t have a speaking role. She then disappears from the narrative and from historical memory, until the family of an infant girl born into poverty in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in 1954 chose her name for a child who would grow up to become one of...

"Paltiel is probably the most obscure of the eight Biblical characters on whom I am preaching this summer. As I have circulated the titles in this series among staff and members, no one has come up to me and said: 'I’m so glad you are preaching on Paltiel.'" Larry Hayward preaches from 2 Samuel 3:12-16. Summer Sermon Series: Ordinary People. It is in the loves and hates, the hopes and fears, the s...

In his parables, Jesus takes ordinary things--like lost coins, dinner parties, and misbehaving children--and he uses them in stories to help his listeners perceive their familiar reality in a whole new way. Parables were Christ's way of helping people meet God, and t see their life with God "again, for the first time." Patrick Hunnicutt preaches from Mark 4:26-34.

In traditional preaching and teaching across the centuries, the unnamed wife of Lot serves as an example of how not to be if we seek to be faithful and committed followers of Jesus Christ. But a close reading of this story at least opens the door for a more charitable and humane interpretation of Lot’s wife. Larry Hayward preaches from Genesis 19:12-15, 24-26. Summer Sermon Series: Ordinary People...

The knowledge of who God is can be unbearable--it is a lot to grasp the divine and the awesomeness of God's attributes. We are invited today to be both challenged and comforted by the wonder of God. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on Confirmation Sunday. The Scripture lesson is selections from Psalm 139.

A story that has circulated among preachers for years concerns a small, African-American Church in Michigan on that Sunday after the Kennedy assassination, a Sunday in which all across the land people poured out of their homes into houses of worship. In this particular church, the minister stepped to the pulpit, pulled the chain which turned on the light by which he could read, opened his Bible, a...

On this Pentecost morning, we are reminded in Romans that part of the call in our souls, our bodies, our lives, is to be people who imagine. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on Romans 8:22-27.

Rev. Dr. Larry Hayward explores the meaning and importance of Ascension, an important part of the life and destiny of Christ, often lost on mainline Protestants like us. The scripture today is Luke 24:44-53

As Christians, we struggle with ways to listen for God’s call and to act where our faith leads us. With this class, Elder Kathy Harkness will consider the challenges of being called and how we can act faithfully and in attentive ways to when, where and how God calls us. (1 of 3)

Rev Dr. Larry R. Hayward focuses on John 15:15 and makes the claim that we know enough to “bear fruit…that lasts.” The scripture today is John 15:9-17.