Text: 1 Kings 17:8-24 Perhaps you see this story in Kings as a story about power. If so, you would not be alone. The Bible makes lots of people think about power. A lot of the stories in it talk plainly about power. God is powerful. God’s power helps people be powerful. The power of the righteous is greater than the power of the unrighteous. Good is more powerful than evil. Even when it seems that

Text: Psalm 8 Other texts: Proverbs 8 Today we celebrate the Trinity. A celebration, it seems, of a doctrine. Not a story, not a parable, not a teaching of Jesus. As I said earlier, for some the idea of the Trinity is what makes Christianity rich and meaningful. For others, the doctrine of the Trinity seems obscure, institutional, and a barrier—a stumbling block—to knowing and living a life of

Text: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Marriage is a covenant. Not a contract, usually, even though we speak casually of a marriage contract. If people have a pre-nuptial agreement, that agreement is a contract, but it does not make marriage itself a contract. A contract requires an offer, and acceptance, and a consideration.A covenant, though, is a promise. A covenant is sometimes described as an

Text: John 5:1-9For thirty-eight years the man had the same job. Thirty-eight years of sitting by the poolside. Thirty-eight years of hoping to get into the waters at the right time. Thirty-eight years of unrequited longing to be healed. Thirty-eight years of being pushed aside and passed by. Thirty-eight years is a long time.Outside of Jerusalem, there was a pool about the size of a football field.

Text: Luke 4:1-13 We are now 10% into the season of Lent. Lent is usually thought of mainly as the preface to Easter, much as Advent is thought of as the preface to Christmas. But like Advent, it is not just a prelude to something better. If the pleasure of the journey is its unfolding, then the worth of Lent is in the journey to which it invites us. People have described Lent as a time of penitence

Text: Luke 5:1-11 When you are introduced to a story in the Bible, it is a little like meeting someone for the first time. You wonder whether this person is going to be a life-long friend or more a friend-of-a-friend kind of person. In either case, first impressions are important. But in the case of life-long friends, first impressions often turn out to be wrong. Some of my best friends were idiots

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Other texts: Jeremiah 1:4-10 You may be wondering why we are gathered here today. I myself often wonder that. Wonder less in the sense of being mystified as being amazed. Filled with wonder. It is a wonder that God has called us each to be here together. Perhaps you feel the same way. Or perhaps you are also mystified. Perhaps you wonder, how did you ever get involved with

Text: Nehemiah 8:1-10 Comedy is when what never could have been, happens. The quarreling neighbors fall madly in love. The powerful CEO is displaced by the poor office boy. A queen falls in love with a donkey. In the end, every impediment is removed and every error undone, and all live happily forever. Tragedy is when what should have been, does not happen. The lovers pass by one another unknowing.

Text: John 2:1–11 Other texts: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Isaiah 62:1-5, Psalm 36 Note: This sermon prepared and preached by Craig Simenson, vicar at Faith this year. Jesus did this—turned water into wine—the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory. “Revealed,” from the Greek, efanerôsen, which might more literally be translated, “made manifest” or “made known.” In

Text: Matthew 2:1-12 Other texts: Psalm 71:1-7 Not so long ago people thought that science was objective. That is, researchers looked at something—data, the results of an experiment, a phenomenon—and observed something. It was objective because it was about the object—the thing observed. Not subjective, about the subject, the observer. The premise was that all observers would see the same event