Sermons
“Now is the day of salvation!”
If today, this very day, is the auspicious arrival of Christ’s salvation for us, then as Paul reminds the Corinthians, we need to remember what is important and leave behind what is not. This day we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We pray for God to “accomplish in us the work of Christ’s salvation.” We pray for God to take the canvas of our lives and paint upon them a resurrection story. We pray for these changes individually and as congregations. We pray this on behalf of the Church and of society. We pray this on behalf of the world.
Mark 9: 2-9; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Psalm 50: 1-6; 2 Kings 2: 1-12
“Given the choice of glory on a mountain or death on a cross, which is more attractive? Jesus comes down the mountain. He will not give up on his disciples. He will not give up his divine mission for the sake of all humanity.” - Brian Soffregen
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Mark 1: 40-45; I Corinthians 9: 24-27; Psalm 30; 2 Kings 5: 1-14
What will our legacy be? Who will remember us and what will they remember when we are gone? Will they remember we worked hard? Will they remembered we played well with others? Will they remember that no matter how stressful our lives became we always stopped to listen when someone needed us? Will they remember a smile given without expectation of return? Will they remember that we spoke the truth in love even when it hurt to hear? Will they remember that they heard and witnessed Christ through us? Will we be remembered for Christ working through us in our words, but even more so, through our actions?
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In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. - Mark 1:35
The alarm goes off, you hit snooze. The alarm goes off, you hit snooze. The alarm goes off, you hit snooze and finally roll out of bed. The daily grind has begun. If you’re working and have kids, you’re getting breakfast on the table, getting lunches made, getting kids dressed, not to mention getting yourself dressed without leaving a shirt un-tucked or walking out the door without combing your hair. I have done both of those, though thankfully I have less hair year by year that I may forget to comb! If you are retired, you still have lists. My dad tells me he is busier since he retired than when he was working. If you’re in school you may be up late and then up early again to finish reading or working on projects for class. Or maybe you are working and in school.
Read more...Father Damien was a Roman Catholic priest who served at a Leper colony in Hawaii during the 1800s. Damien requested this assignment, that is to say he was not forced, but asked for the opportunity to serve with these very sick people. He lived and ministered with them for 16 years before succumbing to the disease and dying the same way so many of them did. Rudyard Kipling visited the colony some years later and subsequently wrote a book about this remarkable ministry.
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