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Pilgrimages, Mountaintop Moments, and the Feast of the Transfiguration

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This past week I returned from England where I was helping lead our youth pilgrimage. We had a wonderful time. We visited London and Canterbury and York and other small towns nearby. It was a wonderful pilgrimage.

 

What is a pilgrimage? Scholars who study pilgrimages say the word is hard to define. There are definitions that cover different aspects, but every definition leaves something out. The scholars say pilgrimage is a rather slippery term. But for today’s purposes, let’s define pilgrimage as a physical journey one takes to a place with the goal, the intention of some sort of spiritual deepening, growth in faith, encounter with the divine, seeking God.

 

Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “read more.”

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Our Potential For Change - With God's Help

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Thankfully, unlike the plants in the parable, we are not genetically nor spiritually predisposed to remain a stalk of wheat or an intrusive weed, nor even a static hybrid of the two, throughout our earthly existence. Rather, we’re constantly evolving spiritual beings, sometimes more weed than wheat, sometimes more saint than sinner, but almost never completely one or the other. This parable has much to say to us then, as we struggle to deal with those facets of our being that take hold of us from time to time, drawing us away from God and oftentimes the people who mean the most to us. Rather than trying to eliminate or weed out those parts of ourselves that we deem less worthy, sinful in some people’s terminology, I believe we’re called to struggle with them, in order to ultimately transform them.

Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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Belief and Faith, Merit and Grace

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In many of today’s readings there is this idea of faith. From Romans speaking about the “Father of the Faith” Abraham: “The promise…did not come…through the law but through the righteousness of faith…it depends on faith…he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God…therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:13-25). And from our Gospel reading we have the faith of Matthew who got up, left everything and followed Jesus. And the leader of a synagogue whose daughter had just died who came and knelt at Jesus’ feet, beseeching him to come and lay hands on her so that she might live.

To read Ryan’s entire sermon, click “read more.”

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The Incarnation and the Resurrection – An Easter Sermon

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All of the Incarnational stuff from Christmas to Good Friday is the first part of what God is doing to reconcile humanity to God. God is going to humanity in its fullness. This is Part I. Today is the beginning of Part II, the Resurrection.

Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon for Easter Day by clicking “Read More.”

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The Tension Between Grief and Hope

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Our lives are made up of this tension between grief and hope, loss and new life, sorrow and resurrection. This is Lent and Easter. This is humanity and divinity. This is the Paschal mystery, the awful death and the glorious resurrection of our redeemer and sustainer, Jesus the Christ.

Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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What the Samaritan Woman Can Teach Us

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 It’s hard for me to imagine how this woman must have felt at finding a strange man sitting by the well, a man who upon speaking to her turned out to be a Jew. Her surprise at the situation notwithstanding, the woman did converse with Jesus, though initially that didn’t go terribly well. As in conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus, a well-educated Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, to those he had with his disciples who traveled with him and on some levels knew him well, what Jesus said to the woman and what she heard were definitely not the same thing.

Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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