Sermons
What brings you joy? Is there a hobby you like to do, maybe baking or cooking or eating? Perhaps watching movies or TV shows, listening to music or making music? What brings you joy? Time with family and friends? Getting presents? Giving presents? Decorating the house for the holidays? What brings you joy?
Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon on joy by clicking “Read More.”
Happy Advent! Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday in the new church year. The word advent means coming. During the season of Advent we prepare for the coming of The One. Who is The One? Is it Santa Claus? No. That’s a different kind of advent. Santa Claus is coming to town, but that is not the advent we are talking about. The One we are preparing for is Jesus, the Christ.
Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
Pontius Pilate was the Roman Procurator of Palestine during the reign of Tiberius. Though he commanded a Roman legion of 4500 soldiers, his was not a plush assignment. Saddled with governing one of the frontier provinces of the Roman Empire he spent most of his time in Caesarea Maritime where the weather was reasonably decent and where he was able to have minimal contact with the stubbornly unruly inhabitants of the region under his control. Only on high holy days did Pilate trouble himself to go into Jerusalem so as to be present should any sort of problem arise. Still, he was the face of the Roman Empire in that part of the world, and as such, he literally had the power of life or death over the people under his control. Yet, for all the trappings that went with his position, it is quite possible that Pontius Pilate would have lived and died utterly forgotten by history had it not been for one fateful day when he crossed paths with a Galilean Jew named Jesus of Nazareth.
Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
When everything around us seems so overwhelming and we cannot do anything to change it, when it seems that there is fear and hatred spilling out everywhere, and powers and principalities are winning the day, Jesus says keep trying. Keep giving. Keep serving. Keep loving. Keep caring. Keep working toward the dream that God has for a world in which injustices end, where every single person is nourished, people are liberated, the eyes of the blind are opened, and those who are bowed down can stand up straight, in which the stranger, the resident alien, are cared for and treated as one of our own, in which the orphan and widow are sustained. Keep working towards that dream that God has. The tiny little bit that you can do in your place, in your school, in your work, in your home, in your community, even if it feels insignificant, it is not. It matters. It matters to God.
Listen to or read Bingham’s full sermon for November 10th by clicking “Read More.”
