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"A Christmas Sermon"
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Readers: Ann Seltz, Joe Dulany, Jennifer Knutsen, Jed Johnson, and
Denise Rozell ~ January 14, 2018
October 22, 2017
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Expanding the Grammar of God
Acts 2: 1-8; 12-18
June 9, 2019
Phyllis N. Windle
Because it’s Pentecost and Peter tells us we can all dream, I want to share mine:
I dream that we use a whole dictionary of names for God. That we discover a whole atlas of places to find God. That we be a true sanctuary – where we need not armor ourselves against language that ambushes and hurts. That our language helps us each to find meaning and healing, especially for the parts of ourselves that we’ve disowned and denied...
John 17: 20-26
June 2, 2019
Rev. Jennifer Knutsen
Unity is a familiar concept for most Americans.
It’s actually part of our national motto.
I don’t know if you know these words: “E pluribus unum.” (You see them on our coins.)
It’s Latin — it means — “Out of many, one." Or it could be translated — “One from many.”...
Active Listening
Acts 16: 9-15
May 26, 2019
Rev. Jennifer Knutsen
The other night during a lively conversation at the dinner table, as we were all vying for a turn to talk, Nicole, the youngest member of our family, who is sometimes at a disadvantage in this dynamic, remembered the technique her teacher uses in these kinds of situations.
Call and response! Teachers are masters of this technique meant to quiet a chaotic classroom so everyone will listen...
Psalm 148
May 19, 2019
Rev. Jennifer Knutsen
Hallelujah is one of our favorite church-y words. There is a long tradition in the Christian church that we don’t say the word Hallelujah during the whole season of Lent and then on Easter we break out the Hallelujah’s!...
Acts 9: 36-43
May 12, 2019
Rev. Jennifer Knutsen
I can remember visiting my great grandmother’s house on outskirts of New Orleans when I was a young girl. She was a Cajun-French woman originally from the Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana. Her name was Aurelie Naquin. We called her Grandma — my sisters and I, my parents, my grandparents — we all called her Grandma...
Broken Treaties, Broken Promises
Psalm 137, Jeremiah 12: 11-12
April 7, 2019
Dr. Donna Perry
David Grann’s book, “Killers of the Flower Moon, and the Birth of the FBI, a true story, published in 2017 is a good example of how the US policies and people’s attitudes, directed by the Doctrine of Discovery, has impacted our Native sisters and brothers since Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere. How many of you have read the book?...
Luke 15: 11-32
March 31, 2019
Do you remember Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s twin boys? Their story is an origin story of humanity. It’s also an origin story of family division, human violence, sibling rivalry, even fratricide...
Psalm 13
March 24, 2019
The slaves in the field sang defiance and hope. They sang, “Notice us God!” They chanted, “Answer us God!” And today their descendants still sing, “Freedom, O Freedom” awaiting equality. Many LGBTQ people still banished from church, mosque and synagogue sing, “When, when, when O Universe shall we be welcomed, cherished?”...
Luke 6: 17-26
February 17, 2019
Jesus was up on the mountaintop; he hiked down to the plains. Up/down. Rumors began those early days that God was in the skies, up high. Wise ones ascend mountains to hear God’s wisdom. Repeat a rumor enough times and its thought truth...
Luke 5: 1-11
February 10, 2019
Pond fishing is the only kind of fishing I know. Pond fishing includes vital interactions and relationships. Myriad interactions are within the fisher’s body: her scrupulous skills in attaching the hook, the bobber, the weight, the worm; his eye, shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, muscles, ligaments, hips and fingers swinging the rod, her eye in following the bobber to its wobble on the waves, our attentiveness to the bobber and patience – be still and wait and watch and wait...
Luke 4: 14-31
February 3, 2019
“Toss him. Toss, toss, toss, toss. The son of Mary, the son of Joseph is a traitor. Toss him over the cliff.” Why did the sibling neighbors turn on him? Surely, his hometown had heard of his success; had heard of his wisdom, heard of his graceful oratory. With pride, they invited him into the pulpit...
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Christmas Eve
December 24, 2018
For what shall I bid? What shall I request of the newly born God-child -- what gift; what gift for me; what gift for you; what holy present for the world? A new Church year is upon us and in seven days the dawn of 2019 rises. What do you need to make the new year wholesome? What do you hope is left under your metaphorical Christmas tree come morning?...
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No Foolin’ Rebirth Brings Real Comfort
Mark 16: 1-8
EASTER SUNDAY, 2018
The tomb was cave-ish: pitch black, no chat, no stirring, no melody, simple shuttered silence. Sympathize with me in the darkness of Jesus’ painful death, humiliation, mutilation, crucifixion and sequestration in a silent tomb...