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View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon  Mark 10 & 11 What did I sign up for when I agreed to preach on Palm Sunday?! I confess: celebrating Palm Sunday always feels a little awkward to me, standing on this side of those events where we can plainly see what comes next.  Having heard so many times Jesus’ explanation of what must follow the parade, I can’t seem to wave the palm with any enthusiasm.  The whole event feels like…

View Archived Sermons Listen to This Sermon    Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 119:9-16; John 12:20-33 In this 5th Sunday of Lent we approach Jerusalem and, with Jesus, the dawning realization that death awaits – on the cross.  Death is no stranger to us here at TUMC.  In the past month a number of us have lost loved ones; this past week another, as we’ve heard. So it’s fitting we turn once again to our preparation for Good Friday and the…

View Archived Sermon Listen to This Sermon  Lent IV, Psalm 107, John 3:14-21    As we draw near to Good Friday and Easter, the most significant and transformative story of our faith, we find ourselves in familiar territory with our scriptures for this Sunday.  We’re on a path or a trail or sidewalk, if you will, we may know quite well. John 3 verses 14 to 21 are the final verses of the story of the encounter between Nicodemus and…

View Archived Sermons   Psalm 19  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer. *** How could we not start with that classic prelude to a sermon, when we’re looking at this beautiful psalm 19? It starts with the firmament and narrows down to talking about the sun: v. 4,5 For in the heavens the sun has pitched a tent. It comes forth with the…

View Archived Sermons   Mark 8 and Genesis 17   As you might have imagined, preparing my sermon for this Sunday carried unique challenges as our primary focus as a community was with Erin Leis’s family.  I guess I’d like to call what I’ve prepared this morning, a few thoughts – a few thoughts about our texts for the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  I was graced this week, by the fact that John, my husband, was learning these texts to…

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View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon    Scriptures: LEV 1:1-5, 10:1-3, 11-1:7, 14:1-7, 16:21-22, 19:2b, 19:13-18  [The text below diverges significantly in certain places from the sermon as preached and as available in audio form.  All readings from the Bible were from Everret Fox’s The Five Books of Moses translation.  All other quotations are from Jacob Milgrom’s 3 volume Leviticus commentary from The Anchor Bible series]             Our task for your hearing this morning, and it goes even beyond…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Hosea 11:1-11, Leviticus 25, Luke 12:13-21 It’s RRSP season.  This is the time of year that your local bank will be trying to lure you in to try their most popular investment options.  I know about one bank that until tomorrow is offering 2 percent on a one year GIC for any new money. Now depending on your own experience you may have several different reactions to what I’ve just said. Our congregation,…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon    1 Kings 5:13‑6:1 Some of you may remember when the first George Bush was running for election to be president of the US (that was in 1988). In one of the debates, Bush was asked by one of the moderators to state why he wanted to be president – what was his vision for the US? Bush replied: “I’m not very good at the vision thing.” Bush was able to make an…