Recent Sermons

Rev. Michael Durst
~ Matthew 2:1-12 ~

Today’s Gospel reading about the magi, the wise men who journey from the east to present gifts to the infant Jesus, tends to evoke in us warm Christmas-card images:  images of a hushed group of richly dressed admirers, suffused by radiant light, paying homage to a beautiful and serene baby.  The scene is one of infinite promise, of hope for the transformation of the world as the infant Jesus grows into adulthood. 

And

Read More

Rev. Ellen Jennings

For So the Children Come by Sophia Lyon Fahs

For so the children come
And so they have been coming.
Always in the same way they come—
Born of the seed of man and woman.
No angels herald their beginnings
No prophets predict their future courses
No wise men see a star to show
where to find the babe that will save humankind
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Fathers and mothers—sitting

Read More

Rev. Ellen Jennings
~ Luke 1:39-55 ~

Did she, or didn’t she?  Say “yes” I mean.  Depending on whom you ask (or read), Mary either consented to being “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit to become pregnant with Jesus, or she didn’t. 

And it matters.

Of course, you probably know the Nativity Story appears in only two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke.  However, the versions differ, and only in Luke do we read of the Annunciation, or moment when

Read More

Rev. Ellen Jennings
~ Matthew 13: 31-35 ~

In 1973 E.F. Schumacher published a book entitled, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered.  It was published in a world on the brink of globalization, in the process of mechanization, and right before the wave of computerization.  Schumacher argued that mass scales of production both dehumanized individuals and were ultimately unsustainable on a planet of finite resources.  His philosophy of “enough-ness” appreciated both human needs and the

Read More

Daniel Sack
~ Genesis 22:1-18, Luke 10:25-37 ~

Let me tell you a story. One night, a long time ago, in what is now Iraq, God called to an old man named Abram. God told Abram that if he left his home and headed to the land of Canaan, God would bless him and make his descendants a great nation. Through Abram, God said, all the earth would be blessed. This seemed too good to pass up, so Abram did

Read More