Heidi J. Kim: Feast of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma of Hawai’i
We might want to glamorize or glorify the legacy of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, even as their descendants live with the consequences of a racist form of capitalist exploitation of the natural resources that were a sacred source of life for the original inhabitants of that land. How can we hold all these stories on this feast day, appreciating how Kamehameha and Emma lived, ruled, and worshipped, while also acknowledging the cultural genocide that has impacted their people? How might we find absolution and forgiveness? How and when will we turn to a new way?
Matthew 25:14-30
Noted theologian and TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes once wrote: “Freedom lies across the field of the difficult conversation.” So I want to give you fair warning: this sermon will be one of those difficult conversations. If I wasn’t trying to give you a warning, I would’ve started my sermon with these words from Frederick Douglass: “Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery…I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me.”
Racial Reconcilation Eucharist: The Martyrs of Memphis
(The Reverend Siri Hauge Hustad) Often a sermon is to open up with Hope and wonder and the good news of Jesus Christ; alas that is not my only task for today, at least not in the very beginning…
Music Sunday Sermon
A Sermon by Jenny Koops
The sheepfold stands in contrast to the reality in which we live, where we
are told that we cannot rest, because there isn’t and never will be enough,
that we must always keep working for more and more and more. But the
sheepfold is a place of rest that God is calling us to, to lie down in green
pastures as we read in psalm 23, and taking time to rest in our physical
sacred spaces like the one we are in today, helps not only reinvigorate us
to go back out into the world to share and invite others into God’s abundance, but also to center us in God’s love so that we may hear and
know God’s voice when we are called.
Sermon Honoring Harriet Tubman
Who are you in spite of, or because of your fragility? from your weakness what are you being called to do? Are you stagnant in your comfort and ease? The work of justice does not wait for us to be perfectly healthy, well, and stable. Sometimes it simply calls us to ask questions, search for what is right, and knock on doors of possibility. The true legacy of Harriett Tubman is not what she overcame, but what she dared do in the face of all that plagued her body and attempted to squash her spirit. Fragility and discomfort are no longer acceptable excuses for complacency.
Christmas Day Sermon by the Rev. Marc Landeweer
Focus: To celebrate that Jesus became Flesh! Function: to inspire deeper response to the incarnation. Let the words of our mouths, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, our strength, and our redeemer. AMEN… Today is Christmas, and Today we will explore the meaning of Christmas. Of all the […]
Earth Day Sermon
A sermon for Earth Day Sunday by The Rev. Cynthia Bronson Sweigert
Earth Day Sermon
Finding our climate stories is how we sustain ourselves in the movement towards climate justice. Climate stories identify where our heart connects to the environment. Often a cherished memory from childhood, it could be from summer cabins running through the woods or gardening with a grandparent.
Good Friday Sermon
A sermon by Dr. John E. (Jay) Phelan:
When I was a kid, we didn’t do Good Friday. It wasn’t that the church I attended didn’t talk about the death of Jesus. It did; often and in some detail. It was just that like many churches when Easter season rolled around it was as if daffodils, pastel dresses, and white shoes overshadowed the gloom of Good Friday. It was Jesus resurrected we were eager to see, not Jesus executed and entombed.
