by Melissa Kelly | Mar 7, 2021 | Lent, Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Bad at Math; Good at Parties Jesus’ parables contain an “excess of meaning” which makes preaching three of them on a single morning quite the challenge. What is one to do with the excess upon excess upon excess?? Instead of choosing just one sermon of the hundred...
by Melissa Kelly | Feb 28, 2021 | Lent, Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Truth, Lament, and Healing Jesus tells the truth about the violence his people were both experiencing and perpetrating. That truth-telling leads to lament: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood...
by Melissa Kelly | Feb 21, 2021 | Lent, Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Plans & Unplans I make plans. I create checklists. Checking boxes on those checklists is one of my greatest joys. And I’m TOAST without my calendar and its checklists. But Luke’s gospel gives us two very familiar stories in a row (Jesus at the home of Martha...
by Megan Ramer | Feb 14, 2021 | Sermons, zoom church
Pursuing God’s Will Together A group has been meeting weekly for the past couple of months, going chapter-by-chapter through “Pursuing God’s Will Together” by Ruth Haley Barton, a foundational text for the spiritual discerning we have done as...
by Megan Ramer | Feb 7, 2021 | Megan Ramer, Sermons
A Jesus Who Troubles We’ve got ourselves a BADnews – GOODnews situation with the pair of stories from Luke 7. Jesus is moved by a widow’s suffering to bring healing and a restoration of her wholeness in the community. Yet Jesus also brings healing to the...
by Amy Epp | Feb 1, 2021 | Amy Epp, Sermons
Sabbath Fences, Sabbath Gates We worship with Jesus in the field and in the synagogue. Jesus debates with his fellow Jewish leaders about God’s gift of the Sabbath. The Pharisees and legal experts were trying to fence up the law, protecting it and their...