Sermons from 2024

SCRIPTURE: Jonah 1:1-17 (NRSVUE) 1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.…

SCRIPTURE: 1 Kings 17:1-16 (NRSVUE) 17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and…

This Sunday in worship we get a little bonus story. The way the calendar works this year, there are more Sundays than usual so we get a story not normally in the Lectionary. It’s kind of a part two to last week. Last week we looked at David and the temple he wanted to build for God, which God did not want. But we also know that eventually a temple is built. How does this happen? And why? And who…

This Sunday we move on from 1 Samuel and into 2 Samuel: It’s interesting that these books are named for Samuel, when actually they’re mostly about David. And this week we will finally be introduced to David. Yes, that David, King David, of David and Goliath fame. But that’s not the story we’ll be looking at this week. Watch the sermon above to find out where we’ll land and what David’s life and work has to say for us here…

This week we take a massive leap in the narrative and dial into a woman named Hannah. She offers one of the most authentic prayers in all of the scriptures, and then recites what is often described as a “song” which will echo into the early chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Hannah is fierce, strong, and determined, and she gives to us a glimpse into why we may often find ourselves frustrated with the state of the world. -Pastor Paul…

SCRIPTURE: Exodus 32:1-14 (NRSVUE) 32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives,…

This Sunday we will be taking a big turn of the page out of the Book of Genesis and into the Book of Exodus. Stuff’s about to really heat up. Which is a serous understatement! This week we will looking at a portion of the story of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt. The story is too big and too multifaceted to ever be covered all at once, so we will be taking a peak into it and how we still see elements…

This Sunday we continue journeying through the story, taking less of a leap than we did last week. Last week we were introduced to Abram (later Abraham), and this week we jump to the story of his great-grandsons, most notably Joseph. It’s a long story, probably the longest in all of the Scriptures (depending on how you define it), and it is rich! So rich that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a famous Broadway musical based on it, and it follows…

We last week we left off with Adam and Eve having eaten of the “forbidden fruit”  and what that might mean in terms of the human condition. This week we’ll take a big leap, as we look at Abram (later known is Abraham) and his journey. It’s a long and complicated one, and it but we will be honing in on just a small, and I think very human, part of Abram’s story. It’s a big, scary out world there,…