Preacher's Post

Preacher's Post: FIRE

Submitted by Executive Direc... on July 4, 2008 - 7:34pm.

The Word: Fire

sorry, but the GAP Fire above Santa Barbara has this preacher evacuated from home for the time being. Keep good thoughts for all the folks working on this fire--as well as all the wildfires raging these days-- and all of us hoping to see our homes again. Anne

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Preacher's Post

Submitted by Executive Direc... on June 26, 2008 - 8:19pm.

The Word: Pentecost 7

Genesis 22:1-18
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:34-42/ or RCL 10:40-42

choosing to change
losing life and finding it
offering the cup of cold water

Headline Words:

(Unavoidable Contexts for the Text)

--Breaking Levees, Changing Weather

--Drill More or Drive Less?

--Supreme Court Eases Burden for Exxon; Alaska Grieves and Rages

--Supreme Court Rules for Guns

Quotable Words:

“We must want to be the transcendence that we are; we never come to the end…we are those who are open to the infinity of God." ~ Karl Rahner

"I cannot become a good host until I am at home in my own house..." ~ Esther De Waal

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Preacher's Post: Pentecost +6 (Proper 7a)

Submitted by Executive Direc... on June 23, 2008 - 12:25am.

The Word: Pentecost

Genesis 21:8-21
Romans 6:1-11
Matthew 10:24-39

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, the wisdom of serpents , walking in "newness of life."

Quotable Words:

"The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth."~~Peter Abelard

Preached Words:

excerpt from a sermon
by The Rev. Dr. David J. Schlafer

"...God has promised them a life giving story, they have twisted into a dance macabre.

Or, to appropriate the language of St. Paul, a ghastly life in which “death has dominion”.

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Preacher's Post

Submitted by Executive Direc... on May 10, 2008 - 9:55pm.

The Word: Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21
John 20:19-23

the Spirit ignites the church

Quotable Words:

"Pentecost is ... about the reversal of Babel. For the author of Luke-Acts, the coming of Jesus and the continuation of his presence in the power of the Spirit inaugurated a new age in which the fragmentation of humanity was overcome." ~ Marcus Borg

Preached Words:

excerpt from a Pentecost sermon

"... But something did happen when the Spirit sparked the beginning of the church. Luke tells us “they were all together in one place, and suddenly, from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house …divided tongues, as of fire, like fire, appeared among them and rested on each of them. And they began speaking in foreign languages.”

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Preacher's Post

Submitted by Executive Direc... on May 1, 2008 - 5:40pm.

The Word: Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
John 17:1-11

mystical glory, sharing in suffering

Quotable Words:

"All social movements and organization were born of pain." ~ Matthew Fox

"Ascension means a
God-like view of things,
Rising about our usual
Limitations.
Rise, then, and know
The glory of a life
Set free from fear." ~ Ann Lewin

Preached Words:

a portion of a sermon preached for Ascension Sunday

"...In Luke’s words in the Book of Acts, which is the second half of Luke’s gospel, the disciples left behind must wait, wait for a sign of what to do, wait for power, God’s power, God’s presence. How do they wait? What do they need for this work? They wait in prayer, together.

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Preacher's Post

Submitted by Executive Direc... on April 23, 2008 - 6:37pm.

The Word: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21

God doesn't give up on the world

Quotable Words:

"'God made every nation from one ancestor.' In our time of fundamentalism, perhaps this is the most important message to preach." ~ Barbara Rossing

Preached Words:

from a sermon on living in a time of empire

"A few weeks back, I started preparing for this Sunday, reading these scriptures from John and Luke and I Peter. I had the beginnings of a sermon that I thought would be a zinger. But I’ve changed my mind, or rather, my heart. I threw out that sermon that I started. Let me tell you why.

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Preacher's Post 11.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on April 9, 2008 - 6:45pm.

The Word: Fourth Sunday of Easter

Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10

The Good Shepherd knows his sheep

Quotable Words:

"We cannot love what we do not know." ~ Theresa of Avila

Preached Words:

From a sermon preached after Columbine, 1999:

Darkness and light, goodness and evil, bandits and good shepherds, strangers and friends: John’ Gospel, all through, is a collection of sharp contrasts. Today’s metaphors about good shepherds leading sheep into safe pastures, images of a single gate leading to the right path are metaphors clear and simple about a time and place where good and bad and right and wrong were plain to see, where inside was separate from outside, and the boundaries were not to be crossed.

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Preacher's Post 9.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on March 24, 2008 - 4:46pm.

The Word: Easter

Quotable Words:

"Do Not Be Afraid."

Preached Words:

A Sermon for Easter Vigil at Trinity Episcopal, Santa Barbara

Audio HERE

Creation bursts forth from chaos, the sun and the moon are hung in the heavens, a pillar of clouds points a pathway to freedom, the waters part, exiles are given new homes, new spirits, fresh starts, great earthquakes and white angels roll away great stones.

These are bigger-than-life stories we hear tonight, stories first told around campfires on cold desert nights. Our ancestors told stories, as all people did and do, to explain their world, to describe their beliefs, to name their identity. They told these stories so that they could know themselves to be people who traveled from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom, from exile to home, people promised hearts of flesh from their hearts of stone, people promised life in the face of death.

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Preacher's Post 8.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on March 12, 2008 - 7:45pm.

The Word: Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14- 27:66 or
Matthew 27-11-54
Psalm 31:9-16

Quotable Words:

"The first passion of Jesus was the kindgom of God, namely, to incarnate the justice of god by demanding for all a fair share...It was that first passion for God's distributive justice that led inevitably to the second passion by Pilate's punitive justice." ~ Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan in The Last Week

Preached Words:

from a sermon for Palm Sunday

Everyone has come into Jerusalem for the great annual festival of the Passover. The streets are filled. Here we are with our waving palm branches, our pulses quickened with the excitement of the festival, our shouts of Hosanna still resonant in our throats.

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Preacher's Post 7.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on March 6, 2008 - 8:58pm.

The Word: Fifth Sunday in Lent

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45

Ezekiel's dry bones...Lazarus in the tomb...Is there hope?

Quotable Words:

"Can these bones live?" ~ Ezekiel
"...practice resurrection." ~ Wendell Berry

Preached Words:

Let These Bones Dance

A wasteland of bones in Ezekiel’s eerie dreamscape, dry bones, picked clean, gleaming white in the hot sun. And another kind of wasteland in John’s gospel: grieving women, Lazarus dead, four days dead, decaying in the tomb. Bleak scenes for this fifth Sunday in Lent. Bleak, but familiar stories, these of Ezekiel and John, stories that have made their way into the images of poets and painters and gospel songwriters.

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Preacher's Post 6.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 27, 2008 - 12:44am.

The Word: Fourth Sunday in Lent

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

Anointing David to be king, a man born blind, the Light of the world

Quotable Words:

“…for we are not only in the dark, but we are also stark blind…” ~ John Calvin

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr

“In a way the blind man "met Jesus for the first time." ~ Marcus Borg

“All human eyes have longing in them.” ~ Ernesto Cardenal

Preached Words:

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Preacher's Post 5.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 18, 2008 - 9:27pm.

The Word: Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 17:1-7
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Psalm 95

Murmuring in the desert, the woman at the well, the promise of living water

Quotable Words:

“To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.” ~ Sam Keen

Preached Words:

A sermon preached Lent 3:

“…Last Wednesday morning, I was sitting at my desk with this story of the Samaritan woman at the well, and the story of Moses striking that rock, and an email announced itself in my mailbox. A member of the parish was sending me one of the New York Times’ editorials of the day, an editorial bearing photographs and commentary about genocide in Darfur.

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Preacher's Post 4.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 13, 2008 - 5:50pm.

The Word: Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 12:1-4a
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
Psalm 121

Abram sets out on a journey to be a blessing, the Spirit blows where it will, Nicodemus asks about being born again

Quotable Words:

“A blessing is an act – by speech or gesture – whereby one party transmits power for life to another party.” ~ Walter Brueggemann

"Obedience...the willingness to listen to God, is what will wrench us out of the limitations of our landscape. We are being called to something outside of ourselves, something greater than ourselves, something beyond ourselves." ~ Joan Chittister

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Preacher's Post 3.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 6, 2008 - 1:47am.

The Word: First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
Psalm 3

Temptation abounds, a season of preparation begins, a time set aside for fasting, reflection, sacrifice, almsgiving

Quotable Words:

“Giving alms…means adopting a conscientious way of life that expresses a caring relationship with the whole of God’s creation.” ~ Nancy Mairs
“We have Lent because without it we get sloppy.” ~ anon

Preached Words:

From a sermon for Lent 1:
“…So we have different names for our demons. But we recognize in Jesus that most human struggle with those forces in our lives that pull us off-center. We hear those age-old temptations of plenty and power and security, the temptations that had plagued the Israelites in their 40-year trek through the wilderness, and we recognize how close these temptations are to our own basic need for nurture and integrity and safety.

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Preacher's Post 2.5

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 4, 2008 - 3:02am.

The Word: Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1-2,12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Psalm 51:1-17

the sounds of trumpets, the voices of repentence, the declarations of fast, the smudge of ash

Quotable Words:

"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return"

Ashes

--powdery-grey
from keeping on trying
to get a spark from two stones

--streaky black
from relighting a candle
that keeps going out

--soft white from a fire that burned down to its heart
and kept everyone warm

these are the ashes worth wearing.

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