January 11, 2026: Claimed and Called
Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday, and because we’re spending this year in the gospel according to Matthew with the Lectionary, we’ll be hearing Matthew’s version of this story. It’s four whole verses long, and it’s squished in between two much more intense stories, so this is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ kind of story. Just before this, we meet John the Baptist in the desert, preaching repentance and forgiveness, clearing the way for the Messiah, and immersing folks in the Jordan River as a symbol of their repentance. This is the story we heard during Advent, where some...
Read MoreJanuary 4, 2026 – Rerouting
Welcome to a new year, friends, of wondering and wandering, of learning our way through Scripture together. This morning, we’re in the gospel according to Matthew. Today, we’re celebrating the Feast of Epiphany, the day when the magi from the east encountered Jesus for the first time. Our nativity scenes are a little misleading on this part—they did not actually arrive right after Jesus was born. Instead, they would have arrived when Jesus was one or two years old. But a running, screaming toddler Jesus is way less cute and contained than a newborn, so we tend to lump everyone together...
Read MoreDecember 24, 2025: God With Us
I want to tell you a story about how I became known to an entire conference full of pastors as the ‘NO BOOKS’ lady. If you know me, this is hilarious, because I actually really love books. Back in 2021, four pastor friends and I were part of a continuing education program through Princeton Seminary. The idea was that each small group would design their own learning goals and spend 6 months working on whatever they felt would make them better preachers. At the end of that six months, everybody would get together at Princeton for a few days for a conference, to share what they’d...
Read MoreDecember 21, 2025: Love
Our second reading comes once again from the gospel of Matthew, but today we’re going back to the beginning – chapter 1. The first 17 verses of this gospel are a long list of names, spelling out Jesus’ genealogy from Abraham on down. We’re not going to read all of that out loud today (you’re welcome), but it’s important to know that the genealogy goes from Abraham to King David to the exile, all the way down to Joseph, who is listed as ‘the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, the Messiah.’ You might be wondering: “why is Jesus’ genealogy traced through Joseph? That’s not how...
Read MoreDecember 14, 2025: Joy
Our second reading comes once again from the gospel of Matthew – this time from later in Jesus’ ministry. And once again, it may not seem to fit the week’s theme very well, but we’ll get there, I promise. Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the...
Read MoreNovember 30, 2025: Hope
This sermon was shortened significantly due to a weather-related closure, and preached online only. First, a reading from Isaiah 2:1-5: The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to comethe mountain of the Lord’s houseshall be established as the highest of the mountainsand shall be raised above the hills;all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may teach us his waysand that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth...
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