Willowwind78

Psalm 8 Divine Majesty and Human Dignity (NRSVUE) To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, our Sovereign,    how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.2     Out of the mouths of babes and infantsyou have founded a bulwark because of your foes,    to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the…

Numbers 11.24-30 The spirit rests on Israel’s leaders What?!? You can’t do church there! You can’t pray there! You can’t read your Bible there! You can’t preach there! When did we become obsessed that church should only take place within the walls of a church building? Around… 5000 years ago. Do we have any Biblical examples to support the idea that worship and communion with God should take…

John 17.1-11 Christ’s prayer for his disciples Today’s pericope is titled “Christ’s prayer for his disciples.” Christ’s wish for his disciples is that they be protected so that they might be one with each other as Christ is one with the Father. Christ wanted the disciples to have the same relationship with each other as Christ has with God. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Christ…

The God who calls each sheep by name has called us all here today. We come today, celebrating God’s love for all the sheep of the world. The Good Shepherd, who has many flocks, gave his life for all of them, for us. We come today, thanking Jesus for his witness and his teaching. The Shepherding Spirit moves through us, uniting flocks together as one, bringing us new hope. We come today,…

Luke 24. 13-35 Eating with the risen Christ It is good to be aware of your own biases and how they both blind you to things and make you notice things that others don’t. Some, for instance, will notice this entire piece is written with a heavy level of sarcasm. Others will get bogged down in their own ridiculousness and take everything at face value. It will be fun. Maybe people will actually…

John 20:19-31– Peace Be With You He is risen! So, why do we care? Because we are an Easter people! But what does that mean? It means we have white paraments for a little while! What does that mean? White is the color of celebration. It is the color of purity, light, glory and joy. We only use white to mark significant events that shape our understanding as Jesus Christ. One of the things we…

I wasn’t feeling too Eastery this week, so I didn’t get a sermon written until this morning. That happens as a pastor. Sometimes, you’re just not feeling the spirit move. Congregations assume that writing a sermon is easy because, let’s face it, writing one sermon is easy. I hope everyone who hears or reads this is aware that I can write an incredible sermon, and, if you’re only reading it, they…

Psalm 36.5-11 Refuge under the shadow of your wings As Spring slowly begins to arrive in northern Michigan, I am contemplating what I would want to be new and changed, given a rebirth at the end of this Holy Week. It’s been a tumultuous time in my life. So much so that it is hard to believe it has already been, yet only been, a little less than 6 months since my husband I relocated from West…

Psalm 118.1-2, 19-29 The Passover Praise Psalm and Matthew 21:1-11 Jesus enters Jerusalem An urban legend states that during the 1960’s Space race between Russia and the United States, the US spent over a billion dollars developing a pen that could write in zero gravity while the Russians just used a pencil. This is incorrect; the Fisher Pen Company invested only 1 million dollars in developing…

John 11:17-37 Since I started preaching every Sunday, I have discovered something profound. There are a lot of problems in this world and just when you think you’ve got one of them solved, it seems to create another one. We are born into this world completely helpless. If our mother were alone and to die within the first five years of our life, we would die shortly thereafter. We spend much of…

John 9.1-41 The man born blind Okay, time for honesty. How many of you stop reading this passage at verse 7 or 12? When I looked at the lectionary this week, my first thought was oh good Lord, 41 verses? Why? Where can I cut some verses out or stop? Even my Bible divides this into 3 pericopes, or sections. How am I supposed to preach on that much material? Truth is, I’ve preached on this…

Psalm 95 The rock of our salvation This is an unusual psalm. Generally, our psalmist starts out with a lament of woe. “O Lord, how many are my foes!,”[1] “Answer me when I call, O God of my right!,”[2] “Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.”[3] At the very least, they begin with doubt and misgivings “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you.”[4] And then they…

John 3:1-17 The mission of Christ: saving the world This passage makes me think about what it is like for non-Christians to be approached by a zealous Christian. “Have you been saved?!” “Am I in danger? What’s going on?” “Jesus loves you.” “Is he stalking me?” “Jesus is everywhere.” “Should I get a restraining order?” “Have you been born again?” “Nope. Pretty sure once did the…

Matthew 4.1-11 The temptation of Jesus Ever had to prove you are who you say you are? Maybe you had to show your ID or answer a line of ridiculous questions about your past, like spelling your mother’s maiden name, remembering the street you lived on when you were 3 years old, or perhaps you had to select a bunch of pictures that had bicycles? Somehow proving who you are requires the knowledge…

Matthew 17:1-9 Christ revealed as God’s beloved Son We answer to one and only one ultimate authority in this life. God. When our time on this earth comes to an end it will be His decision, not our own and it will be Him we answer to in the end. Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the day set aside in the Christian calendar to recognize the identity of the one we follow. Jesus’ disciples bore…

Isaiah 58.1–12 The fast that God chooses It’s counterintuitive to go from several weeks of Isaiah telling us not to raise hell on the streets to suddenly telling us to shout out without holding back. The difference is that previously, Isaiah was speaking out against violence and protest; now our author is talking about saying, “Hey! WTF are you people doing?” Okay, maybe less cursing. These…

John 1.29-42 We live in a world of technology where thousands of people make a living by getting others to click a button that says “Follow.” Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, the list goes on and on of social media sites trying to get you to follow them. I myself have a this blog and I am excited to report when I wrote this sermon I had 9 followers. 15 people clicked on my…