"Kiss Me Like You Mean It"
A Sermon on Song of Solomon 2:8-13 by Sarah Segal McCaslin: "And while many would say, by way of conclusion or assessment, that way too much time is spent in our denomination talking about what other people do in the bedroom, I think now, truly, that not enough time is spent talking about what goes on in the bedroom. If what goes on behind closed doors has the capacity to be the most faithful and exuberant worship of God that we can imagine, and also one of the places where our bodies are celebrated as God intended, then the church needs to protect against the threat that this beautiful aspect of our God-given humanity might be forced into hiding and become inaccessible to those who might be most in need of a positive word and a grace-filled moment."
"The Gifts of God for the People of God"
A Sermon on Acts 11:1-18 by Drew M. Henry, La Placitas Presbyterian Church, NM, April 28, 2013: "My home church, the First Presbyterian Church of Selma, Alabama, has been on my heart and mind over recent months. That is the congregation that raised me in the faith and profoundly shaped who I am today. I would like to share with you a letter that I have written to them, and I ask you to join with me in holding them in prayer... I understand that much of the current conflict in the church there is focused on our denomination’s growing acceptance and support of people who are homosexual and their families in the life of the church. Please allow me to share a bit of my story..."
"Needing One Another"
A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 and Isaiah 43:16-21 by David Bartlett, for the Atlanta Regional Conference, April 19, 2013: "... there may be just a little danger as you in your church and I in mine face the possibility of schism and the fights over property and budgets and pensions – there may be just a little danger that we will move beyond what we have every right to say: “I disagree with you entirely” – to what we have no place in Christ’s body to say: “Good riddance; we have no need of you.”Is there some way that we can stand fast for justice and still work toward reconciliation?"
So Now, What…? And : So, Now What?
A sermon on Deuteronomy 10:12-22 by Tricia Dykers Koenig for the Northwest Regional Conference: "The question for us is Deuteronomy’s “So now, what does the Lord your God require of you?” And: “So… now what?” Now that “our side” has “won” on ordination standards and, everyone knows, will win on marriage, but while the day-to-day struggle still rages and the justice God has promised is not fully realized, how do we help along the transitions that all can see coming, but some are grieving? How do we speed change, care for those who have suffered exclusion and indignity, and hold out a hand to those feeling run over by the train of progress, those who may be feeling more and more like strangers in a world and a church that are changing in uncomfortable ways? How do we make it easier for the eventual evolvers?"
"On Second Thought"
A Sermon on I Samuel 1:4-20 by Randy Bush: "I pray that people stop walking past the doorposts of the Church of Eli. I pray that our faith may be modeled after the example of Hannah so that we will belong to a church of justice, a church of inclusion, a church of love, and thereby a church of Jesus Christ. That may require some second and third thoughts on our part; that’s alright - God is patient. Like the father waiting for the prodigal to turn around and come home, God is anxious for our return to the fullness of God’s word and love. What is required of us? It requires listening skills..."
"Covenant and Marriage: What Do We Say When a Gay Christian Couple Ask to be Married?"
A Sermon on Genesis 9:8-17 and I Corinthians 13 by Bill Hathaway, First Presbyterian Church, Annapolis, Maryland, February 3, 2013: "When couples meet with me, I say that they can write their own vows and look at different prayers, but to be married in the Presbyterian Church means that we assume the equal status, rights and respect of both men and women in the church, in society and in the language of the wedding service. What does the Bible and our faith have to say about marriage given the radical changes in marriage over the decades? The core values are covenant and kindness or, using other words, promise and love."
"Wedding Games"
A Sermon on John 8:2-11 and I Corinthians 13 by the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell. Text: “Where you go I will go, your people shall be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16) "... given today’s rhetoric and national debates, with laws being enacted one way or the other, just as with any other issue of justice down through history it is the job of the pulpit to speak the word of an accepting God so that you can speak that word to one person and then to another. And like those twelve ordinary individuals who witnessed what happened that day with Jesus and that woman you too can then begin to change the world that surrounds you. That is how this faith of ours works..."
"Just as Christ Has Welcomed You"
A Sermon on Romans 15:1-13 and Revelation 7:9-17 by Tricia Dykers Koenig, at the Baltimore/DC Regional Conference, March 9, 2013: "We have, all of us, been welcomed by Christ, utterly and unconditionally, not because we deserve it but because God is Love and, in God’s will, nothing 'in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Despite the accumulated grime in our lives. Even if we haven’t done the requisite dusting. Even if we are sloppy, lazy, misguided, or stubbornly wrong. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you – totally and unconditionally – for the glory of God."
“Beyond Welcome and into God’s Freedom”
A Sermon on Isaiah 61:1-4 and Galatians 3:26-29 by Deborah Krause, for the Regional Conference at Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, MO, February 16, 2013: '...What does it mean to say “We Invite All?” Just who do “we” think we are? Who are these all we think we invite? Do they really want to come? If so, where the heck are they? And more seriously, just where do “we” imagine we are – to do this inviting of these “all” we welcome?...'
From Fear to Faith
A Sermon on 2 Timothy 1:1-14 by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison, preached at the Rocky Mountain Regional Conference of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, Central Presbyterian Church, Denver, CO, January 27, 2013: "... Why has the Covenant Network focused so exclusively on including some of God’s children in the life and leadership of the church over the years, rather than on some broader mission of justice and evangelism in the world? Why would it be important to make sure that the opportunity to profess one’s faith, to use one’s gifts, to teach one’s wisdom, or make one’s vows is provided when there is so much work that will be done, people who will be touched, mission that will be accomplished, with or without that one person? Why?..."
The Way Toward Birth - Dawning Light
A Sermon on Isaiah 11: 1-10 & Luke 1: 67-79 by the Rev. Ken Kovacs: "...the incarnation is not a one-time occurrence but something that has fundamentally changed and is changing the very structure of our existence. In the incarnation we discover a “demonstration” that God is forever “risking spirit” by being active in the world and our lives. The Spirit enters and for all it’s worth charges into earth – where? Yes, in Jesus, but in birth after birth, ever fresh and fresh. In your birth and my birth ever fresh and fresh, doing something new."
Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr
A Sermon on Isaiah 58:9-14 and Galatians 5:13-15 by Chris Henry at Shallowford Presbyterian Church, November 4, 2012: "...So, remembering Reinhold Niebuhr calls the church back to its God-given prophetic task in the community and in the world. When people are suffering in our nation and around the world, the church is called to respond. When injustice and hatred deny to some the abundant life God offers to all, the demands of the gospel compel us to speak and to act. Niebuhr was right: the church must never shrink from its call to be the body of Christ beyond the walls of the sanctuary. But there is a difference between Niebuhr’s Christian Realism and the idealistic activism of the Social Gospel movement that he finally dismissed. The difference is Niebuhr’s emphatic insistence on humility and his awareness of the ubiquity of sin. If we were able to ask Reinhold Niebuhr which aspect of the current political climate most exasperated him, my guess would be this: the self-righteousness of all sides..."
Covenant Faith Expressed in Covenant Life
A reflection on James 2:1-13 offered by Brian Ellison at the closing worship service of the Milwaukee Regional Conference of the Covenant Network, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, November 17, 2012: "And how better to express this scripture’s call than through a group that has taken as its name and as its starting place a rich theological concept: Covenant—an expression of the relationship between God and humanity, and among the people God has created and called—and said that our theology demands of us not mere belief, not mere correctness, but action: Lives lived out in faithful service and compassion and intentionality and justice."
Every Fear Silenced
A Sermon by Meg Peery McLaughlin at the Kansas City Area Regional Conference: "But the truth is: there are some words that bear repeating. Some words that we simply need, desperately need, to hear over and over and over again... Do not be afraid."
There's No Place Like Home
A Sermon on Mark 6:1-6a by Meg Peery McLaughlin, for the Installation of Pen Peery at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on November 4, 2012: "...Because Jesus is always reminding us that contrary to how we think about it, home... where we really belong, is not something behind us, something return to.. home is always ahead of us. Something we are always living toward..."
Smudged Lenses
The Rev. Laurie Kraus celebrates the faith and the gifts of new Inquirer Danny Morales, and his first sermon: "...Since wearing glasses for a few months now, I’ve learned we don’t always see the smudges on them. Instead we get so accustomed to those smudges, that foggy vision, that we create or even become our own impediments to clarity, impediments to the voices that like Bartimaeus are still screaming..."
“A Reformed Understanding of Marriage”
Sermon on Romans 8:22-30 by David D. Colby, Central Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, MN, October 28, 2012: "So let’s be clear. The Bible does not talk about marriage as only between a man and a woman. If we are honest the Bible has a shifting definition of marriage within its pages. Because we believe in “a church reformed, always reforming according to the Word of God”[2] we are not beholden simply to tradition. The church is not supposed to do things the way we have always done them simply because. No, we are called to question, to be critical; as creation unfolds, we can see more clearly the blind spots in our culture or the culture in which the Bible was written and pull out the gospel good news from the cultural expectations."
A Life of Service
A Sermon on Mark 9:30-37 by the Rev. Ken Kovacs: When Jesus embraces the child it’s a symbolic action that demonstrates what Jesus is all about, what matters most in the kingdom of God; he shows us the kinds of values and questions that matter to God.[5] We should not be arguing who is the greatest. Instead, we are called to question the moral structure of society if that structure does not allow for the care of the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40). What is more, we have to work against that structure if society is not willing to care for the “least of these.”
Welcome Home
A Sermon on Acts 8:26-39 by the Rev. Chris Henry: "...All the preventative barriers and exclusive restrictions are no match for the Spirit’s radical acceptance. Who are we to say no when it is so clear that God has already said yes? Can we ever overestimate the love of God?..."
O Church, What Does the Lord Require of You
A sermon on Micah 6:6-8 by Randy Bush: "Once the evangelical commotion of the modern church is turned down for a moment, the wisdom of other people of faith can be heard again. Mahatma Gandhi once said: I told the missionaries to refrain from telling India about Christ and merely live the life set before them by the Sermon on the Mount. India then, instead of suspecting them, would have appreciated and directly profited from their presence. Malcolm X once said: Don’t condemn a person who has a dirty glass of water. Just show them the clean glass of water that you have. When they inspect it, you won’t have to say that yours is better."