Category: Sermons

Sermon for March 30, 2025, Fourth Sunday in Lent, preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32. Today’s story is a familiar one. It’s one of the parables we find in Luke that has entered popular culture, just like last week’s story about the Good Samaritan. We refer to the “Prodigal…

Sermon for March 2, 2025, Transfiguration Sunday. Based on Luke 9:28-36. The Transfiguration scene is full of symbolism. I can’t possibly get through all of it, but I want to touch on a few aspects that would have been fairly obvious to a first-century Jew. When Jesus is transfigured, he is joined by Moses and…

Preached on February 16, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based on Jeremiah 17:5-10. Today, I’m going to be preaching from the Old Testament text, something I rarely do. I would say that many Presbyterians have some general idea of the story arc of the Old Testament but are weak on many of the…

Preached February 9, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based primarily on Luke 5:1-11, with references to Isaiah 6:1-8. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued a press release in August 2022 stating that there had been a substantial surge in demand after the pandemic. There were lots of reasons. One was that people…

Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on January 12, 2025, Baptism of the Lord. Based on Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22. Many times over the past decade or two, I’ve wished that we knew more about John the Baptist. Here’s what I think we know. John was the son of a priest, and so he…

Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on January 5, 2025, in celebration of Epiphany. Based on Matthew 2:1-12. Today, I am preaching about Epiphany, which is technically tomorrow. Today is technically the twelfth day of Christmas. No, I don’t have twelve drummers drumming for us, as much as I’d like to. But since it…

Merry Christmas! A homily preached at First Presbyterian Church on December 24, 2024. Loosely based on Luke 2 and John 1. I recently listened to an audiobook called The Happiness Hypothesis. In it, Jonathan Haidt examines various theories about what produces human happiness. To set the stage, he explores the nature of our mind. We…

Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on December 22, 2024, the Fourth Sunday in Advent. Based on Luke 1:39-55. The reading this morning starts with Mary getting up and taking a trip. I want to back up a few verses, though, to talk about why she’s doing that. Our reading today is called “the…

Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on December 1, 2024, First Sunday of Advent. Based on Luke 21:25-36. Each year, Advent begins with some variation on today’s lesson. We read the same story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus proclaiming that the Temple will be destroyed and then giving an apocalyptic vision of how…

Preached on November 10, 2024, at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based on Mark 12:38-44. Tomorrow is Veterans Day. As we saw earlier, there are many people in our congregation who are veterans or their close family members. Thank you all for your service. In the history of our nation, going back to 1775 when…