Text Sermons
The Prayer of George Bailey (Psalm 109: 21-26)
Most of you know that in the great movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s Uncle Billy, his erratic, absent-minded, often tipsy assistant, misplaces $8,000 in the lap of their family nemesis, Henry Potter, as cruel, mean, avaricious and hard-hearted a villain as...
Full Cradle, Empty Tomb, Open Sea (Luke 2: 8-14; Acts 20: 36-38)
On an ordinary night, amidst an ordinary empire-wide tax census ordered by Caesar Augustus, outside of an insignificant Palestinian hamlet, ordinary young men tending sheep were startled by a heavenly messenger announcing to them that the long-anticipated Messiah had...
“ . . . And Dwelt Among Us” ( John 1: 1-14)
Years ago, cruising the periodicals list of the Davidson College library I ran across something called the Illustrated London News. The emphasis of this particular issue was a retrospective on the D-Day invasion, and one particular article caught my eye, a column on...
A Theology of Home (Ruth 1: 15-18)
To begin forming a theology of home, one must begin by acknowledging a biological fact, that human beings share a kinship with much of the natural order when it comes to creating a functional home. A home must enjoy genuine stability for a creature to function within...
The Tears of God (John 11: 32-38)
I had arisen early so I could take a run. My eye happened to fall upon one of my children’s library books – The Jesse Owens Story. Reflexively, I picked it up and read it quickly, then took off on my run, thinking temporarily about the great track star Jesse Owens....