Mindful Leader

December 24, 2014 -- 8:30 PM Service

Our reflection from Christmas Eve -- you might think of this as borderline "the Gospel according to the Simpsons" or words to that effect. A lot of fun. Merry Christmas!

September 21, 2014

This sermon is from Matthew 20: 1-16 -- sometimes called "The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard." In reality, it is "The Parable of the Extravagantly Generous Landowner." Part of the subtext in this is the baptism of Ginny Trawick, a doubly special child: Down and (on the way) Cancer Survivor. Ginny and her family have shown special resilience and strength. Yes to God's Possible might have been the title, if I used titles.

August 31, 2014

Last Sermon from Romans -- here Chapter 12, Verses 1 and 2 -- for a while. This was intended to focus on encouraging people to take part in the Disciple Growth within the Church.

I have never done this much from Romans.  Six weeks I think.  Complex text but I got a lot out of the preparation.  I pray that the congregation was enriched with this excursion.  

We will look at Parables from Matthew after Youth Sunday (September 7, 2014).  

August 24, 2014

My next to last look at Romans for a while. This is drawn from Romans 10: 5-15. That is here. I use the N. T. Wright observations from New Interpreter's Bible on Romans about larger enterprise and focus on the end of the passage on the ideas of called but who will reach the unreached? I hear echoes of Exodus 2/3 in this and clearly felt called myself to go there.

Will this be the "almost" get to it sermon?  Time will tell I guess.  

August 20, 2014

From the comments after the service, this Sermon may be described in the future as "The Carrot, Egg, Coffee" Sermon. We'll see. The text is Romans 8: 12-25. Dense passage. When Marilyn and I were working on this, her comment was "there are about ten sermons in that." Yes. Grace Acosta, the Liturgist, also mentioned how dense it was. I normally shy away from Romans for that reason, but the lectionary, if a little "out of cycle" (this was the reading for the third Sunday in July, not the second Sunday in August), but for some reason (the Holy Spirit?), the urge to adjust the cycle a little to give us five Sundays on Romans emerged. Next week -- Romans 9: 1-5.

July 20th, 2014 -- Why Hilltop?

I am going to get back to some lectionary preaching in a few weeks, but this passage from Exodus 15: 21-27 is rich, rich, rich.  Even though my plan was more topical, the text pulled me into expanding on the idea of "why Hilltop?"  

These three weeks were (1)  Why Jesus? (2) Why 'the' Church? and finally (3) Why Hilltop?  

I think the real issue for us is the 12 Springs and 70 Date Trees at Elim.  And, not mentioned in the Sermon but true, is that they didn't stay there.  They kept going.  

July 6, 2014 -- Who Do YOU Say I Am?

Focus was to clarify for us at Hilltop who IS Jesus for us.  Used the UMC website on who the UMC says Jesus is ... this is less of an exegesis of a particular passage and more of a theological/didactic reflection on Jesus -- and maybe who he is not.