Sermons
Nonviolence in Fearful Times
Matthew 5:38-42Matthew 14:13-21Matthew 17:24-27 I would like to begin this morning with a reading from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. If you’d like to follow along, it begins on the bottom of page 132 or so in your pew copy, depending on your translation. [This is the scene Read more…
Sermons
The Fly
The common housefly, Musca Domestica, has lived alongside humans for as long as we have been human. We regard these creatures as pests. And with good reason, for although their living alongside us is commensal offering neither benefit nor harm directly, they are significant vectors of both disease and filth. Read more…
Sermons
Worry
I wish I had a worry-o-dometer to step on each morning, like a scale, because as the election gets closer, I don’t know if I’m gaining weight, but I am gaining worry. So I’ve written a few notes about what I’m feeling, mostly notes to self. I’m curious, in our Read more…
Sermons
Run with the horses
We all deal with teenage angst in different ways. I managed by recording mixtapes from the radio and reading Jeremiah 12 obsessively. The mixtapes—which were, quite literally, tapes, have not survived the test of time, but the Bible has. Jeremiah writes: “You will be in the right, O God, when Read more…
Repair
Good Trouble in the Land
by: John Powell My mother was a ‘no non-sense’ kind of person. So, when I would her saying loudly, “John Hayes, you git in here now!”, I knew I was in trouble! During my civil rights activity years, I was sure that I would get summoned before her again. But Read more…
Sermons
Cup Bearer to Washtenaw County
I’m going to begin this morning with a confession. I’ve had a hard week. Most of you know that five years ago I was a successful academic with an elite position in my hometown. 2016 was a brutal year for me as I lost that work and entered what would Read more…
Sermons
Grand Rounds
Emily Miner Last week Shelly asked me to share more about my experience presenting on racism in medicine to the anesthesia department at my institution. I thank each of you for the support you offered to me as I prepared for that. This week as I have been working on Read more…
Repair
What will you put in your vessel for the future?
Note the top podcast includes just the sermon; the bottom includes the poem 38 by Layli Long Soldier read by Elena Tsai and Trevor Bechtel’s pastoral prayer In March, I walked down the street and planted snap peas on the trellis at the preschool where no one went to preschool Read more…
Sermons
Nicodemus
I want to acknowledge, first, that we have had some emotionally heavy Sundays over the last few weeks, as we imagine our hopes for the future, especially our hopes related to racial justice and undoing white supremacy. We’ve packed in the possibilities, since the beginning of our series with John Read more…