Scriptures: Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20:1-16 Cover photo courtesy of Cody Miller. © Cody Miller. Prints of cover art are available at www.codyfmiller.com. Recently I started swimming laps at the aquatic center. Most of the time, there are plenty of lanes, and I can get right in. But this past week, when I arrived, all the lanes were full. So I sat down on a bench to wait for one to open up. Everyone was swimming laps, except I noticed one lane had a couple

Scriptures Exodus 14:19-29 Matthew 18:21-35 “Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire” Designed and Created by Karen Brodie for Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, The Exodus Blueprint. In today’s readings, miracles abound! The sea is split in two. And a king forgives a debt that he is rightly owed. In both stories, the miracles lead to concrete experiences of liberation. Through the parted sea, the desperate Israelites

"American Progress" by George A. Crofutt (1873), the Library of Congress. Summary: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). God has been present and at work within the Americas long before Christian missionaries arrived from Europe. As Christians, we confess our complicity and repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery which provided the philosophical and legal framework that gave Christian governments moral and legal rights to inv

Jesus Mural of Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. This past week, I was about struggling to write this sermon. I mentioned this to my spouse, and so, he asked me what the scriptures were. “Well… there’s the first Passover in Exodus”—the beginning of the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt. Then there’s Jesus teaching the disciples about reconciliation. And then there

Photograph by Irving Penn / © Condé Nast I began this week's sermon with a short video clip I'd found online, "reenacting" this Sunday's reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Play to 00:23. That’s how Jesus said it, right? [Cue an uproar of laughter from the congregation.] Now, this version of Dolly's song "Go to Hell" is from a live performance a couple of years ago, but here are her original lyrics… Play from 1:04 to 1:40. Take your wars and your politics, your lust and you

Shiphrah and Puah by Dina Cormick (1989). Towards the conclusion of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes: "I appeal to you therefore, [siblings], by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect." I wonder, whe

“North Star” by Jesse Krimes, as part of the immersive art exhibit, "Voices of the Heartland" (2019). Last week, we heard a brother's story of betrayal. Joseph, that quintessential dreamer, was captured and beaten by his older brothers, ripping his beloved coat of many colors to shreds. Joseph was then thrown into a pit before being sold into slavery and carried far from home to Egypt. There he worked as a slave before being thrown into prison, falsely accused of a crime he d

AIDS quilt on display in Washington, D.C., Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress (1996). It was a time of pandemics and moral panic. Culture wars at home and military conflicts abroad. Rising inequality and growing religious extremism. No, I am not talking about the 2020s, but the 1980s. From the very beginning, the AIDS epidemic was primed to be a moral epidemic. In the decade before AIDS, conservative Christian leaders had been stoking public fears about what they descr

Scripture Readings: Genesis 29:15-28 Matthew 14:13-21 Portion of Redwork Quilt, The Ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Fort Scott, Kansas, 1888). I first learned of this redwork quilt from the book Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting. The story goes like this: In 1888, a group of women from the Methodist Episcopal Church of the small town of Fort Scott, Kansas, gathered with a purpose: to raise money for the most vulnerable in

Scripture Readings Genesis 28:10–19a Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 Jacob’s Ladder Quilt, Artist Unknown (American, Date Unknown), on the Huntington Print Shop. Last week, we watched Jacob close one of the Bible’s most absurd deals; trading a bowl of lentil stew for his twin brother Esau’s birthright. In the days that follow, Jacob once again takes what was meant for his brother—this time by deceiving their sick and blind father in

Harriet Powers (1885 - 1886) Bible Quilt. In 1963, writing from the Birmingham jail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded the country that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Twenty years later, another giant of the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Jesse Jackson, reached for a similar image—America, he said, is not a blanket woven from a single thread, color, or clo

The Fabric of the United States Flag by Kreg Yingst (2026) Instagram @psalmprayers. Did you know that of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 12 were Presbyterian? This past week, our General Assembly (GA) was asked to consider an overture concerning this history. It proposed that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formally recognize the distinctive role Presbyterians and the wider Reformed tradition played in the founding of our nation. The overture pointed out

Scripture Genesis 12:1–9 Romans 4:13–18 Matthew 9:9–13 "Rainbow" by John August Swanson. Have you ever had to move to pursue a calling? Those of us in this room who are pastors, would likely say yes. We heard God’s call, and so we may have moved to pursue our seminary education, and then again to enter the ministry. Perhaps you moved to pursue your education. To seek new job opportunities. Or to serve in our armed forces. Those of you still in high s

Trinity by Kelly Latimore Icons. Texts: Genesis 1:1-2:4 Matthew 28:16-20 In the beginning... God created the heavens and the earth. God separated the light from the darkness—day and night. And at the end of that first day, God paused, looked upon this rough sketch of creation… in all its binary simplicity… and saw that it was good. What begins as a story about opposites—about binaries—quickly becomes increasingly complicated… God separates

Pentecost by Kelly Latimore Icons How do you tell someone you love you? Perhaps you just say the words—using one of the approximately 7000 languages worldwide. Or perhaps you show it. Through gifts, like bringing home their favorite snack. Through gestures, like throwing them a birthday party. Through acts of service, like doing the chore you know they hate. Sometimes it’s as simple as holding hands. The most effective way to tell someone you love them is a way that they

Scriptures: Acts 1:6–14 1 Peter 4:12–14; 5:6–11 John 21: 1-14 Lunchtime Rest, by Johnson, William H., 1901-1970. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. The disciples wanted to know if Jesus was going to make it all better. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” They wanted to know, will Jesus save their own troubled nation? Would they be redeemed from their

Scripture Texts: Acts 7:55–60 John 14:1-14 Colorful Architecture by Paul Klee. In 2018, my spouse Ames and I found ourselves at a crossroads. We were discerning our next step. Ames had finished his master’s program, and we weren’t sure whether to stay where we were for his PhD or move somewhere new. I had struggled to find my place in that small town in Idaho, so at first, I assumed I’d be ready to leave. But as we weighed our options, something unexpected happened. I didn’t

“Shepherdess” by Menashe Kadishman. Since the joy of Resurrection Sunday, we have turned our attention from the life and ministry of Jesus to how Jesus’s life and ministry inspired the acts of the apostles. It is the story of the early body of believers, as they learned to live as resurrection people… to live as the body of Christ after Jesus' departure. Modern Christians have often asked, What did life look like among these early believers? Well, first, these early believer

Read John 10:1-10 I have a question—What does it mean to be a sheep? Calling someone a "sheep" is a way of saying they just go with whatever other people are doing, instead of thinking for themselves. They go along with the crowd. They do whatever powerful people tell them to do. It’s not a kind thing to call someone, and it makes sheep seem stupid. But sheep are not stupid. Did you know that Ames and I used to be shepherds? These are some photos of our sheep. Sheep are

Matthew 28:1-10 Goodness is stronger than evil Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger than death. These words, were first penned by Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa, and one of the giants of the South Africa’s liberation struggle. And originally he wrote these words as a prayer. Goodness is stronger than evil Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger