For those of us who have put in some years inside most any church, today’s Gospel story is familiar. It occurs in all four Gospels, and we read one version of it every year on this day. We recognize it readily: the procession, the palms, the “hosanna’s” are things that I have either heard preached or preached myself for most of my life. Baptists tend to be better at Palm Sunday and Easter than we are at Lent or Good Friday. I’ve engaged in ecumenical dialogues on this where it’s been suggested that Baptists don’t have an adequate theology of… Continue reading →

As I looked back three years to see what was happening the last time these readings from the Lectionary came up, I discovered that Maxine and I had just been through the death and funeral of Maxine’s sister Betty’s husband Dennis. Most everyone here knows that Maxine’s sister Mary died and was buried just over a week ago. In addition last Sunday night Maxine and I attended the closing of my home church in Eau Claire – the place I came to faith, the place I was baptized, the place I will always picture in my mind and heart when… Continue reading →

I want to begin today by explaining the sermon title, which is a line from the 19th Psalm with which we began today’s worship. The Psalm sings about God’s communication with humankind. In the last part of the Psalm, God speaks through the Torah, which is not just a written word, but the teaching that accompanies it from God through faithful people. I hope we participate in being a channel of God’s speech each Sunday. At the beginning of the Psalm, however, God communicates by the wonder of the creation, which shares its wonder and intricacy without words. There are… Continue reading →