Acts

The Spirit of Trouble: A sermon for Pentecost, Acts 2:1-21

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Romans 8:22-27
Acts 2:1-21

Recently I was talking to a colleague who has stepped in to be the temporary pastor for a congregation that whose pastor is on maternity leave. As soon as she started at this church a couple of weeks ago, she learned that they had scheduled Youth Sunday for this week, which is Pentecost. The youth were told they didn’t have to follow the liturgical calendar, and they aren’t, so as my friend jokingly described it, “the church had cancelled Pentecost.” 

I wonder if there was a point in the apostles’ observance of the festival at which they wished they could cancel Pentecost. Did they wonder “could we trade this one in for just a normal holiday?”

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Are all welcome? – A sermon based on Acts 8:26-39

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Manoel Amaro, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)

Acts 8:26-39

I wonder how the eunuch from Ethiopia came to visit the temple Jerusalem. We don’t know exactly what his relationship is with the faith of most temple worshipers, but somehow he came to be curious enough about the temple and what that takes place there, that he decided to travel all the way to Jerusalem to worship there.

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One More Thing – A confirmation sermon on Acts 2:43-47

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Acts 2:43-47

So last week I said something about “this one thing” – that if our confirmation students remembered, if any of us remembered nothing else about anything the church speaks into our lives, we can remember this one thing – nothing, absolutely nothing, not what we do or what we don’t do, not what we believe or what we don’t believe, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  And I stand by that.11568242776_42e80297ae

For the most part.  Because it is really hard to just leave one thing there.  Even a really good thing.  Even the thing that I believe is the best news of all.  Even the thing that I believe declares the core tenet of our faith.  Even then it’s hard to leave just one thing and say, “If you remember nothing else….” because sometimes it’s hard to remember even just that one thing.  Sometimes it feels like it is impossible to find comfort in even that one thing.

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Top Ten – a sermon for Pentecost on Acts 2:1-13

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Acts 2:1-13

Last week was the final episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, and like many TV viewers I watched with curiosity to see what he would do with his final Top Ten list.  On the TV show the Top Ten list comes with all sorts of fanfare and anticipation.  There’s this big dramatic build up with an animated introduction. Dave waves his cards around triumphantly, “I have here in my hand tonight’s Top Ten list!” Even if you’re not really a late night person you can usually stay awake for the mock excitement of the Top Ten list.
top_ten
Well, Pentecost was real excitement, not mock excitement. Continue reading →