Most weeks, our worship leader offers a 15–20 minute sermon based on the Scripture texts for the day.
Our regular preacher is pretty versatile. She’ll tell stories, pull together different ideas, lead a meditation, give the congregation an “assignment” to talk about in twos or threes, show a slide show or video, or sometimes even sing to the congregation. The sermon functions to deepen our reflection on the Scripture themes of the day, and often leaves us with a challenge or a question.
Scripture texts are outlined in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Jesus and “The Family”
Jesus had some surprising things to say about family in Matthew 10 and 12. Things that contradict the usual “family values” kinds of assumptions that regular folks have about him. This sermon is Rev. Cari’s attempt to make sense of the strange things he sometimes said, as well as help us in our relationships with…
The Gospel in Chairs
This was another sermon from the Rev. Jim Short, reflecting on Psalm 130 and Ephesians 4:25-5:2. The audio version may not do it justice, because Jim did one of his “many chairs” extravaganza sermons. The basic question is “How does God see us?”
Aug 4, 2024
The Rev. Jim Short preached at Crossroads this morning, and his texts were Psalm 145 and John 6:1-21. He asks, “Does reading our Bible give you that ‘loaves and fishes’ kind of feeling? What does reading the Bible do for you? Is it like stone soup without the extras?”
July 28, 2024
The Rev. Jim Short preached at Crossroads this morning, and his texts were Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 and Psalm 23. Jim looks way back in history and asks, “How and where, after the Emperor Constantine was baptized and Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, did we lose our way?” Buckle up for a…
July 21, 2024
The Rev. Jim Short preached at Crossroads this morning. His texts were Ephesians 2:11-22 and Psalm 89, and in the sermon, he suggests a bit of composting! “What do you need to let go of in terms of things you learned along the way about faith and life? And how challenging is that for you?”
The Great Rummage Sale
Rev. Cari received a request to preach on Jesus’ words about “new wine in old wine skins” from Mark 2, and to specifically preach on the life of the church as institution. The requester said, “We worship this polyamorous God who desires justice for ALL people and who will not be contained. No matter how…
Stilling the Storm
For the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Rev. Cari preached on Mark’s story of Jesus asleep in the boat while a storm rages around him (Mark 4:35-41). The disciples, frightened by the storm, wake him up and ask him, “Don’t you care that we’re about to be killed?” And he stills the storm. Rev. Cari’s take…
Holding Space
At Crossroads today, we hosted our own “Mental Health Sunday” and were pleased to welcome Cathy Bone to the pulpit. Her text was Mark 5:21-34, and she unpacked a very complex text, shared some of her own mental health journey, as well as imparting a bit of teaching about how our brains work. As we…
The Sower
This sermon for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost is on the pair of parables found in Mark 4:26-34. Both concern the Reign of God, and both feature green growing things. The question in Rev. Cari’s mind as she begins to look at these parables, is “What is the role of the human?” And by the…
Kinship Redefined
For the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, Rev. Cari tackled quite a challenging text: Mark 3:20-35. A combination of narrative about Jesus’ family making an “intervention” in his life because they are concerned for him, and Jesus tangling with the Scribes, who say he is possessed of an evil spirit, it’s a thorny text to untangle….