Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes

For Pentecost Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on the long story that begins with Genesis 11:1-9 (the story of the Tower of Babel) and continues with the narrative of Pentecost found at Acts 2:1-21. We might think of the tower story as an explanation of the communication problem we face as humans, and the Pentecost story…

In this morning’s text, John 14:23-39, Jesus tells his disciples that “his peace” is different than the peace the world gives them. So Rev. Cari picks up that distinction in this sermon, and explores it. Thanks to Kate Bowler, she describes two North American “cultural scripts” that Jesus’ peace contradicts: the American insistence on Independence,…

Listen in as Leslie Myers (MOCH enthusiast), Bobby Odhiambo (Mama’s son) and Rev. Cari share news from Bobby’s sister Betty, from the Mama Orphans Children’s Home in Busia, Kenya. Leslie and Cari are reading from a letter Betty Oduor sent recently, to update the Crossroads congregation on events at the orphanage. Then Bobby speaks from…

For Sunday, May 1, Rev. Cari preached on Matthew 25:31-46, the story of the sheep and the goats at the moment of judgment. This is not typically an Easter season text! But there’s a good reason she chose it. Crossroads is participating in a capital campaign to support the redevelopment of First United Community Ministry…

Rev. Cari reflected with the grown-ups on Luke’s version of the Easter morning narrative (Luke 24:1-12) after sharing it as Godly Play with the children. The unique element in Luke’s telling is the question the “shining ones” ask the women at the tomb: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” What happens…

In this sermon on Good Friday, Rev. Cari picked up the passion narrative from Luke’s gospel just as it got “political” and walked the congregation through to his death. This is not “easy” material to engage, for any of us. The injustice of Jesus’ condemnation to death reflects the injustice of our world, still, now….

It’s Palm Sunday, and Luke’s version of the story (found at Luke 19:28-40) has no palms and no “hosanna!” either. But it does have lots of allusions to Hebrew Bible texts, all of which point at the Messiah as a humble person of peace. So it may be “palmless” Sunday but Jesus is the personification…

On the fifth Sunday of Lent, Rev. Cari preached on Philippians 3:4b-14. She opens with a reference to Paul’s metaphor of “running the race” (and a confession that she is no runner, herself). But soon she jumps into the meat of the text, sharing a perspective from Fr. Richard Rohr: Paul says Jesus offers the…

It was the fourth Sunday in Lent, year C, this week, so must be time for the every-three-years sermon on the Prodigal Son! Rev. Cari actually looked back in her records and, yup! she’s preached on Luke 15 every single opportunity since 2004. So she had to encourage the congregation to “hear the text as…

On the second Sunday in the season of Lent, Rev. Cari addressed the state of the world, through the lens of two Hebrew words found in Psalm 27. Zarar (literally, “narrow space”) gets translated “distress” or “dismay.” Who among us is not familiar with that concept these days? Yasha (literally, “open space”) gets translated “salvation”…