Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes

Rev. Cari returned to Crossroads for a “Stump the Preacher” topic, in which the requester had asked, “What does the Hebrew Bible have to say about sacrificial love? What does Jesus say about it?” This sermon is her response. Referring to both Amos 5:18-24 and John 21:15-19, Rev. Cari takes  a bit of a unique…

For this final Sunday in the series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari focussed on two texts from the Gospel of Matthew: the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) and a few words from the moment in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41). Both these texts illustrate the concept of (not)…

For this fifth Sunday in the series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari is preaching on both the Hebrew Bible concept of Jubilee (found in Leviticus 25:1-17 and 23-28) and Matthew 18:23-35, which is the parable of the unforgiving debtor. Both texts invite humanity (and the Jubilee text invites all of creation) to join…

The fourth sermon in the Lord’s Prayer series, focussed on the petition “Give us today our daily bread” features two Biblical texts. Rev. Cari opens up Isaiah 25:6-10 but focusses more on Mark 6:30-44, the story of the feeding of 5000. Note the humility of this petition… it’s not asking for bread to last forever….

For the third sermon of this series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari opens up Daniel 7:9-14, and then turns to Luke 17:20-21. Here, the contrast between God’s reign in “heaven” and how things are going “on earth” is most stark, and the text from Daniel really helps to clarify the differences between the…

For the second Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer sermon series, Rev. Cari focussed in on the phrase, “Hallowed Be Your Name” and jumped off from two different Biblical texts for this teaching sermon. Beginning with a section of Leviticus 19, from the “holiness code” she examined the word “hallowed” or holy. This quietly revolutionary text…

With this sermon, Rev. Cari introduces a new 6 week sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer. Today she is preaching from Romans 8:14-27 and Matthew 6:5-15 (which is Matthew’s setting of the Prayer of Jesus). In introducing the series to come, which will follow the prayer, line by line, Rev. Cari mentions the two sources…

This sermon for Trinity Sunday is in response to the killing of George Floyd and the reality of anti-black racism and white privilege. Rev. Cari addresses the final words of I Corinthians 13, as well as the first chapter of Genesis, in relationship to the reality of systemic racism and the doctrine of the Trinity….

For Pentecost Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on a combination of texts she’s never considered before: Numbers 11:24-30 and Acts 2:1-21. Referring to Eric Law’s work with the story of the Day of Pentecost, she reaches into our world to see where the “miracle of the tongue” and the “miracle of the ear” are needed now….

In her sermon for Ascension Sunday, Rev. Cari referred to the two “hinge” points of the two books of Luke and Acts (both written by the same hand). Jesus’ Ascension is treated at the very end of Luke (in chapter 24:44-53) and at the beginning of Acts 1:1-11. In the sermon, Cari meets the dual…