Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes

This week Rev. Cari does it again… she’s preaching on two texts: Acts 10:44-48 and John 15:9-17. The sermon is an exploration of the work of the Holy Spirit in creating communities of openness to God that bridge difference and deepen community. She revisits Crossroads’ purpose statement with the congregation, then explores both texts, eventually…

For the 5th Sunday of Easter, Rev. Cari tried an experiment. She preached on two texts (for the price of one!). Acts 8:26-40, which is a story, and John 15:1-8, which is a discourse. She took the one (the story of the Ethiopian eunuch) and nested it inside the vocabulary of the other (John’s meditation…

The fourth Sunday after Easter is typically “Shepherding Sunday” – a focus on the metaphor of Jesus as “Good” or “Noble” or “True” Shepherd. Rev. Cari preached on John 10:11-18 (but she did cheat a bit, and include verse 10 in her pondering). On the threshold of Earth Week, this sermon wonders what “abundant life”…

For the third Sunday after Easter, Rev. Cari opens up Luke 24:36b-48, another resurrection appearance of the Risen Christ. In this sermon, she is playing with the transformation of the disciples: from frightened bystanders who have witnessed a traumatic event, to active witnesses to the abundant grace of the living God.

For Easter Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on the resurrection narrative as found in Mark 16:1-8. In this version of the story, the women go to the tomb just after sunrise to anoint Jesus’ body. The discover – to their great alarm – that the heavy stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the…

On Palm Sunday Rev. Cari preached on the dramatic entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, contrasting it with the presumed military procession of Pilate. This contrast rises out of the work of New Testament scholars, the late Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, in their influential 2006 book, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach…

For the 4th Sunday of Lent, and Affirming PIE Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on John 3:13-21 (a text that has two others hovering in the background: Numbers 21:4-9, and Genesis 22). Though it was tempting to dive into the troubling aspects of the background texts, Rev. Cari kept her focus on the love of God….

For the second Sunday in the season of Lent, Rev. Cari tackled the paradoxical Gospel text of the day, Mark 8:31-38, in which Jesus says several difficult – even inconceivable – things. So it’s little wonder that she opened with a reference to the trio of Fezzik, Inigo and Vizzini in Rob Reiner’s film The…

For the first Sunday in the season of Lent, Rev. Cari preached on Mark 1:9-15, the text suggested for the day by the Revised Common Lectionary. Because the gospel of Mark doesn’t waste words, we’ve heard much of this text before! But the two verses pertaining to today’s theme are the ones concerning the Spirit…

On the fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Rev. Cari preached on the Hebrew Bible text, a passage from the prophet Isaiah, which picks up mid-argument… from Isaiah 40:21-31. She gives some context, then opens up the “meat” of the passage: what it means to “wait for Our God.” Along the way she brings out a few…