July 27, 2025. Texts: Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:6-15 [16-19]; Luke 11:1-13.

It comes down to this. Our time together is up. Of all the possible things to say, what should the last thing, the last word, be? It turns out that some habits are hard to break. In this case, it is the habit of […]

July 20, 2025. Texts: Genesis 18:1-10a; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42.  

Long ago human eyes watched clear nights unfold on a beautifully velvet dark canvas, so filled with stars and planets that it is beyond our imagining. Those same eyes observed a landscape which provided everything necessary for acquiring food, shelter, clothing, tools and medicine. Those […]

July 13, 2025. Texts: Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37. 

If all Jesus came to say was “be nice to each other” then, really, his whole trip to the cross was pretty unnecessary, don’t you think? And yet, somehow, this is where the story of an unfortunate man who was robbed, assaulted and left for […]

July 6, 2025. Texts: Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:[1-6] 7-16; Luke 10:1-11, 16-29.  

If there is a byword for this week’s lessons, perhaps it is “on the way”.  Call it a slogan or a meme if you prefer. It’s not just a bible thing though. Because a lot of things happen,...

June 29, 2025. Texts: 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62. In the wee hours of a February morning in Loveland, Colorado a pickup truck slid off the road. The police arrived on the scene, found the driver uninjured and determined that a slick, dark, tarry substance had...

June 22, 2025. Texts: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39.  

The season of Pentecost, which we have now officially entered, is long. This year it will last for twenty-three weeks. Take that in for a moment. It will be late November before this season gives way to the next one....

June 15, 2025. Texts: Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15.  

In AD 325, exactly 1,700 years ago, Christian leaders from Eastern and Western provinces were called together for a confab by the Roman Emperor Constantine. The empire was on its way to adopting Christianity as its official religion. But there was a problem.

June 8, 2025. Texts: Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17 [25-27].  

Is it possible that there was ever a time or place on the face of the earth when someone in authority did not have to say, this is for your own good? Surely this phrase or some variation of it exists in every language.

June 1, 2025. Texts: Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26.   Airports are buzzing, Ferries are full. The inns have no more room. It’s the time of year when you are most likely to hear the plaintive question, “are we there yet?” Today is the seventh and final Sunday of Easter. According to tradition,

May 25, 2025. Texts: Acts 16:9-15; Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5; John 14:23-29.  

Divine inspiration or desperation? Inquiring minds want to know. Paul had a vision during the night. Was it the Holy Spirit or indigestion? After all, Paul had just come from a difficult personal management situation with Barnabas, another leading evangelist. They’d disagreed

May 18, 2025. Texts: Acts 11:1-8; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35.   In Cracow, a rabbi dreamt three times that an angel told him to go to Livovna. ‘In front of the palace there, near a bridge,’ the angel said, ‘you will learn where a treasure is hidden.’ The rabbi went to Livovna. When he arrived at […]

May 11, 2025. Text: Acts 10. Sermon given by Pastor Dawn Coffey, preached on Lopez Island In honor of Mother’s Day, let us go to the second reading we heard this morning, from the book of Acts, the story of Tabitha. Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, also known as Gazelle, must have been a woman [...]

May 4, 2025. Texts: Acts 9:1-6 [7-20]; Revelation 5:1-14; John 21:1-19.  

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It was the last thing that Jesus said in last week’s gospel text. It’s interesting then that people place so much stock in seeing Jesus. The desire is so [...]

April 27, 2025. Texts: Acts 5:27-32; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31.  

People walk the Camino de Santiago (the Way St. James) for various reasons. Pilgrims follow the ancient path from France to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Their goal is the tomb of St. James the Greater, killed in Roman Palestine by the order of [...]

April 20, 2025. Texts: Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; Luke 24:1-12.  

Many words have been used in reference to the event that followed the death of a Galilean religious teacher more than two millennia ago. Amazing, perplexing, mysterious; these are some of the more positive expressions. On the other side there’s laughable, dubious, [...] impossible, and

April 18, 2025. Texts: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1 – 19:42.   It was a chaotic day. Afterwards his friends tried to say what had happened. But it was like piecing together the fragments of a shattered precious stone with only the thin and opaque glue of grief and regret. Jesus was [...]

April 13, 2025. Texts: Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11.  

The human reckoning of calendar time has been something of a moving target. Some are lunar, some solar. Mayan, Egyptian and Chinese calendars for example. In the west, the Julian calendar was succeeded by the Gregorian, resulting in minor dislocations of events from past to [...]

April 6, 2025. Texts: Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8.  

The road from Galilee down to Jerusalem isn’t long, about twenty-eight miles or so. On one particular day, John’s gospel tells us, a group had traveled that road and detoured to Bethany which is less than two miles east of Jerusalem. They were there for [...]

March 30, 2025. Texts: Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.  

This fourth Sunday in Lent comes as a sort of a deep sigh. The scriptures in each of the preceding three weeks have tended toward accountability to God’s covenant and judgment for our failure to measure up. Today’s lessons however, resonate with consolation.

March 23, 2025. Texts: Isaiah 55:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9.   Temptation is a hard nut to crack. But temptation is where Jesus began his journey toward the cross. With temptation all around, he had to get on the other side of the cross before he could enjoy that wondrous gift we call resurrection. So [...]