Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 14:22-33

"If it is you, command me to come to you upon the waters." - Matthew 14:28
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Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Genesis 32:22-31; Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost - Genesis 19:15-28; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Genesis 28:10-19a

[Pastor's Newsletter Article for May 2020]

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. – Romans 8:18-21
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We live in a world that spends much of it’s time trying to avoid pain. That is not an allegation, or horrible circumstance, as much as it is a truth for us as an “Old Adam” or “Old Eve.” That “Old” part of us that has been with us since Genesis chapter 3. The “Old us” that wants to live and yet finds it so hard to do so on our own. That is the mortal “us.” The “us” that sees a pandemic come and we fear our own death at the hands of something we cannot see or control. That is the difficulty of life, that God’s grace has granted us protection from for so long, but now the reality for many of our brothers and sisters around the world has come to us as the truth of groans of all creation awaiting the new creation to be born. The “new you” being raised from the dead, from our mortality, to glory in the God who frees us from the shackles of disease and death.