St.St. Matthew’s Sermon 02-23-2020 Be In the Moment Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen It has long been my contention that every word, even every letter of a word is important to […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 01-12-2020 Oh… Oh… Now I Get It Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Our reading from the Book of Acts this morning is just a snippet of one of my […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 12-29-2019 Complacent or Complicit Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148, Hebrews 2:10-18, Matthew 2:13-23 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen It’s so easy for us, as Christians, to portray Herod as pure evil. Just hearing the story of the “Massacre […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 01-05-2020 Enlightened LIFE! Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147:12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen I’ve mentioned it before but it bears repeating; I like that we follow the lectionary for our readings. Although it […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 12-22-2019 Beginnings and Endings Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Finally, our Lectionary Gospel reading, for the first time in this advent season, takes us to the beginning of […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 12-15-2019 What Then Did You Go Out to See? Isaiah 35:1-10, Psalm 146:5-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Last week’s reading was from earlier in Matthew’s Gospel; there we heard John proclaim… “I […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 12-08-2019 Are You Ready Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3:1-12 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen In the late 1960’s – early 70’s, when I was coming of age, a new idea sprang up and […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 12-24-2019 (Also St. Peter) What Have You Come To See From Luke’s Nativity Story In the voice of Barshabba (Bar-shab-bah). Name given to one of seven shepherds of Luke’s Nativity found in the “Book of the Bee” compiled by Bishop Shelemon in the Aramaic language in the thirteenth century. Wow, nice place […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 11-24-2019 Let Go Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 46, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-43 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Next week we begin our Advent season, the special time of year when we prepare ourselves to receive anew the greatest […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 11-10-2019 Joined Together Job 19:23-27a, Psalm 17:1-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, Luke 20:27-38 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen We’re already told by Luke’s introduction that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. But, for […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 11-17-2019 Opportunity Taken (Actions speak louder than words) Isaiah 65:17-25, Psalm 98, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Odd, it seems to me, how my brain works sometimes, but as I read today’s […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 11-03-2019 Who’s Looking for Whom Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, Psalm 32:1-7, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12, Luke 19:1-10 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen (Sung) Zacchaeus was a wee little man And a wee little man was he He climbed […]

In the vacation absence of Pastor Ron, Bryan Ellis delivered this message. Thank you Bryan.   Last month we talked about faith.   I stood here with a mustard seed on my finger and we talked about how little faith is actually needed or used in the world.  Today we are going to talk about something […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 10-20-2019 Creating God in Our Image Jeremiah 31:27-34, Psalm 119:97-104, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon10-13-2019 It’s Not the End of the Story Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, Psalm 66:1-12, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen To set the scene for our Old Testament reading; Judah has been conquered by the […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 10-06-2019 Stumbling Along the Way Lamentations 1:1-6, Psalm 137, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:(1-4) 5-10 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen. Our Lectionary assigned Gospel reading would have started verse 5, but that would have left out the […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 09-29-2019 The Great Chasm Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15, Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen Earlier in Luke’s Gospel is the story of a man with a tree that didn’t bear fruit. […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 09-22-2019 Pray for What? Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, Psalm 79:1-9, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Luke 16:1-13 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen We pray often; that’s a big part of our faith. Yet every now-and-then, we might wonder if we are […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 09-15-2019 The Company You Keep Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Psalm 14, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 15:1-10 May the Words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen ‘A man is known by the company he keeps’. It’s a well known saying, I’ve heard it […]

St. Matthew’s Sermon 09-08-2019 Faith Isaiah 41:8-13, Hebrews 11:1-40, Matthew 17:14-20 Note: in Pastor Ron’s absence this message was developed and delivered by Bryan Ellis; I offer Bryan my gratitude.   So today we are going to talk about Faith.   Not the girl that lives down the street.    Not how the Eagles are going to […]