Title: The Time Is Now
Date: March 7, 2010 (3rd Sunday of Lent)
Texts: Isaiah 55:1-9, Luke 13:1-9
Author: Monica Schmucker
The passages this week got me thinking, what is it that motivates people to change? What sparks repentance? It strikes me that Jesus issues a warning to repent and Isaiah an invitation to repent. I realize that I [...]
Title: “Fruit”
Text: John 15:1-5
Date: March 7, 2010
Event: Ervin Stutzman’s installation
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
A few years ago I started a vegetable garden in our front yard. I was thrilled to see the fruit growing from the long vines—grape tomato vines entangled with large slicing tomatoes, growing into one another, all mixed up and bound together as [...]
Title: Escape
Date: February 28, 2010 (Lent 2)
Texts: Ps 27, Philip 3:17-4:1, Lk 13:31-35
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
The Pharisees want what’s good for Jesus. They respect his ministry and want him to survive. These Pharisees may even consider Jesus a friend of their own ministry. So, according to Luke’s Gospel, “some Pharisees came and said to him, [...]
Title: Lent as metaphor and reality
Texts: Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Luke 4:1-13
Date: Feb 21, 2010
Author: Tom Lehman
Lent began four days ago on Ash Wednesday, as it always does. Lent is the least cheerful of the seasons in the Christian year. It is sometimes understood as a time to suspend earthly pleasures. Some over-zealous believers have [...]
Title: Wurstessen
Date: February 17, 2010
Texts: Gen 3:19, Isaiah 58:1-12
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
March 9th, 1522. Zurich, Switzerland. It was the middle of Lent. About twelve people got together at the house of Christopher Froschauer and had a feast of sausage. Eating sausage during Lent was strictly forbidden by the church, and back then church laws were [...]
Title: Freedom for what?
Date: February 14, 2010 (St. Valentine’s Day)
Texts: 2 Cor 3:12-4:2; Lk 9:28-36
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17)—that’s what Paul says in our passage from Second Corinthians. Freedom. What does it mean to be free? I want to give you three snapshots of [...]
Title: Dirty Pockets, Lint Balls, and Love
Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Date: February 7, 2010
Author: Meghan Florian
I work part time as a Wedding Assistant at Duke Chapel, so most Saturday afternoons find me alternately scurrying around the chapel in uncomfortable shoes, or sitting in the back pew and listening to as many as three sermons on 1 [...]
Title: The weaker members
Text: I Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21
Date: January 24, 2010
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
“The members of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary” (I Cor. 12:22). That’s what Paul says in our passage from I Corinthians—Ben mentioned this verse in his sermon last Sunday, and I’ve been thinking about it all week. [...]
Title: A material Spirit
Date: Jan 10, 2010
Texts: Acts 8:14-17
Author: Isaac S. Villegas
“They can beg and they can plead / But they can’t see the light, that’s right / ‘Cause the boy with the cold hard cash / Is always Mister Right, ‘cause we are / Living in a material world / And I am a [...]
Title: A faithful remnant; or, On being part of a faithful remnant when your girlfriend insists upon packing heat.
Texts: Jeremiah 31:7-14
Date: January 3, 2010
Author: Chris Gooding
Prayer: O LORD of hosts, we recognize that we have often not been very good at explaining your work among your people, Israel. Help us to learn from the experience [...]