The vibrancy of life here at St. Peter’s makes my service on our staff a joy and privilege. Visitation, teaching and preaching are the ministries that feed my pastoral identity, as together our staff and lay members share in our missional calling … Building a community of faith by God’s grace.
It was 6:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, and already the day was complicated. I had just spent about forty-five minutes with a family that was in the process of removing a hospital life-support system from their loved one. She had been in a serious accident the day before, and while her body was strong and…
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. ~~Hebrews 13:2 (NRSV) I’m not much for the Book of Hebrews. I’ve never been enamored by the lofty language, the implied superiority of New Testament teaching over the Old Testament foundations for Jesus’ ministry, and the…
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:3-4, NRSV) I’ve been following the ritual since the summer of 1981. Forty-eight Sunday mornings a year, give-or-take one or two, I am walking through the hallways of…
Traditional Sermon Pentecost 11 I’m not much for preaching on the Old Testament lessons that we read each week in church. If you pay any attention to my sermons, you know that already. I’ve always been most interested in talking about Jesus, from the pulpit. But when I started my sermon prep last week, and…
We extend our thanks to Jill Emmert for serving as this week’s guest devotioneer … her first time writing for us. It won’t be her last, we hope. Fifty-three first days of school. That’s how many we’ve had with our three sons so far, between pre-school, public school, and college. We’re coming up on fifty-four…
New Day Sermon Pentecost 10 Sometimes Jesus’ words seem almost too difficult to accept. Today we wrestle with some of those words and consider how we see in them a reminder that even when Jesus seems harsh, he is speaking to us in love.
We again thank Brendan Armitage for providing this week’s devotion. Make sure to tune in next week for another guest devotion by Jill Emmert. Galatians 3:26 — “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Have you ever…
Traditional Sermon Pentecost 9 What are you afraid of? We’re all afraid of something. Maybe you have nyctophobia, a fear of darkness or arachnophobia, a fear of spiders. Maybe your fear is a little more unusual like Arachibutyrophobia – the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. I know for a…
Mine is the sunlight, Mine is the morning Born of the one light Eden saw play Praise with elation, praise ev’ry morning God’s recreation of the new day. (Morning Has Broken, Verse 3) This past Sunday morning as I was listening to the three Emmert brothers sing “Morning Has Broken” as an offertory anthem, I…
