Author: Paula

(Modified 2021-12-12: Added audio recording of this sermon)

            I want to begin with a list of  words this morning.  These words aren’t often heard outside of a religious context, but since we’re in church I think it’s appropriate to introduce them this morning. How we understand the meaning of each of these words, influences or drives our spiritual journeys. So, I believe Advent is the perfect time to ponder these words. Ready? Here they are: Sin, Repentance, Confession and Forgiveness. What we think or believe about ourselves and others through the use of these words can be helpful or destructive for us. 

Continue reading “Advent 3, 2021 – Sermon”

(Modified 2021-11-28: Added audio recording of this sermon)

Every so often, we get a strong reminder that the ways of God are not the ways of the world.  According to the ways of the world, Christmas is lighten-up time…one month out of twelve when we give ourselves permission (perhaps guardedly because of Covid) to go to parties and buy gifts for friends and family and decorate our homes with trees, lights and ornaments of every kind. It is the season of eggnog and sweets and assorted beverages when the instinct to purchase is hallowed and overeating is required.  Whatever else is going on in the world, Christmas is a time to rise above it…to be happy, to be at peace, to anticipate birth.​

The ways of God are less cheerful, overall.  They offer us no shortcuts to joy.  If the church calendar is any indication, things always get darker before they get light. No matter how much we’d like to take a straight road to Christmas, there are these dark days of Advent to go through first.  Advent leads us down a road that leads through the graveyard of our sinfulness, through the wilderness, and through a river of repentance.  There is a lot of waiting along the way, waiting and telling the truth about all the scary things that can happen before the birth of real joy takes place.

Continue reading “Advent 1, 2021 – Sermon”

(Modified 2021-11-14 Added audio recording of this sermon)

Have you ever been afraid of something?  When I was a child, I was really afraid of the dark and of cockroaches. (pause) and truthfully, they both still bother me.  There are cockroaches in El Paso, Texas (where I come from)…. BIG BUGS that inhabit cool, dark places like garages, cupboards, and basements and they scurry around at night in particular, which may have aggravated my fear of the dark.  I hate being around them… I hate it when they startle me…. it doesn’t make any difference that I am a hundred times bigger then they are…. when one scurries across my path, my heart pounds, adrenaline rushes through my body and I instantly want to run the other way.  Don’t even suggest that I simply step on it and kill it. The crunchy, splatty sound they make underneath my foot makes my skin crawl. I have tried over the years to talk myself out of this fear, but the last time I was home, I had to steel myself every time I had to walk into the garage, because I KNEW that there might be a roach out there.  It was a great relief for me as I began my northern migration, to realize that there aren’t as many cockroaches up here as there are in El Paso because Cockroaches frighten me.

Continue reading “Remembrance, 2021 – Sermon”