SERMONS

We've listed links below to text of recent sermons from Pastor Amy.

If You Are Willing

Images of Jesus usually show him with little or no expression on his face. Yet the Bible tells us stories in which Jesus is having strong feelings. When Lazarus died and Jesus saw the grief of Lazarus’ sisters and friends, he wept (Jn 11:35). And when Jesus came to Jerusalem and saw that there were people selling and buying in the temple, he overturned tables and wouldn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple (Mk 11:15-16). When Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that he, Jesus, would undergo great suffering and be rejected and killed, Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan” (Mk 8:33)! Jesus was a man on a mission from God, a mission to make the kingdom of God present, a mission about which he was passionate, and he had strong feelings as he went about Read More...

Restored and Restoring

The scripture passages read today share good news with us. Here is the good news that each shares.

Isaiah 40:21-31

The Isaiah passage reports that, “[The Lord] gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (40:28b-31).

Psalm 147

Psalm 147 proclaims that our God is gracious. He gathers the outcasts. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He lifts up the Read More...

God Is Both Lord and Love

While I was in seminary, I took a course called Systematic Theology. Systematic theology is theology that is clearly defined and cohesive. The different parts of the theology fit together, like a puzzle. So, a particular person’s theology of God fits with her theology of Jesus, which fits with her theology of the Holy Spirit, which fits with her theology of Creation, which fits with her theology of Evil, which fits with her theology of Salvation, and so on. One of the books we had to read during the course was, Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief, written by Christopher Morse, who is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Theology and Read more...

I’d like to set the stage for the gospel reading for you: John the baptizer has appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People have responded and he has baptized them in the Jordan River. John has proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus has come from Nazareth of Galilee and been baptized by John. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And then he heard a voice from heaven say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit then drove him into the wilderness for forty days, where he was tempted by Satan, accompanied by wild beasts, and waited on by angels. After all of this, Read More...

Responding to God’s Call

Wonderfully Made

We all have biological mothers and fathers, but our true creator is God. Psalm 139:13-16 tells us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Each person that walks the Earth is a child of God, which is why we can proclaim that each person that walks the Earth is due the love and respect we would give a child of God. Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me” (Mt 25:40). ). It is a sobering reality Read More...

My 2023 Stargift Journey with Harmony

The Stargift I received in 2023 is harmony. Of course, the first thing I thought when I saw the word is harmony when singing. I grew up in a musical home. My dad played the guitar by ear and both my parents sang. My Uncle Joe played the piano by ear. And my maternal grandmother attended Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY, for piano (where Connie MacMillan also went to college). A tradition for our extended family was to have sing-a-longs, with my father playing the guitar, my Uncle Joe playing the piano, my Uncle Pete playing the gut bucket, and all of us singing popular songs from the early to mid-20th century, like “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.” My family, my mother’s siblings and their families, and my maternal grandmother would vacation together for a few weeks every summer at the house at Oak Point that has been in our family since the early 1920s. There were a lot of people in the house at one time! In addition to the Read More....