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Where's the Grace in That?

Where's the Grace in That?

Text: Luke 6:27-38; Genesis 45:3-11, 15 I have spent far too many hours in graveyards. As a pastor, there is not much choice. Sometimes after a burial, I will walk about in the quiet beauty of a cemetery gazing at headstones. It is fascinating to look at the epithets carved on gravestones. Some carve simply a name, a birth date and a date of death. Some carve a favorite saying or a line from a poem or a preferred biblical verse. Some carve out a few words that describe how th

How to End a Sermon

How to End a Sermon

Texts: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Luke 6:17-26 Marguerite Johnson was a St. Louis native, a Pulitzer Prize nominated poet, and a woman known to most of us as Maya Angelou. A poem of hers that has haunted me for years, and especially over the past few weeks in Virginia politics, is called: “My Guilt.” My Guilt My guilt is “slavery’s chains,” too long the clang of iron falls down the years. This brother’s sold, this sister’s gone, is bitter wax, lining my ears. My guilt made music with

A Fish Story

A Fish Story

Text: Luke 5:1-11 He had had it with life, with people, and especially with preachers. He wanted to talk and for me to listen. Just listen. He did not want to hear another word from me and when I started to speak, he cut me off mid sentence and said, “Gary, save your preacher talk for someone else!” God, how I hate it when people assume they know what I am thinking and what I will say just because I am a “preacher.” What is “preacher talk” anyway? Well, this man did not leav

I'd Rather Not

I'd Rather Not

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10 Pastors and Seminary students are often asked to share their call to ministry story. Believing that God has laid a claim on all our lives, I like to turn the question around. When asked to share my call story, I usually say, “I will be happy to do so, but first, tell me about your call story.” Most often, the response I get sounds often something like this: “Who me? I could never be a “minister/a church musician/a youth pastor/a Seminary professor’.” “Y