Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, January 31st, 2021 Nicknames can be endearing, such as when a lover whispers gently “My Dear” to her beloved. Nicknames can also be defining. In my youth, if anyone mentioned “the King,” everyone immediately saw a vision of a rocking, twisting star from Memphis. Nicknames can also be demeaning. As a child, I was quite overweight, so on any given day, I’d hear at least fifty times in the hallways and neighborhood, “Hey, Rotund One.” Classificati

Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, January 24th, 2021 Do you ever finish a book or watch a movie and scratch your head when it is over, and ask: “How can the story end like that?” Or, maybe your reaction is a bit more visceral, as you toss the book or remote and shout, “No, you can’t end the story like that.” Well, one reason I almost never preach on Jonah is that I hate the ending. Jonah is a short story with a lot of action. Early on, Jonah is called by God to preach to the ev

Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, January 17th, 2021 Two phrases from these texts stick in my mind. The first is from I Samuel, when we are told that it was a time when “visions were rare.” The second are three words from John’s Gospel: “Come and see.” In the horror of the storming the Capitol on January 6, I almost lost sight that January 6 was the feast of the Epiphany, the beginning of the season of Epiphany. Maybe I lost sight of Epiphany because of all the Covid and politi

I cannot read Scripture and preach today until I speak to the deadly violence set loose in our Nation’s Capitol this week. It has been a shameful week in our country’s history and anyone with ears to listen and eyes to read social media tweets has seen this train wreck of violence coming. My prayer is that finally, finally, this is the week that we regain our moral voice not to pretend that we all basically agree on most social and political matters, because we do not. I pray

Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, January 3rd, 2021 On this 10th day of Christmas, listen to this reading from John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpowe