Texts: Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36 Every year around this time, you and I hike the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and his friends. We do not linger long on the mountain before we head down into the long, tangled mess we call the season of Lent. Centuries before Jesus hiked the mountain, another mountain climber paved the way. In the text from Exodus today, Moses is on his second trip up the mountain, this time to get from God a non-breakable set of the Ten Commandment

Text: Luke 2:22-35 In the blink of an eye, oily ashes will adorn our foreheads and the Lenten journey will begin again. As I approach Lent each year, memories revisit and often they are ones I’d rather forget. One such Lenten memory occurred in what the church dares to call “Ordinary Time.” It was a gorgeous Fall day in 2001 when I was pastor of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Old Town, Alexandria. I was walking onto the church grounds when I was met with the frantic a

I Corinthians 13 The air was electric. Feelings were running high. Anger was not politely disguised. Words were spoken that should never have been uttered, much less thought. You could almost smell the stinking odor of schism in the air. Some declared that they would only listen to Cephas. Some said that their allegiance was only to Apollos. Some insisted that the only leader they would follow was Paul. It is to this fired-up, contentious Corinthian community that the Apostle

Text: Isaiah 62:1-5 Lots of us grow up with nicknames, given to us for a host of reasons. Did you have a nickname growing up? I certainly did, but that’s for another sermon. What if you had grown up with the nickname – Forsaken? What if from your earliest age you were reminded day after day that you were numbered among the Forsaken? What if you were sure since childhood that God cares about many, many people, but as for you, you are God-Forsaken? Over many years standing in m