Category: sermons

Sermon 2/12/2023

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Sunday’s conclusion to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:1-14, 24-29) is jam-packed with verses that are so familiar to many of us, that we can finish many of these phrases on our own.

  • Do not judge…
  • Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye…
  • Do not give what is holy to dogs…
  • Ask, and it will be given you…
  • In everything do to others…
  • Enter through the narrow gate…

We will conclude our sermon time with a story that Matthew slips in on us that can be considered one of Jesus’ first parables in the gospel: the wise man who built his house on a rock. Jesus gives us abundant nuggets of wisdom to chew upon here, the question Matthew wants us to really ponder is, will we come to table and eat? Will we follow Jesus’ advice? Will we rise above our own human limitations and serve God in such a way that builds the Kingdom on earth? Will we listen and act accordingly, as God calls us?

Sermon 1/22/2023

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

What a beautiful Baptism experience Jesus had. A dove descended from heaven and landed upon him and God spoke words of favor and blessing… and then…

Jesus is barely dry before Matthew’s gospel places him in the wilderness, where for 40 days of fasting only to be tempted by the devil in his most vulnerable moment. The Spirit lead him them there, and almost as if on purpose. Matthew 4:1-11 is intense, as Jesus is hungry from fasting and the devil is relentless in pursuit of getting Jesus to cave to the temptation.

Jesus endures and all the while proclaims commitment to God with words of instruction for the reader to take to heart. He is tempted by bread for his hunger, safety from danger, and offered all the power he could ever want.

In her essay in Feasting of the Word, Maryetta Anschutz said of Jesus temptation, “Each time Jesus rejects temptation, he sets up for the reader a way to understand the cross to come. Certainly God can save God’s self from death on the cross, and certainly God in Jesus can refuse temptation to sin, but in our humanity we need to see God offer sacrifice and refuse temptation in order to learn the lesson ourselves.”

In this we wrestled deeper with the Church’s ability to learn this lesson of trusting God and ourselves to endure the temptations of the world we face.

Sermon 1/15/2023

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Listen to Rev. Trish Winters’ sermon, “John the Baptist, Jesus Baptized.”

We walk into the waters of baptism with Jesus and John the Baptist from Matthew 3:1-17. We stand in dismay like John pondering our worthiness to proclaim the amazing presence of our God. We pick up that mantle once more and go forth into the great darkness bringing the light of love.

We are called to bear the light because this story of Jesus’ baptism ordains it. The dove marks him as holy. Everything John preached and proclaimed of the one who is to come that baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire has come into fruition in this story.

And so, for us, those who believe and who have walked through our own waters of baptism, we find our voice. This Sunday we will renewed once more our baptismal vow and claimed our role of sharing the good news of God among us.