Author Archives: revfenn

Text: Mark 9:14-29 Gospel for Proper 19, Series B In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction Many of us have grown up watching movies and TV shows made by Walt Disney. Disney productions try to be somewhat inspirational. One of their big themes is “faith”. Quite often this comes in the form of “believe inContinue reading “Sermon: When Faith Fails”

Text: Isaiah 35:4–7a Old Testament Lesson for Proper 18, Series B In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction How many of you like football? Imagine a game of football where no one was playing by the rules. It would be chaotic. That’s why in football, there are penalties for breaking the rules. The same isContinue reading “Sermon: Recompense – Christ Gets What’s Coming to You”

Text: John 6:51-69 Gospel for Proper 15, Series B In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction Have you noticed that our society is obsessed with scandals? The news, social media, and tabloids love to serve up stories about leaders, major athletes, or heroes who have fallen. But imagine for a moment, if you were toContinue reading “Sermon: The Scandal of Jesus’ Flesh”

Text: Amos 7 LXX Old Testament Reading for Prop. 10B In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction The Israelites were better off than they had ever been before. World events had propelled the northern kingdom of Israel to heights of power. The Assyrian Empire, which was the dominant world power, had a series of ineffectualContinue reading “Sermon: When God Says, “Never Again…””

Text: Luke 1:39-45 Gospel for the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (obs.) In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction Do you like having visitors to your home? Some visitors are rather intrusive. They’re like your relatives at Christmas who remind you of Proverbs 25:17, “Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, otherwiseContinue reading “Sermon: The Blessing of the Visitation”

Text: Mark 3:20-35 Gospel Lesson for Proper 5, Series B In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction How’d they do that? Have you ever seen a feat of architecture and wondered that? Maybe it was one of those majestic Medieval Cathedrals. Or perhaps it’s the pyramids. Think about the pyramids: architects in the twenty-first centuryContinue reading “Sermon: Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?”

Text: 1 John 1:1-2:2 Epistle for the Second Sunday of Easter, Series B In the name of Jesus. Amen. What is it about meeting someone famous that makes people act like they’re winning the lottery? Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who was boasting about meeting someone famous? Maybe they had aContinue reading “Sermon: Jesus Christ – The Word of Life”

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 17-22. Epistle for Easter In the name of Jesus. Amen. Today is Easter Sunday, the Sunday of the Resurrection. This is the day when we, together with all Christians, proclaim to one another and to the world that Jesus Christ who was crucified for the sin of the world rose bodilyContinue reading “Sermon: In FACT Christ Has Been Raised…”

Text: John 13:1-17, 31-35. Gospel for Holy Thursday In the name of Jesus. Amen. Introduction What’s the dirtiest and grossest job you’ve ever had to do? Washing someone else’s dirty feet must be right up there. The reading from St. John’s Gospel is a bit odd to us because we don’t usually wash other people’s feet. In the ancient world, people wore sandals as they walkedContinue reading “Sermon: The Lord Washes Us”