Sermons
Each week, we post Sunday’s sermon by Rev. Eric Anderson. If you can’t join us on Sunday morning, try following #3tweetsermon on Twitter.
Sermon: Like a Dove
January 13, 2019First Sunday after the Epiphany Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 You know that I like birds. I should tell you, however, that I’m fairly realistic about birds, or at least I try to be. I don’t expect them to cooperate with me when I’m trying to take their pictures, and I don’t expect them to…
Sermon: For a Guiding Star
January 6, 2019Epiphany Matthew 2:1-12 Early in the morning, my best friend is the snooze button on the alarm. I’m one of those people who sets the alarm an hour ahead of the time I actually have to be up and moving. I just prefer that more gradual transition from sleep to activity. That sounds…
Sermon: And Yet We Learn
December 30, 2018First Sunday of Christmas Luke 2:41-52 They spent three days looking for him after discovering that Jesus wasn’t with their traveling group, wasn’t with one of the aunties heading back to Nazareth with them. They spent three days, and finally found him in the Temple. His relieved mother asked, “Child, why have you…
Christmas Eve Meditation 2018
December 24, 2018Christmas EveLuke 2:1-20 I’m not sure when I realized that trying to tell people how to feel doesn’t work very well. I knew that it rarely worked on me. If I was sad, having somebody else tell me that I was supposed to feel happy about… whatever it was… didn’t change my sadness.…
Sermon: Wells of Salvation
December 16, 2018 Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 12:2-6 Luke 3:7-18 I’ve been conducting an unscientific survey this week, and I’d like you to participate, if you would. How many of you think that I should begin all my sermons with, “You brood of vipers”? Anyone? As Kathy Beach-Verhey writes (in Feasting on the Word,…
Sermon: Guide My Feet
December 9, 2018Second Sunday of AdventLuke 1:68-79 In 1986, the cartoonist Bill Watterson drew his comic heroes Calvin, a little boy with a vivid imagination, and Hobbes, Calvin’s imaginary friend based on his stuffed tiger, wearing soldiers’ helmets and carrying dart guns. Hobbes, the tiger, asked Calvin with some puzzlement, “How come we play war…
Sermon: Changes Are A-Coming
December 2, 2018 First Sunday of Advent Jeremiah 33:14-16 Luke 21:25-36 Pity Jeremiah. All he wanted to do was worship in the temple one day, and he found himself appointed a “prophet to the nations.” He thought he was too young, but God didn’t. He probably anticipated that he’d spend his career echoing the reforming…
Sermon: To Testify to the Truth
November 25, 2018 Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost Reign of Christ Sunday 2 Samuel 23:1-7 John 18:33-37 I take comfort in the mystery novel. It has a pleasant predictability – not that I can predict whodunnit, no. What’s predictable is that whodunnit will be exposed. The criminal will be caught. Justice will be served. Truth will…
Sermon: Thanks Be to God
November 18, 2018 Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost 1 Samuel 2:1-10 Thanksgiving in the Anderson family is a Big Deal. For some years, most of those in my parents’ and my generations lived more or less in the same region, within an area not a lot bigger than Hawai’i Island. If the drive was longer than…
Sermon: Two Coins on the Pledge Card
November 11, 2018 Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost Mark 12:38-44 It’s curious. Back to back here, we find Jesus saying startling things. First, he criticizes the scribes. We’ve gotten used, over the last few centuries, to reading about Jesus saying harsh things about the religious leadership of his day. I’m sure others said similar things in…
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