Listen to the sermon from Sunday, October 30, 2016 titled “You’re Out of Your Tree” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. Today I’m remembering a tree on the back of my grandparent’s property in Purdy, Missouri, we visited twice a year when I was a boy. This massive tree was my safe place. I could […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, October 16, 2016 titled “Core Narrative” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. “Those are just words” I heard a public figure this week say of degrading comments he had made about a woman. “Just words.” As if words don’t matter. As if words themselves were not a form […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, October 2, 2016 titled “In God We Trust?” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. You know the old Chinese curse? “May you live in interesting times!” And though I’m not sure there have ever been any times that weren’t, our moment feels like a crisis, doesn’t it? What’s going […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, September 25, 2016 titled “Preparing for Finals” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. I know it’s still September. The semester just started. Why bring up finals already? I hate to be a buzzkill, but finals have a way of sneaking up on you. They will be here sooner than […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, September 18, 2016 titled “Mammon,True Riches, and Thoughts About a Shrewd Manager” by Rev. Stephanie Cooper. The true riches of God are found in this: friends, family, relationships, and being people of the light. The currency of true riches is not comparable to the currency of mammon. A few […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, September 11, 2016 titled “All in One” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. Back in my seminary days I signed up for a clinical trial of a new blood pressure medication sponsored by Squibb Pharmaceuticals in Princeton. They paid $600 for me to stay in a clinic over a long […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, September 4, 2016 titled “Something Greater Than You” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. Almost every church I know bends over backwards to make following Jesus easy. Nothing is expected. Nothing is required. “Come as you are,” we say. Would could be stranger to our ears than this invitation […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, August 28, 2016 titled “Where’s the Lord?” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet” because of his self-reflective laments anticipating modern psychotherapy. But in our passage today, it is God who is whining and weeping. “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, August 14, 2016 titled “Finding the Faith to Finish” by Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune. When my brothers and I were clearing out my parent’s home, we came across a stack of family albums and a shoebox crammed with old black and white pictures. Not a selfie in the […]
Listen to the sermon from Sunday, August 7, 2016 titled “Habits” by Rev. Stephanie Cooper. Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Excellence is not a single act, but a habit that we create. And some habits are fairly to get into. Making […]