St. Paul & St. Andrew's Sermon and Prayercast

"Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy..." - Exodus 20:8 Happy Labor Day Weekend! Most of the Ten Commandments are phrased negatively: "Thou shall not." The 4th Commandment, to rest on the sabbath, is phrased positively, "Remember the sabbath, and keep it holy." Work on other days, but on the sabbath, take a day off and rest. To understand how radical this command to rest might have sounded to the ancient Israelites, remember that they have just been led out of slavery in Egypt. Durin...

“Moses…led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.” — Exodus 3:1 As I prepare to leave St. Paul & St. Andrew and begin what feels like a wilderness journey, I keep coming back to the first line of this week’s lectionary text from Exodus. The text tells the familiar story of Moses’ encounter with the burning bush. I’ve always imagined this story as happening in the wilderness. Moses is tending his father-in-law’s flock, after all. And yet the first l...

Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” - Matthew 16:15 The question that Jesus asks his disciples one day at Caesarea Philippi is something we who follow Jesus still ask ourselves. Who is Jesus for us, and who is Jesus to us? How we grapple with that question says a lot about the sort of Christian we are trying to be. Actually, Jesus' question "Who do you say that I am?" may lead to the more existential question: Who do you say that you are? We live at a moment in time when 'Ch...

She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." - Matthew 15:27 Matthew's retelling of the story of the Samaritan woman is my favorite in the Bible. What is so special about it is that we get to see Jesus in his imperfection. Even Jesus gets tripped up by the boundaries of ethnic difference and responds to this Samaritan woman unkindly. But it is the Samaritan woman's audacious persistence that wins Jesus over, reminding him that God's grace is a ...

Dear Friends, Fear is a near-constant companion with us these days, isn't it? Some of the fear we carry is deeply personal. Some of it comes from what is happening in our city, our country, and our world. Some fears are immediate and specific; others hum quietly in the background. But fear has a way of doing more than making us afraid. It can shape what we notice and what we imagine is possible, even dictate the choices we make. So what do we do with our fear? Can we acknowledge it without ...