You can listen to the audio of this sermon here. 

Peace! Be Still!
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost — June 24, 2018

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

This past week was KIDZ Camp at Reveille, a ministry that provides elementary-age children with different daily, local mission opportunities as well as opportunities to learn and grow in the faith. Each year, I am given the opportunity to spend time with groups of these children in twenty minute segments for an activity called “Wesleyan Ways,” something I use as an opportunity to help the young people process the missions work they did earlier in the day in a distinctly Methodist context using the life and ministry of John Wesley as a backdrop.

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You can listen to the sermon here. The full text is below.
Second Sunday After Pentecost — June 3, 2018 – Mark 2:23-3:6

 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 

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If there is one subject in this world about which I know almost nothing, it is auto racing. So imagine my surprise when last Sunday, between morning worship and an afternoon funeral, I found myself immersed in an article about the Indianapolis 500.

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