Sermons – Page 7 – Where the Wind…

The Unbroken Circle

Published on September 23, 2024October 14, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, September 22, 2024 || Proper 20B || Mark 9:30-37

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Imagine with me the memories of the Apostle Peter, near the end of his life, thinking back to that day in Capernaum that is described in our Gospel reading this morning.

We didn’t think Jesus could hear us on the road. He was lagging behind us, chatting with people who had come in from the countryside to see him. Only Philip, his self-appointed bodyguard, had hung back with Jesus. The rest of us were hungry and eager to get to my house, where they knew my mother-in-law would put out a fabulous spread. But for the moment, our hunger and exhaustion had gotten the better of us, and a stupid argument broke out. We argued about which one of us was the greatest of Jesus’ disciples. I thought I had a pretty good claim on the title, given that I was always by Jesus’ side, but so were the sons of Zebedee. Others thought it might be Thomas for his devotion or James the Zealot for his zeal. Bartholomew, ever the jokester, voted for Jesus’ shadow because it followed him everywhere.

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Our Identities

Published on September 16, 2024October 7, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, September 15, 2024 || Proper 19B || Mark 8:27-38

The first novella, “Arrow Ten,” is finished! You can read or listen to the whole thing by clicking here.

In the age of the internet, identity theft is a prominent danger. Answering silly quizzes on Facebook, clicking innocuous links in emails, downloading attachments, falling victim to a data breach – all of these are ways that scammers can steal our identities, impersonate us to open credit cards, or empty our bank accounts. My identity was stolen once, years ago, and I had to assure my bank that I was definitely not renting limousines in Texas. We spend a lot of time, money, and worry protecting our identities, but I wonder how often we think about what our identities actually consist of. What are the most important facets of our identities, and how do they change over time? And how does “follower of Jesus” fit into the picture of our identities? That’s what we’re going to explore for the next ten minutes.

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Openness

Published on September 9, 2024September 30, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, September 8, 2024 || Proper 18B || Mark 7:24-37

I was in my twenties before I consciously decided to open myself up to trying new foods without any of my previous suspicion. I was a notoriously picky eater as a kid, and one of the supreme ironies of my life has been the advent of digestive health issues happening at the same time that I started wanting to try new foods. It all began at my first church in West Virginia when I realized that I loved every kind of soup. Shirley Schwork was a master soup maker, and I liked everything she made for a monthly soup and sandwich group, no matter if the individual ingredients included foods I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole – like squash and zucchini and spinach. If they tasted good in soup, it stood to reason, then maybe other foods I had never given a proper chance might taste good too.

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Breathe in the Holy Spirit

Published on September 2, 2024September 23, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, September 1, 2024 || Proper 17B || Mark 7:1-23

Today we’re going to spend the bulk of the sermon breathing through a guided meditation. We’re going to invite the Holy Spirit in through our inhalations; then, with our exhalations, we will breathe out into the world the values of a life lived following Jesus. But before we get to the meditation part, just a little background.

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This Teaching is Difficult

Published on August 26, 2024September 16, 2024 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

Sermon for Sunday, August 25, 2024 || Proper 16B || John 6:56-69

At one time or another we’ve all edited our bibles. We’ve decided – consciously or unconsciously – that something in the bible doesn’t fit our worldview and so we skip it. Our pre-selected readings on Sunday morning do this pretty often, leaving out verses that make us squeamish. Our third president, Thomas Jefferson, went so far as to cut – literally cut – passages out of his bible, mostly Jesus’ miracles, because they didn’t jibe with his deistic thinking. Narrowing down our focus to Jesus’ words alone, there are still plenty of things we’d really rather skip. Today, I’d like to talk about what we do when we find ourselves skipping over some of Jesus’ words.

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Bios and Zoe

Published on August 19, 2024September 9, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, August 18, 2024 || Proper 15B || John 6:51-58

What does it mean to be alive? The biological definition is fairly simple: to be alive means that the processes which keep our bodies functional are working. Our hearts pump blood, our lungs exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen, our digestive organs turn food into nutrients and waste, and our brains keep all these systems running. In this way, we are alive like amoebas are alive, just at a more complex scale.

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God’s Divine “And”

Published on August 12, 2024September 2, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Sermon for Sunday, August 11, 2024 || Proper 14B || 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

I was worried Tuesday morning when I sat down to write this sermon that I would have forgotten how to do it, since I preached my last one all the way back on April 14th. Thankfully, my shower thoughts saved me as I reflected on the story of David and Absalom. And I realized that God was inviting me today to talk about the danger of binary thinking. So this morning let’s talk about the grace inherent in the fact that two things can be true at the same time.

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Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2023: The Funeral Homily

Published on August 5, 2024August 27, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2023, my church was in the midst of an unprecedented number of deaths and funerals in the parish. This sermon was a response to that reality and is now one of the most often viewed posts on this website.

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Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2022: Maranatha Meditation

Published on July 29, 2024August 19, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2022, the world was hurting in so many ways, so I wrote this musical meditation in response.

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Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2021: The Rainbow

Published on July 22, 2024August 11, 2024 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2021, nearly a year into the pandemic building closure I wrote this sermon about Noah’s ark.

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