Sermon Transcripts

May 18, 2025 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter Rev. Beckie Sweet   A young woman stood in my office doorway, looking embarrassed.  I hadn’t seen her in nearly a year.  As I looked up her records from the last time she had come to ask for help, I hoped I had made some notes about her story that would jog my memory.  When I found her papers in my Emergency Assistance file, my heart sank. A few months after I had begun my appointment to...

May 4, 2025 ~ Third Sunday of Easter Rev. Beckie Sweet   It happened sometime after the first Easter.  No one knows exactly when, but long enough after that first Easter for the disciples to have left Jerusalem and made the 75 mile trek back to Galilee.  Galilee was home for them.  It was the place where everything had begun for them, which made it the natural place for them to return once it seemed that everything had come to an...

April 27, 2025 ~ Second Sunday of Easter Rev. Beckie Sweet   Think back with me for a moment to that first Holy Week.  What a week it had been for the disciples.  Everything happened so fast!  One moment the crowd welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna!” palm branches, and a hero’s welcome.  And then suddenly, a couple of days later, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, shared a mysterious meal with them, and...

April 20, 2025 ~ EASTER Drink from the Fountain of Grace ~ Rev. Beckie Sweet   As an older child, I came to appreciate the “contemporary” music of Richard Avery and Donald Marsh (Avery & Marsh).  One of the songs I loved to sing went like this: Every morning is Easter morning from now on. Every day’s resurrection day, the past is over and gone. Goodbye guilt, goodbye fear, good riddance! Hello Lord, Hello sun! I am one of the...

April 13, 2025 ~ Palm Sunday Drink from the Fountain of Grace ~ Rev. Beckie Sweet   The concert impresario, Sol Hurok, liked to say that Marian Anderson hadn’t simply grown great, she had grown great simply.  He says: “A few years ago a reporter interviewed Marian and asked her to name the greatest moment in her life.  I was in her dressing room at the time and was curious to hear the answer.  I knew she had many big moments to...

April 6, 2025 ~ Fifth Sunday in Lent Rev. Beckie Sweet ~ Drink from the Fountain of Grace   During this season of Lent, our worship services have centered around the theme “Drink from the Fountain of Grace” with each service focusing on the image of a CUP from which we would draw that drink.  We started on Ash Wednesday with the Cup of Fasting, and then proceeded with the Broken Cup, the Cup of Living Water, the Cup You Choose,...