Category Archives: Sermons

Whatever happened to the bird? Have you ever noticed, in the photo that has long served as the church’s unofficial logo, that there’s a bird sitting on the cross? When I snapped the shutter from the window of my son Ryan’s second-floor bedroom, I really didn’t see the bird perched there. The mere sight ofContinue reading “The Last Word”

Someone once posed an intriguing question to the Presbyterian preacher and writer Eugene Peterson: What he would say if he were writing what he knew to be his very last sermon? Mr. Peterson responded – “I think I would want to talk about things that are immediate and ordinary. In the kind of world we liveContinue reading “Back to Basics”

For a bunch of professional fishermen – well accustomed to being out on the water, presumably in all kinds of weather, the Lord’s apostles sure spend a lot of time panicking over stormy seas. The only non-anxious presence in these choppy, gale-force Gospel circumstances is always Jesus, the landlubbing carpenter. Thus comes this morning’s ScriptureContinue reading “Be at Peace, Simply Be”

Here’s an understatement: Moses did not have an easy job. The Old Testament prophet led God’s people from slavery in Egypt, guiding perhaps two million of them to freedom through the parted waters of the Red Sea, then endured 40 years trying to corral the rebellious and stiff-necked bunch on a meandering trek through theContinue reading “Never Alone, Never Forgotten”

Get thee gone! That striking command is the first word that the Lord offers in this morning’s Scripture lesson: Go, leave! Hit the road, Jack! How harsh and jarring that must have sounded to its intended audience, the elderly Abram and his equally mature wife, Sarai. Why would they want to go anywhere? Abram andContinue reading “Called to New Places”

Of the many images that capture the poignancy of my ministry in Waukon is this photo taken on the south lawn of Oakland Cemetery. That’s me and my friend Chrissy Good from Martin funeral home leading the procession that carried the body of longtime member Brad Krambeer to its place of earthly rest until theContinue reading “A Firm Foundation”

Over a simple evening meal at a Dubuque-area monastery, a small group of seasoned pastors compared notes on the current state of Christ’s Church. Surely among the sharing were joys and blessings of Spirit-inspired ministry happening in each of our respective congregations. But so also shared were myriad concerns over the changing nature of congregationalContinue reading “In the Sign of the Cross”

The old photograph bears a simple label: “Scene at Waukon.” So it’s unlikely that the photographer specifically intended to capture First Presbyterian Church. Nevertheless he (or she) froze a long-ago moment in time here in our neighborhood. The date was November 9, 1913. Earlier that year, Woodrow Wilson – a lifelong Presbyterian – was inauguratedContinue reading “Remember When, Remember Now”