Psalm 27: 1-14 (links validated 1/29/24)

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Resources from 2022 and 2023

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  • Trust in God as We Wait

    by Peter Bankson
  • Lent 2C (2022)

    by Jason Buckwalter
  • Epiphany 3A (2023)

    by Jerome Creach
  • Epiphany 3A (2023)

    by Brad Everett
  • Epiphany 3A (2023)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Sermon Starters (Epiphany 3A)(2023)

    by Scott Hoezee
    I cannot help but be struck by something of late. The Revised Common Lectionary is, of course, on a 3-year cycle, meaning the last time we were in Year A was in 2020. Psalm 27 that year was assigned for Sunday January 26, 2020, and so I wrote the most recent version of this commentary the last full week of January. By then we had all heard whispers and rumors of a place in China called Wuhan. We’d heard something about SARS-CoV2 and started to hear a couple words most of us were having trouble remembering or pronouncing: coronavirus, COVID-19. (When I typed this just now, the spellchecker did not flag those words. I doubt they were in my dictionary in 2020.) Still, we continued on with life as usual three years ago. We held our annual Symposium on Worship on the Calvin campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan, starting on January 30. We welcomed our usual 1,500 participants. Few of us who gathered that week had ever much seen anyone wearing a medical facemask in public and we had no idea that in about 5 or 6 weeks’ time, we would see the end of such public gatherings of people for a very long time. We had only the dimmest of intimations—and maybe not even that much—that our world was about to be turned upside down with consequences that would reverberate for years. So far, nothing has ever quite been the same since...
  • Sermon Starters (Lent 2C)(2022)

    by Scott Hoezee
    Trust is the word you employ when you are sure about something yet without necessarily having it nailed down as a piece of knowledge. By way of an analogy once used by Richard Mouw: let’s say someone comes to you and claims to have seen your son smoking marijuana this past Friday night. But suppose that in reply to this accusation you can say, “That’s not true because last Friday night, my son and I were at a baseball game together and we were together the whole evening.” If you could say that, then you would not need to trust that your son didn’t do such a thing–you’d know it. But what if your son really had been out of your sight that Friday evening? In that case you’d have to go and ask him about it. If he swears that this is not true, and if you have good reason to believe that your son is not a liar, then you will trust him. You’ll go back to the accuser and say, “My son denies it, and I trust him.” But you won’t finally know. And, alas, we’ve all invested our trust in people who did turn out to be lying to us. So with the psalmist we do trust our great God...
  • Naming Our Fears

    by Jennifer Moland-Kovash
  • Lent 2C (2022)

    by Beth Tanner
  • Epiphany 3A

    by Howard Wallace
  • Lent 2C

    by Howard Wallace

Resources from 2019 to 2021

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  • Whom Shall I Fear?

    Video with Eric Anderson
  • Lent 2C (2019)

    by Amanda Benckhuysen
  • The Source of Comfort That Is Always With Us

    by Craig Condon
    In her bestselling book “The Hiding Place,” Corrie ten Boom tells of the tense times in the Netherlands during the Nazi invasion. One night when there was bombing and shelling happening all around the house where she and her sister lived, Corrie couldn’t sleep. Hearing her sister in the kitchen, she decided to go down and join her. Long into the night after all the bombing ceased and all was silent, Corrie returned to her bed only to find that her pillow-right where her head laid-had been pierced with a sizeable piece of sharp metal shrapnel from an exploding bomb! Going downstairs to the kitchen saved her life! She rushed to tell her sister saying, “Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen…” To this her saintly sister interrupted, “Don’t say it, Corrie. There are no ifs in God’s world. The centre of His will is our safety.” Later, when she was going through terrible trying times in a Nazi prison, Corrie ten Boom was to learn over and over this marvelous truth: “God’s will is our hiding place.”...
  • Whom Shall I Fear?

    by Bob Cornwall
    In The Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown is feeling depressed. He’s not sure why, but he knows something is wrong. So, he pays a visit to Lucy’s psychiatrist booth. After he gives her his nickle, Lucy asks Charlie Brown what’s bothering him. She names a series of phobias to see what he might be afraid of. These phobias range from the fear of cats to the fear of climbing stairs. When, she gets to “pantophobia,” she leans across the counter and asks Charlie Brown: “Do you have pantophobia?” He asks her for a definition. She tells him that “pantophobia” is the “fear of everything.” “That’s it!” he shouts so strongly and loudly that he knocks her right out of the booth. So, do you have pantophobia?...
  • Epiphany 3A (2020)

    by Jerome Creach
  • Lent 2C (2019)

    by James Edlin
  • Nada Te Turbe (2020)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Reflecting on Rhetoric

    by Caralie Focht
  • Lent 2C (2019)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Sermon Starters (Epiphany 3A)(2020)

    by Scott Hoezee
    Trust is the word you employ when you are sure about something yet without necessarily having it nailed down as a piece of knowledge. By way of an analogy once used by Richard Mouw: let’s say someone comes to you and claims to have seen your son smoking marijuana this past Friday night. But suppose that in reply to this accusation you can say, “That’s not true because last Friday night, my son and I were at a Whitecaps game together and we were together the whole evening.” If you could say that, then you would not need to trust that your son didn’t do such a thing–you’d know it. But what if your son really had been out of your sight that Friday evening? In that case you’d have to go and ask him about it. If he swears that this is not true, and if you have good reason to believe that your son is not a liar, then you will trust him. You’ll go back to the accuser and say, “My son denies it, and I trust him.” But you won’t finally know, will you? And, alas, we’ve all invested our trust in people who did turn out to be lying to us. Trust can be a difficult posture to maintain. But in so much of life and in the life of faith, it is what we have to go on.
  • Sermon Starters (Lent 2C)(2019)

    by Scott Hoezee
    By way of an analogy once used by Richard Mouw: let’s say someone comes to you and claims to have seen your son smoking marijuana this past Friday night. But suppose that in reply to this accusation you can say, “That’s not true because last Friday night, my son and I were at a baseball game together and we were together the whole evening.” If you could say that, then you would not need to trust that your son didn’t do such a thing–you’d know it. But what if your son really had been out of your sight that Friday evening? In that case you’d have to go and ask him about it. If he swears that this is not true, and if you have good reason to believe that your son is not a liar, then you will trust him. You’ll go back to the accuser and say, “My son denies it, and I trust him.” But you won’t finally know. And, alas, we’ve all invested our trust in people who did turn out to be lying to us. So with the psalmist we do trust our great God...
  • Epiphany 3A (2020)

    by Libby Tedder Hugus
  • Narrative Podcast (Proper 8)(2019)

    with Rolf Jacobson, Craig R. Koester and Kathryn M. Schifferdecker
  • Mourning with Those Who Mourn

    by Fay Rowland
    Scroll down the page for this reflection.

Resources from 2016 to 2018

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Resources from 2013 to 2015

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Resources from the Archives

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Children's Resources

Currently Unavailable

  • Trust in the Lord

    by James Pitts
    While we were vacationing in Sarasota, Florida, a friend encouraged us to visit her mother. Upon arriving at her residence on the causeway leading to Saint Armands Circle and Lido Key, we were surprised to see that she lived in a high-rise condominium tower. We rang her up and soon the elevator whisked us up to a top floor penthouse. After casual conversation about her days and family back in Greenville, she asked if we would like to go out on the balcony to see the view. It was sunset. Looking east we could see the city of Sarasota, To the west was Saint Armands’ Circle, famous for its gourmet dining and boutique shopping. In the glow of the setting sun were the Lido Key’s sweeping beaches along the Gulf. Before us Sarasota Bay glistened in the twilight. It was a glorious and spectacular scene. With a twinkle in her eye and smile on her face, she asked, “Do you know what they call this place?” I responded, “Yes, Plymouth Harbor!” “Well that’s true,” my elderly hostess said, “however most folks here call it God’s waiting room!” In her own affluent way and with humor, she underscored her advancing years and comfortably affirmed that she was living in the twilight zone and waiting on the Lord. Together we laughed and acknowledged our shared mortality and finitude. The Psalmist exclaimed . . . Wait for the Lord. And waiting for the Lord is something very important to do...