Rev. Timothy J. Ensworth
Via pulchritudinis (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 5:1-9
February 2, 2014
What do these seven things have in common?
1) Sue holds up Diane’s photograph on the cover of this Sunday’s bulletin.
2) The chancel choir sings the refrain of “Blest Are They.”
3) Sophia and Grace come to the front of the sanctuary and hug each other.… Continue reading ...
Sticks and stones (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 5:21-24
February 16, 2014
ῥακά …
You good-for-nothing, empty-headed, piece of …
μωρέ …
You worthless fool. You stupid idiot.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words …” Words may cause an injury that no orthopedist or surgeon can mend. Words may leave a festering wound that never heals, deep scars that persist for a lifetime. … Continue reading ...
Deus ibi est (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Matthew 5:38-48
February 23, 2014
Deus ibi est. God is there.
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Where charity and love are, God is there.
When you harvest your fields, do not cut the grain at the edges of the fields, and do not go back to cut the heads of grain that were left. … Continue reading ...
Have you ever been in love? (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 17:1-8
March 2, 2014
Have you ever been in love?
Maybe it was puppy love, a childhood crush, like Charlie Brown and the little red-haired girl.
Maybe it was a first, serious, high-school romance, awakening in you a new desire to share everything — thoughts and feelings and dreams and touch — with another person.… Continue reading ...
Thieves (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 21:12-17
March 9, 2014
Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy of God’s people?
Ken Ham thinks it’s science. Ken Ham is the founder of the “Creation Museum” in Petersburg, Kentucky. You may remember all the hoopla surrounding his live-streamed “Creationism vs. Evolution” debate last month with Bill Nye, the NPR “Science Guy.” … Continue reading ...
Hypocrites (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 23:13-28
March 16, 2014
Like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside, but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. On the outside, appearing good, but inside, full of hypocrisy and sins.
Is that us?
In January 2008, LifeWay Research, based in Nashville, published the results of a survey of 1,402 unchurched Americans, “adults who had not attended a religious service at a church, synagogue, or mosque in the previous six months.” … Continue reading ...
Murderers (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 23:29-39
March 23, 2014
Sure, I’ll admit to being a hypocrite, but a murderer?
In the two hundred years between 1095 and 1291, Christians went to war to reclaim access to important religious sites in Palestine, the Holy Land, in a series of military campaigns, known collectively as the Crusades. … Continue reading ...
Vultures (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 24:1-28
March 30, 2014
“Ode to a vulture.” A haiku by a poet with the screen name, “reconciled.”
the unwanted guest
patiently the vulture waits
watching … at death’s door
“Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will gather.” Fred Phelps was a vulture.
Fred Phelps was the founding pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a church populated mostly by his own extended family members with a few “converts” from the outside. … Continue reading ...
in Jesus Christ (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 11:25-30
March 5, 2017
Are you tired? Are you tired from carrying heavy loads?
Are you tired from carrying a load of worry? Worry about your children? Worry about getting old? Worry about money? Worry about your health?
Or maybe you worry about bigger things. Are you tired, are you weighed down with worry about our nation’s future? … Continue reading ...
Faithless servants (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 24:36-51
April 6, 2014
I want to begin where I ended last Sunday, talking about witness, because that’s what this is all about … witness.
We are the body of Christ in this world. We are Christ in this world. When the people of this world look at us, what do they see? … Continue reading ...