Rev. Timothy J. Ensworth
A carol of love (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20
December 17, 2017
Next Sunday evening, Christmas Eve, at about 11:57 pm, I will be standing in the front of the sanctuary holding a lighted candle and many of you will be sitting there in the pews holding lighted candles and we will be singing together “silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” … Continue reading ...
You have to go outside (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 1:1 – 2:4
June 15, 2014
(Play excerpt from Dan Gibson, “Land of the Loons”)
Welcome to my world …
Lakes, cold and deep and blue, sometimes still, sometimes raging, dense forests of long-needled pine and aromatic cedar and glistening birch.
The haunting call of a loon, the deliberate and unruffled movements of a moose raising itself from the water onto the lakeshore, swimming beaver and soaring eagle and stealthy walleye.… Continue reading ...
For whether we live or whether we die (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Psalm 90:1-12
November 16, 2014
Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.
How short is our life?
We last no longer than a dream …
We are like a dream … vivid and real, while it lasts … full of wonders and marvels, while it lasts … but when the dawn comes, when we are awakened, the dream is gone, remembered maybe for a short while, but soon forgotten.… Continue reading ...
Remember and never forget! (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Luke 2:22-32
December 28, 2014
Remember and never forget!
That was Jean Kimball’s admonition to us, or rather, the Bible’s admonition, of which Jean was always reminding us! Remember and never forget what?
That we are part of the story. That we are part of God’s story.… Continue reading ...
Are you bored? (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Luke 9:28-36
February 7, 2016
Are you bored?
That’s my sermon. The photograph was taken Wednesday morning in the front yard of our house in Cedar Falls and that is my sermon. But since I should probably earn my keep, I will elaborate.
Are you bored? Do you find your life tiresome, dull, routine? … Continue reading ...
Eye for an eye (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
John 13:31-35, Exodus 21:12-27
April 24, 2016
Jesus said: “Now God’s glory is revealed.”
How? Where? What does it look like? You see it, don’t you? God’s glory is all around us. We just have to open our eyes. It is all around us, from the delicate lines and colors of a tiny woodland wildflower to the mind-boggling dimensions of a black hole in deep space, from the gentle plip plop of raindrops onto the surface of a lake on a windless day to the bone-jarring boom of an active thunderhead.… Continue reading ...
Amazed and astonished (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Jeremiah 2:4-13
August 28, 2016
I am amazed and astonished.
I am amazed by the vista from atop Blue Hill: islands and bays, dense forest and hills and mountains stretching to the horizon in every direction.
I am amazed by the rhythm of the tides in Penobscot Bay, the level of ocean changing by ten or eleven feet or more in the space of six hours.… Continue reading ...
Love does not keep a record of wrongs (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Matthew 5:43-48
January 29, 2017
When Jesus saw the people, he went up the hill and sat down. They gathered around him there and he spoke to them.
Love your enemies and hate your friends. That’s what you have been told. But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who make your life miserable. … Continue reading ...