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St. Mark's Sermons: "Dare to Glare"
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Sunday, February 14, 2010. Sermon 02.14.10. 8220;Dare to Glare”. Dazzling white, shining like the sun. How many here have a good working knowledge of astronomy? We are always in the same situation as the disciples. We’re constantly shading our eyes or turning away when it gets too bright. Instead of basking in wonder and amazement and awe, Peter says, shouldn’t we be doing something? The next morning, the nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy? 8217; Before she could finish with a...
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St. Mark's Sermons: "Forgiving Our Own Sinds"
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Thursday, February 18, 2010. Forgiving Our Own Sinds". Sermon 02.17.10 Ash Wednesday. 8220;Forgiving Our Own Sins”. A very wise theological student wrote in a final examination on church history: “The Protestant Reformation is when the Protestants broke away from the church and began to forgive their own sins.”. The point was to make a lasting impression so that there would not be a second fall from grace. However, the concept of a death-bed confession existed, assuring that someone could still live ...
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St. Mark's Sermons: August 2009
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Sunday, August 2, 2009. Life As a Saint. In the time since Paul and the Ephesians, our faith tradition has acquired the name of Christian, and the idea of what a saint is has shifted, too. A saint is still someone whom God has made holy, but now we tend to think of people who have done amazing things in their lifetimes, and whose holiness extends even to miracles after their death. But what if we went back to Paul’s way of talking about saints? What if we are saints, too? And yet as a community of saints...
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St. Mark's Sermons: October 2009
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Sunday, October 4, 2009. Good morning friends. What a gift to be here together this morning. This morning’s gospel is a little more of a challenge than usual, so let us be in prayer together. Loving God, we need your grace. Dwell with us here in this place. Open my mouth to share wisdom. Open our hearts to your word to us. Open our eyes to see your kingdom among us. You are the one we rely on. Guide and strengthen us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen. There’s a way in which Jesus is speaking out in fa...
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St. Mark's Sermons: "The Multi-Faceted, Many Images of Jesus"
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Sunday, February 28, 2010. The Multi-Faceted, Many Images of Jesus". Sermon 02.28.10. 8220;The Multi-Faceted, Many Images of Jesus”. Is Jesus having an identity crisis? And then, just as quickly, he dissolves from his anger, and bemoans the city that will be the place of his death, and wants to comfort it like a mother hen brooding over her chicks. In the other gospel accounts he is actually moved to tears as he pities the fate of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. There’s a wonderful sculpture of Jesu...
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St. Mark's Sermons: September 2009
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Sunday, September 13, 2009. Scriptures: James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38. 8220;Talk is cheap.” We’ve all heard that saying, right? And it goes right along with another saying: “Actions speak louder than words.” In our reading today, though, James thinks about it a different way. Talk can be very expensive. So much evil can be accomplished by one little wagging tongue! How many of us have ever blurted out something that we later regret? There’s Twitter and Facebook and Myspace and texting and plain old e-...
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St. Mark's Sermons: "No Concessions, No Compromises"
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Sunday, February 21, 2010. No Concessions, No Compromises". Sermon 02.21.10. 8220;No Concessions, No Compromises”. There are 3 temptations, since trouble always comes in threes (you didn’t know that this had a biblical basis, did you? I mean he just alluded to the fact that I’m the son of God.”. The devil slinks off, but you know that he will eventually come back into the picture, as the text tells us, at an opportune time. But Jesus has held his resolve, relying on the Scriptures for all of his answ...
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St. Mark's Sermons: "Stretching Our Faithfulness"
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Sunday, February 7, 2010. Sermon 02.07.10. 8220;Stretching Our Faithfulness”. 8220;When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” Left everything. They had a lot to leave. The text doesn’t tell us that they brought in the fish, sold the catch, pocketed the money and then followed Jesus. They brought the boats to the shore, got out and left everything. No doubt their wives also thought they were nuts when they went home to dinner that night. The last stretch of faithfu...
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St. Mark's Sermons: February 2009
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Sunday, February 15, 2009. Sermon 02/15/09 (1 Corinthians 9:16-23). 8220;Fond Farewells”. Rev Désirée H. Gold. St Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD. Sunday, 15 February, 2009. Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. What happened so drastically in these two years? I think we all know that doesn’t make sense. So, what does it mean to “proclaim the Gospel”? How have we been proclaiming the Gospel together here at St. Mark’s? I pray that I am making the right decision as I leave you. I pray that you wi...
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