Worship

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir July 23, 2107 Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 I learned more about weeds than I ever wanted to know growing up in Iowa.  I walked the soybean fields pulling weeds as my summer job from age 13.  A wise farmer taught me that all weeds were not the same and could not be destroyed in the same way.  A cockle burr had shallow but widespread roots and had to be pulled to get all the roots.  If you hacked it off at the ground level, it would be back in a week.  A milkweed had a very long tap root that could not be pulled out.  If you did try to pull it, three separate sprouts would be back.  Milkweeds had to be hacked off and would die as the sap ran out.  If you didn’t [...]

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir July 16, 2017 Scripture: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 My favorite part of gardening is putting seeds in the ground.  Planting is the time of possibility, dreaming of a bountiful harvest.  Winter is gone, warmer days beckon, and little green shoots are everywhere.  I’m the same way about most projects, I love the brainstorming, creative work, collaborative envisioning, but I always struggle to get through the last 20 percent.  So I relate to the parable of sower.  I envision the happy farmer, scattering seeds, then checking every morning to see if something is peaking above the ground.  If that is all there was to farming, I would have stayed in Iowa.  But Jesus is a realist.  The birds are going to eat some of your seeds, rocky soil does not produce, just ask all my Village Hill [...]

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir  May 28, 2017 Scripture:  John 17:1-11  Click here to listen on Youtube!   In our Gospel reading, Jesus has been preaching a long time, from chapters 13 to 16, fully 15% of his life story from John’s perspective.   Perhaps the disciples sighed with relief when he starts the pastoral prayer.  Like many pastoral prayers, it is a summary of what went before; a hope that the sermon might actually be taken seriously.  How do you know as a preacher?  You hope and pray that your words are relevant and inspiring and something sticks.  This is your cheat sheet to sermon listening, in case your mind wanders a bit.  We pray about the one thing that really matters, so no one misses the point.   What is the point Jesus wants the disciples to get?  God’s [...]

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir May 21, 2017 John 14:15-21 I don’t like notification noises on my phone.  I don’t need a train whistle with every email, or a “ka-ching” sound when someone messages me on Facebook.  I just set my phone of vibrate, and have ringtones for close family.  But this week was different.  Somehow, my “news” notifications were turned on, and my phone blew up every day.  Which raises an important question; What is the appropriate notification ring tone for news that the President has fired the FBI Director who was investigating him?  I have a tone called “update,” I think that works.  If I really were more techie I would download a song for news alerts.  When the NY Times sends out an alert, my phone could play something from the 70s like, “Stop, Hey, what’s that [...]