Sermon for 17th Sunday after Pentecost – Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Who watches the news a LOT more than you used to? I do. When the pandemic first hit, I started leaving the news on all the time, because I wanted to know more. In a lot of ways, it’s good. I feel a lot more informed, and I guess knowledge is power. But at the same time, it’s exhausting. There’s not a lot of good news out there. So many problems that we don’t understand. So many arguments. People I’ve known for ages saying things that I never would have expected and it makes me feel like I don’t know them the way I thought. Do you ever wonder how we got to this point?

Sermon for 14th Sunday after Pentecost – Ezekiel 33:7-11

Some of you know that in my weekday job, I manage a team of software engineers. If you don’t know what that’s like, maybe you’ve seen Big Bang Theory on TV. Better yet, I commend the Dilbert cartoons to you. A lot of truth there. Which probably means I’m more like the pointy-haired boss than I want to admit. Especially right about now. Because it’s time for year-end assessments. Where I have the joy, or dread, of talking with folks about what went well, and not so well. Not nearly as fun as sharing highs and lows with our confirmands! Now, these folks are high-achievers, so some conflict isn’t unusual. That’s the hard part. I’m not good with conflict. But it doesn’t help that we’re all facing a laundry list of conflicts. Politics, protests, pandemics. Folks are on edge. It’s overwhelming. But maybe it helps to know we’re not the only ones who have lived through such as these.