Sermons
Trusting Doubt
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Today is the Sunday after Easter but this great Thomas story begins last Sunday evening. And the story the disciples tell the absent Thomas is pretty incredible. They are hiding, and mourning, and Jesus appears, right there in the middle of their huddled, frightened group – without even opening a door. Give me a break. […]
Two Disciples and a Mary Walk Into a Graveyard . . .
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
Christ is risen! [Christ is risen, indeed] Alleluia! What a day, eh?! I mean Easter is always a cause for joy and celebration but, as a celebration that moves around on the calendar, it isn’t every year that it coincides with April Fools Day. And what a glorious pairing the two make: both are full […]
The Jesus Koans
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
During Lent, our theme of covenant has taken us in various directions. Michelle shared the Jeremiah text with the children in Children’s Church. Michelle showed them how you can write something on play-doh and somehow it is still contained in the play-doh, even when you smoosh it up and it seems to disappear. God’s covenant […]
Cross Covenant
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
“It’s just my cross to bear.” You’ve probably heard people say it. Maybe you’ve said it. I know Jesus says, “Take up your cross.” I know we need Good Friday so we can move from death into life. But I so wish we could skip over suffering and the cross. I have heard too many […]
Create Covenant
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Good morning friends. It seems hard to start right in on covenant when a broken covenant is the elephant in the room. This country is reeling from yet one more time we have failed our children. Safety within the borders of the country ought to be a primary function of government and yet once again […]
A Word of Hope for Grasshoppers and Exiles
Speaker: Rachel Cornwell
Isaiah 40:21-31 21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads […]
Holy Sight
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
This week finds us still in the liturgical season of Epiphany. Epiphany begins the week after Christmas and is traditionally celebrates the visit of the wise ones to the young Jesus in Bethlehem. We, here at Hyattsville, usually only officially celebrate Epiphany for one Sunday and then move on. However, the liturgical season (which is […]
Call and Response
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Call. It is a word that I used to dread, especially in seminary. It was expected that we understood our call, that we could explain our call. I wasn’t even sure what “call” meant. All I knew was that I was interested in feminist theology, and worship should be more creative and participatory. I hoped, […]
The Vulnerability of the Magnificat
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
I love Mary’s Magnificat. Bach’s setting is a particular favorite, though one might ponder how the short song of a “humble servant of God” ends up as a glorious half hour piece with orchestra, choir and soloists. We might also ponder how this song of a teenage girl gets set to music by so many […]
The Hovering Spirit
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 These are the opening words to story of God’s work in the world as […]