Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria Va

In what may seem like the crevices of our scripture, we find a painstakingly beautiful reminder of God's love for us. Hosea shows us a God who has inner turmoil about whether God should exercise wrath or grace on their creation. We are reminded to what ends God will go to call us home, and of the lavish manner in which God chooses to love us. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The scripture lesson is Hosea 11:1-11, and is read by Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt.

Today we discover a gift for us, through the rather uncompromising stance of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church he helped found in Galatia. That gift is freedom. We will probe what it means to be free in Christ and to see how this freedom binds us in the direction of love for others and for God. Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is is Galatians 5:1-6, 13-14.

As many words formerly considered off limits in our culture have gained general acceptance or at least have lost their ability to shock, another word which once enjoyed a respectable reputation has become a word of off-limits: compromise. A compromise is something that we promise together, as representatives of two or more groups who have been in discussion, dissension, disagreement, debate and yet have managed to come to some form of resolution and to a promise into which each is willing to enter. Compromise. “A promise together.” Dr. Larry Hayward preaches on the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is selected verses from Acts 15:1-31, and is read by Nancy Griswold.

One of the best known short stories of Raymond Carver is entitled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” What I propose is that “what we talk about when we talk about faith” sometimes needs to be “how can we talk about faith” at all because we so rarely do; and when we do, no matter how many sermons we have heard, no matter how many hymns we have sung, no matter how many classes in Old and New Testament we have taken, we don’t really know how to talk about our faith. We are not even sure that we should. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is Acts 14:8-18, and is read by Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt.

In today’s sermon, three days after we have celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence and hence the birth of our nation 233 years ago, around the idea – the idea, not race or soil – that all people are created equal, I want us to look at one scene in in which early Christians –in this case Paul and Barnabas – come into contact with a person who holds considerable political power in the Roman hierarchy of rulers. Looking at this story, I want us to consider what can happen when Christians live and work or at least come in contact with people who hold genuine political power. Larry R. Hayward preaches on the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is Acts 13:1-12.

We are in the midst of a sermon series on the Book of Acts, a book which recounts in dramatic fashion the story of the early Christians who – armed with the good news of the resurrection and commissioned by Christ at his ascension to carry that good news to all people and nations – are about the business of taking the spiritual force, the humanitarian idealism, the promise of ultimate redemption found in Jesus and translating it into the world of facts and fancies, kings and empires, families and fortunes, gained and lost. Jesus started a movement; and beginning in Acts, the church translates that movement into a religion, an institution, a global community “in the world” but not “of the world.” In doing so, early Christians had a continual need for deliverance, a need often met by intervention on the part of God. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is Acts 12:1-19, and is read by Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy.

We often assume that major times we experience the presence of God or make a deeper commitment to our faith involve a break with the past, more change than continuity. But while the direction of Paul’s life – and the focus of his deeply held service to God – takes a 180 degree turn on the road to Damascus, it is rooted in the faith and life, the language and literature, the vocabulary and vernacular that had shaped and formed him in his upbringing in Judaism. Rev. Larry R. Hayward preaches on the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is Acts 9:1-20, and is read by Lauren Beyea, chair of the Worship and Music Committee.

"I want to preach today on the recent death of my own mother, Carolyn Hayward, 22 days ago in her 87th year. Now I do so aware that such a sermon is fraught with potential pitfalls, not the least of which is that it can become more about the preacher than the good news to which the preacher is called to bear witness. I seek to walk through this sermon in the midst of you whom I love, and whose love I have received since I first stood in this pulpit 15 years ago." Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on Trinity Sunday. The Scripture lesson is Luke 2:36-38, read by Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy.

It is Pentecost. While this morning you will not hear about the tongues of fire and the chaotic cacophony of that first Pentecost, rest assured that the Spirit moves. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on Pentecost Sunday. The Scripture lesson is Romans 8:14-17.

Welcome to this "Picnic Sunday," the closest that Westminster gets to "casual Friday." But in the midst of all the woundedness in the world, how DO we have a picnic? Perhaps the ultimate point to be made in all of this is: in light of such loss and hardship that is out there and also with us here, you do not cancel the picnics. Jesus, after all, in the face of his people's despair, began his ministry at a wedding. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is Acts 16:16-34.

Gamaliel was a Pharisee: one of the foils of the gospel, the misguided bad guys who always got it wrong because they insisted on others getting it right. But in Acts, Gamaliel stands out as a person worthy of respect, and full of wisdom. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on Acts 5:27-40.

The history of the church that chooses to divide and conquer with our privileges and preferences is long--it is indeed very long. This "us and them" mentality is seemingly so innate to our faith, we don't pause like Peter enough to ask, "Who am I that I should hinder God?" Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on the Fifth Sunday of Easter and Confirmation Sunday. The Scripture lesson is Acts 11:1-18.

Trauma lies at the heart of the Old Testament, and its many books offer a range of models for embracing potentially traumatic transformations. Two quite divergent models can be found in the book of Psalms and Job. The Psalter builds a temple in space and in time that envelopes and moves through trauma toward praise. The book of Job places trauma at the beginning and moves simultaneously into the dark reality defined by trauma and out of that darkness into a world after trauma, at once more free and mysterious than the world it attempts to leave behind. We will consider the impact of trauma on the formation of the Bible generally and the two particular responses in the Psalter and Job as models for resilience. Dr. Paul K.-K. Cho holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Yale University, an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. He serves as Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is author of Myth, History, and Metaphor in the He

Throughout the literature of the Bible, there is a link between the power of the voice and the omnipresent image of Shepherd. As a preacher, anytime I speak of “hearing the voice of God” or “Christ speaking to us” I know that a number of people will assume and hope that I am speaking symbolically; a number will look down at their bulletins in awkward silence; and a number will say to themselves “God has spoken to me, but if I say anything about it, people might avoid me.” Wherever you fall among these numbers, please stay with me. Larry Hayward preaches on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is John 10:22-30.

Trauma lies at the heart of the Old Testament, and its many books offer a range of models for embracing potentially traumatic transformations. Two quite divergent models can be found in the book of Psalms and Job. The Psalter builds a temple in space and in time that envelopes and moves through trauma toward praise. The book of Job places trauma at the beginning and moves simultaneously into the dark reality defined by trauma and out of that darkness into a world after trauma, at once more free and mysterious than the world it attempts to leave behind. We will consider the impact of trauma on the formation of the Bible generally and the two particular responses in the Psalter and Job as models for resilience. Dr. Paul K.-K. Cho holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Yale University, an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. He serves as Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is author of Myth, History, and Metaphor in the He

Three times, Jesus asks Simon Peter, "do you love me?" And three times, Peter answers correctly. But like the church that Peter would come to represent, Peter did not always do so well with questions--especially when his own life was in jeopardy. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches from John 21:15-19.

There is an aspect of the resurrection of Christ that we don’t talk about often, an aspect that is part of a larger story we don’t tell enough. This aspect is the redemption not just of our own lives as individuals, but the redemption of the whole of the created order. Just as there is a “life to come” for individuals, so also there is a “life to come” for all of creation. Larry Hayward preaches from Revelation 1:4-8.

Perhaps the most important words the men in dazzling clothes speak to the women may not be, ironically, “He is risen.” Rather, the most important words may be “Remember…remember how he told you.” The reason these words are so important is that they are instructive. They chart the way the women come to trust the message that Christ is risen – and as such they form a way we can come to such trust as well. Larry Hayward preaches on Easter Sunday from Luke 24:1-12.

It is a regret of my life, perhaps not beyond repair, that I have not read more of Shakespeare. When I first started preaching, I encountered a phrase from Shakespeare’s As You Like It that has stayed with me for obvious vocational reasons: And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. It is the “sermons in stones” that I remember. Larry Hayward preaches from Luke 19:28-40.

From the story of Creation to Jesus’s calling the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” the serpent in the Bible is not the most inviting of creatures. Yet their rep is not always disreputable—in various cultures and religions, serpents are symbols for fertility and rebirth, guardianship of temples and sacred places, and medicinal healing. As in history and mythology, the association of serpents with the cross is a mixed bag. Larry Hayward preaches from Numbers 21:5-9 and John 3:11-15.