Category Archives: spirituality

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Posted on July 23, 2018 by tmrichmond3

(This is the first in a series of sermons using the Wizard of Oz as a way of understanding the spiritual life. Texts at the end.)     Come with me on a journey—a journey down the Yellow Brick Road. … Continue reading →

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Presbyterians and Politics

Posted on July 20, 2018 by tmrichmond3

  Note: At this summer’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the following statement was passed. “No congregation, session, presbytery, synod, or national office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), nor any individual acting on behalf of or in an … Continue reading →

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Calmed, Healed, Sent

Posted on July 9, 2018 by tmrichmond3

  Just seeing it on the shelf at the library unleashed a flood of memories. The Next Whole Earth Catalog. It threw me 44 years into the past, when I bought The Last Whole Earth Catalog on a whim from … Continue reading →

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The Healing Place

Posted on July 2, 2018 by tmrichmond3

This is a bit different sermon for me. It has a very open-ended conclusion, if it even has a conclusion. Basically I want to know how we can help each other encounter the healing power of God. (Text at the … Continue reading →

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Berry, Gardening, God, and the church

Posted on June 19, 2018 by tmrichmond3

  The original inspiration for this sermon was Wendell Berry and Eugene Peterson. Long ago Peterson taught me a new way to read Berry. Every time he talks about farming, or agriculture, substitute in “church.” Berry writes lovingly and scathingly … Continue reading →

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We are the Garden of God

Posted on June 18, 2018 by tmrichmond3

  A friend of mine got a letter from the national office of one the major po****l parties last week. He is not a member of that party, and is in fact very concerned about where that party is heading. … Continue reading →

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unforced rhythms

Posted on June 13, 2018 by tmrichmond3

  The Preacher             The air was sultry hot, and the preacher was sweaty and tired, but still full of fire, and he was not about to stop–not until himself got a convert. We were in the assembly hall at … Continue reading →

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Surfing Theology with Karl Barth

Posted on June 8, 2018 by tmrichmond3

*********************** METAPHYSICAL WARNING: This post is an eisegetical exercise in the noetic effects of a sensus divinitatis obtained in the pursuit of hermeneutical pleroma, as mediated by a epistemological kairos from the Kirchliche Dogmatik. Extreme theological geekiness is liable to … Continue reading →

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To Be Rather Than to Seem

Posted on September 30, 2014 by tmrichmond3

MATTHEW 21:23-32 23When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24Jesus said … Continue reading →

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Could We Be One (So the world would know…)

Posted on June 3, 2014 by tmrichmond3

    SECOND READING 1 PETER 4:12-14, 5:6-11 4:12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice insofar as you are sharing … Continue reading →

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