“Home” is one of the most powerful ideas in human culture – – both as a physical reality and as a metaphor for spiritual peace. It appears again and again as a critical concept in scripture (Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16, Luke 12:32-34.) In this sermon Pastor Sally takes a deep look at the central irony of a…
When we celebrated Pride month in May of 2019, every time we tried to fly our Rainbow flag over the church sign, some troubled soul came by in the dead of night and tore it down. After this had happened for several weeks, we decided to extend Pride month into August and (after taking some…
What does “Prayer” really mean to skeptical people in our modern world? Drawing on the story of Jesus in the house of Mary and Martha, Pastor Sally finds a simple and profound answer: however we do it, prayer is the process of clearing a path through all our distractions to focus on the things that…
For Mother’s Day, paster Sally preached on love . . . but not the simplistic cliché of greeting cards and love songs. Rather, she examined real love, as commanded by Jesus in John 13: 33-35, and which, as every mother knows, is anything but simple.
(Scripture Deuteronomy 26:1-11) On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Pastor Sally examined the true nature of gratitude. Starting from the history of the Pilgrims’ first winter in the new world, when both they and the natives suffered devastating hardship, she observes that giving thanks for small blessings in the midst of hardship is when gratitude is…
On All Saints Sunday, Pastor Sally explored the first-hand accounts of near-death experiences as related in the writings of Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. The remarkable consistency of these accounts, spanning all ages and many different religious backgrounds (or lack thereof) provides a lot of food for thought. (Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-44,…
Dr. Shore-Gross was ordained as a Jesuit Priest in 1976, but left the order and the Catholic Church two years later when he and another priest fell in love. Thus started his career as an activist on LGBTQ issues and a leading thinker on both Queer Theology and Earth Justice. Dr. Shore-Gross has written a…
(Scripture Ephesians 5: 15-20) Pastor Sally looks at the defining complaint of modern life: too much to do and too little time. She offers a two-stage solution: First, learn to separate the truly important from the merely urgent. Then, focus on doing the important things with intentionality and love. She cites practical examples from her…
On her return from vacation, Pastor Sally asks what kind of people God seeks to act through and concludes that imperfect, fallible humans like us will do just fine. She illustrates this with the very human, very earthly Jesus of Mark 6:1-13 and the deep humility of 2 Corinthians 12:2-10. Superheroes are not needed in…
This year, we celebrated Pride Sunday on Father’s Day. Michael Meehan, his husband Jamie Cline, and their four terrific teenage kids have been active members of FCC San Rafael for several years. Michael preached this sermon in two parts: The first was his informal account of his history with religion and the challenge of finding a…