Shows
Ian Reed Twiss SermonsBrave Space - 04-26-2020How are we called to respond to political polarization as Christians? How can moral witness and empathy come together?
2020-04-2713 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsTaking Hold - 04-12-2020Resurrection is about the healing of trauma in and through the body.
2020-04-2710 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsThe Church’s Great Service of Feelings We’d Rather Not Have - 04-05-2020What to do with difficult feelings like anger, sadness, despair as people of faith.
2020-04-2709 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsA “We” Opportunity - 03-22-2020How can the epidemic help us to more fully become the Beloved Community?
2020-03-2209 min2020-03-2211 min2020-03-2211 min2020-03-0810 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsShoot Me While I’m Happy - 02-02-2020The revolution Jesus brought was different than people expected.
2020-02-1610 min2020-02-0212 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsWhere We Go From Here - 01-19-2020What does the Bible challenge us to do and be if we are white people?
2020-01-2011 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsGuest Preacher - 01-12-2020What do you do when God turns out to be bigger, and more inclusive, than you thought?
2020-01-2011 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsI Will Meet You There - 01-05-2020You think the resurrection is scary? Take a deeper look at the incarnation!
2020-01-2011 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsBirth on the Christmas Ship - 12-24-2019What if God really does show up in the most desperate circumstances?
2020-01-2008 min2020-01-2008 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsEmmanuel EVERYWHERE - 12-1-2019What the end up of days can teach us about ourselves and God.
2020-01-2010 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsHow the Light Gets In - 12-8-19Coming to terms with our brokenness is how the light gets in.
2020-01-1910 min2020-01-1909 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsWaste - 11-17-2019Wouldn't it be nice to have the perfect argument that silences those we oppose?
Of course, when you think about it, the argument that leaves people gasping for words is really a thing of fantasy. In any dispute there is always a comeback. In fact, the notion that argument alone can sway somebody is sort of a dream in general. With most people, by the time you're in an argument, each side has long since shut down to the other's point of view and is listening for one purpose only: rebuttal.
In fact the only kinds of words I can ima...
2019-11-1710 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsOdd, Archaic, and Even...Relevant - 11-10-2019If the day of judgment makes sense to you, that’s totally cool. But I’ve always had trouble with this idea that there will come some moment in the future when we who were faithful in life will spring from our graves and occupy a new earth with Jesus and God and all the saints. It seems a bit literalistic—like one more among many ideas and traditions that make the church seem “odd, archaic, and even irrelevant” to so many people.
I guess what it really comes down to for me is community. I have always sensed God’s presence most...
2019-11-1713 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsI Am Here - 11-03-19The promise of All Saints' day, captured in the John O’Donohue poem we read, is that those we've loved are here in some metaphysical way as well--a cloud of saints who have entered into joy, watching and praying for us on our own way there. I always think of the "cloud of witnesses" passage in Hebrews 12, which is oddly never assigned on All Saints Day. That passage also compares life to running a race, and if you've ever run a race, you'll know that all these spectators line up along the sidelines shouting words of encouragement, telling you you're look...
2019-11-0312 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsNaaman's Journey - 10-13-19It’s such a paradox to discover that your place in the world is so small, and that God is so immense, and yet to find this discovery strangely invigorating and joyful. It reminded me of a time soon after my own conversion experience, when I was so abundantly happy. The world seemed to be opening up to me in new ways, and I was full of energy and zeal, taking on all these new prayer practices, learning about the Bible. Really it was like falling in love.
For more information about the life of the church where this sermon was p...
2019-11-0312 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsHeavenly Messengers - 10-06-19If we listen carefully, if we pay close attention, the animals who accompany us in our lives have much to teach us about what God wants for us: An open, loving approach to the world. An ability to live in the present moment and let God provide. The utter rightness and wholeness of being in relationship. Healing. Faithfulness. How to be the people our pets think we are. We may be worldly masters to them, but they are certainly heavenly messengers to us.
For more information about the life of the church where this sermon was preached, find our website at w...
2019-11-0309 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsDave the Rich Man - 09-29-19Imagine this: you are driving through an upscale neighborhood somewhere--you know, the kind of place with velvety lawns sweeping back to multi-story homes, gleaming front doors kissed by circular drives, birdsong and weed-whackers humming in the golden air. As you pass this neighborhood's well-kept, Episcopal church--slate roofed and sprouting elegant gargoyles--you notice a figure huddled on a bench in the front yard. Someone wrapped in a dark blanket is lying on his side there, his face and hands hidden in the folds of one end, his bare feet poking out at the other. The man is definitely...
2019-10-1014 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsScrew-Up Night - 09-15-2019What is it about the cross--what is it about this shameful, traumatic execution--that we call holy?
Maybe it's that "when we face and name our shame it no longer has power over us. Because the lowest moment in our story, like the lowest moment in Jesus’ story, can actually become the moment that most deeply connects us to one another, a door that opens onto the holy. That’s why at the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul announces that “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to...
2019-09-2609 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsCount the Cost - 09-08-19This sermon invites us to consider that it is better to know ourselves, and count whether doing something will be too hard for us, than to go rushing into something because "it seems like the right thing to do."
"Let's take forgiveness, for example. Parishioners in the course of my career have admitted to me privately that they were struggling to forgive in some aspect of their lives. I think many of us are. Now, in the Bible, Jesus certainly calls on us to practice forgiveness, not just seven times but seventy-seven, as he...
2019-09-2512 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsThe Race that Is Set Before Us - 08-18-19Part of Hebrews' point, expressed in the phrase let us run the race that is set before us, is that each of us has a different race set before us. Some have better weather and fewer hills and injuries than others. Some have faster bodies and some have more endurance. Who can say why? It's one of the great mysteries of life, that some die young, that some suffer more, that some are born into easy circumstances and some into hard. Hebrews doesn't explain that mystery. The race itself is what it is...
2019-09-2512 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsActing As If - 08-11-2019Maybe faith is less about belief and more about continuing to act even when we don’t have answers.
2019-08-1114 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsAll Is Breath - 08-04-2019A sermon about facing into meaninglessness and despair by practicing presence.
2019-08-1113 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsThe Answer to our Prayers - 07-28-19Does God always answer prayers? Well, it’s complicated.
2019-08-0112 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsSeeing with the Eyes of the Heart - 07-14-19Where in your life do you need to get close to others and see with the heart’s eyes?
2019-08-0114 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsThe Dust of Towns, the Nearness of the Kingdom - 07-07-2019On standing for what you believe without cutting off connection to those who disagree.
2019-07-3115 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsDisciples - 06-30-2019Guest preacher Jenny Darrah talks about the job the disciples signed in for.
2019-07-3112 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsOne in Christ Jesus - 06-23-19A sermon about the importance of doing what we can for inclusion and justice in a divided world.
2019-07-1813 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsGo Speak Music - 6-9-19What if we heard the unique voices of one another the way God hears us?
2019-06-2212 minIan Reed Twiss SermonsSlave and Free - 06-02-19How are we part of an economic system that enslaves? How are we ourselves enslaved? How do we become free?
2019-06-2214 min