Entries by Kevin Ireland

Prophetic Peace

1 Samuel 25:30-35, Matthew 5:1-9 This morning, we continue our sermon series, Still Speaking, lifting up the unexpected prophetic voices of the Hebrew Scriptures. We began with Miriam, whose song proclaimed God’s liberating power, bringing freedom to a people in bondage. We learned from Deborah, whose leadership emerged from the in-between, gathering people to act […]

Celebrating New Beginnings

Each May, we celebrate an important milestone in the lives of many in our congregation as students graduate from high school, college, graduate school, and other programs of study. To all of our graduates: congratulations. We are incredibly proud of you. Graduation is a moment to pause and celebrate the hard work, perseverance, and dedication […]

Hannah’s Hope

1 Samuel 2:2-8, Luke 2:36-38 Has there been a time in your life when hope has been hard to find? A season when grief felt heavier than you could carry? A season of uncertainty, when the future felt fragile? A season of scarcity, when there never seemed to be enough? A season of deep hurt? […]

Earth Day and the Gift of Creation

My parents celebrated the very first Earth Day in 1970 when our family was living in Burlington, Iowa. To commemorate the day, they filled our little red wagon with newspapers to recycle, and somehow that small act landed us in The Hawk Eye newspaper the next day. I was too young to remember all the […]

Leading from the In-Between

Judges 4:2-10, Luke 24:13-27 In 2003, in the midst of a brutal civil war in Liberia, a group of women began gathering in a public market to pray for peace. They came from different backgrounds, Christian women and Muslim women, market women, mothers, and students, women from communities that had been divided by violence and […]