May 13, 2012 6th Sunday of Easter Riviera Presbyterian Church Acts 10:44-48 Laurie A. Kraus I, 2, and 3 John Bad Love? There are a whole genre of songs from my adolescence that express the sentiment I am calling this morning “Bad Love.” Bad Love is one such tune; another is Love Hurts. In lieu [...]
May 5, 2012 Riviera Presbyterian Church I John 4:7-21 Laurie Ann Kraus $3.00 Worth of God” Keith Green, an evangelical singer whose music used to challenge and disturb me when I was a Baptist teenager, once said this: Americans have been inoculated with a slight case of Christianity that is preventing them from getting the [...]
April 29, 2012 4th Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus Psalm 23 A Wake of Goodness and Mercy The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…. He makes me Lie down in green pastures Leads me beside still waters Restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his [...]
April 15, 2012 2nd Sunday in Easter Riviera Presbyterian Church Acts 4:32-35 Laurie Ann Kraus John 20:19-29 Second Hand Stories Every year, the appointed gospel reading for the Sunday after Easter is the same: the story, told second-hand, of the one the church has dubbed “Doubting Thomas.” With such a very large and diverse canon [...]
April 9, 2012 Easter Day Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus Mark 16:1-8 A Terrain of Resurrection Some have named this place where we are rooted a place of death We fix them with our callous eyes and call it, rather A terrain of resurrection. (Robin Morgan, Easter Island: I Embarkation” Writing an Easter sermon [...]
April 1, 2012 Palm Sunday Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus Numbers 21:4-9 turning away…turning toward Whenever we baptize a baby, in the Presbyterian tradition, we acknowledge that being a parent is an important and difficult adventure, and we promise as a congregation that we will put our own best efforts into supporting those parents [...]
February 26, 2012 Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus Genesis 9:8-17 and what’s on the other side? Just before the beginning of the service celebrating the life of my uncle Roger last Monday, my cousin David grabbed me and asked if I would watch the DVD of my uncle’s life he had produced for the [...]
January 29, 2012 Riviera Presbyterian Church Mark 1:21-28 Laurie Ann Kraus Mark 2:1-12 With Authority Lord, oil the hinges of my heart’s door, that it may swing gently and easily to welcome your coming. The gospel of Mark wastes no time getting down to business, after the preliminaries of birth, baptism, temptation and disciple recruiting—subjects [...]
1/22/12 Ordinary Time Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus the book of Jonah Changing Our Mind (lose your mind and come to your senses.) –Fritz Perls, gestalt therapy founder Why are you on this planet? What principles do you choose to practice in service of this purpose? How many of you have ever breached those [...]
December 11, 2011, Advent 3 Riviera Presbyterian Church Laurie Ann Kraus John 1:6-8, 14-28 the shape of god There is a curious poverty to the Advent readings that begin our current lectionary year “B”—as if the table had been set for a party, the guests invited, but the host forgot [...]
