Coppertop Sermons

Wishing and Hoping

Sermon preached  April 19, 2015

Texts: I John 3:1-7; Luke 24:34b-48

Dusty Springfield, “Wishin’ and Hopin’” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycbgHM1mI0k

Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying and planning and dreaming each night of his charms; that won’t get you into his arms.  “Hope” can often come across as a rather weak concept. To say, “I hope I

View More

Up in the Air

Sermon preached April 12, 2015

Texts: Acts 4:32-35; John 20:19-31

Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA

“To know me you have to fly with me.”  These are the words of Ryan Bingham, the central character in Walter Kirn’s novel, Up in the Air and the film based on the movie.  George

View More

Let’s Talk About Chocolate, Isn’t That Different

Sermon preached Easter Sunday                   April 5, 2015

Texts: John 20:1-18

“Though no Church has seen fit to canonize him, he was nevertheless a saint.”  The writer and editor William Maxwell wrote these words about the Nineteenth Century Russian physician, short-story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov (1860-1904).  Pretty strong praise.

I rather like the poem Louis Simpson

View More

One, Two, Three Kinds of Dying

Sermon preached Good Friday          April 3, 2015

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?  This powerful question is posed by the poet Mary Oliver toward the end of her poem, “The Summer Day.”  The words strike us hard, and they carry a ring of truth.  But maybe they don’t tell all the truth.  Doesn’t

View More

Try a Little Tenderness

Sermon preached Holy Thursday, April 2, 2015

One of the most popular bands during my early teen years was a band with the unique name “Three Dog Night.”  Three Dog Night had a remarkable string of hit songs from 1969-1974, late elementary into early high school for me.  The band took its name from a

View More