Preaching In Pumps | Sermons By Rev. Sarah E. Weaver

Hi friends! I took a week off from preaching, but not from our sermon series.  Last week the passage in the Sermon on the Mount was the "ask, seek, knock" and "the golden rule" - which was not at all planned, but timed perfectly with our annual Homeless Awareness Weekend.  It was always our tradition to have one or two kids stand up and share their experiences, but last year I actually made every single one of our participants stand up and share something that they had prepared either the night before or that morning.  They did SO well that we did it again this year and I opted not to preach at all.  There definitely is a part of me that doesn't like to "give up" my sermon time, but honestly - it was necessary this year.  The reflections were SO GOOD and said a thousand things that I never could have.  The adults were reflecting on what the kids said all week - I told the confirmands on Sunday this week that they should be proud. So here we are - one wee away from finishing this sermon series!  I have always

Hi Friends! We are coming off an amazing bazaar weekend at the church. We raised $17,000! When I first started in Rehoboth, we would typically raise $10,000-$12,000 and that number has slowly been rising over the past few years.  Last year we came really close to breaking $15,000, so this was incredible!  And honestly - more than that, it was just fun.  Everyone was smiling, no one person was doing all of the work, everyone was pitching in wherever they were needed and, as a cherry on top, the weather was perfect!  It was so much fun. My sermon this week is short because we had an extended time of announcements for Homeless Awareness Weekend, it was All Saints Sunday, Communion Sunday and we welcomed new members at the end of worship.  And church still went until 11:20!  Thankfully no one was complaining. Enjoy! -Sarah

Hi friends!  This sermon kind of took a different direction than I thought it was going to, but things kept happening throughout the week pushing me to look at the scripture in a different way. To give some background, I shared with the congregation on Friday morning that I am pregnant with our second child, due in April.  I start the sermon by talking about a doctor's appointment I had at the beginning of the week that made me have to live out Jesus' words, "Do not worry." Enjoy! -Sarah

Hi friends! Sunday was my annual stewardship sermon, although Bruce told me last night that he didn't feel like it was so much a stewardship sermon as it was a sermon on why I love the church so much.  But that totally ties into why I give to the church, right? We're still in the middle of our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount!  This week's scripture tied in really nicely to our stewardship theme.  A totally God thing! Enjoy! -Sarah

Hi friends!  This sermon should not have been a hard one to preach, but the timing of it falling the same week our stewardship packets were mailed made it much more challenging!  I had one thing in mind, but ended up scrapping it and taking a different course, which I actually think started some good conversations. I'm curious - how do your churches handle stewardship?  Is it a quiet thing or are you encouraged to talk about it more?  I love hearing about other church's stewardship practices - I'm kind of a stewardship nerd! Enjoy ... -Sarah

Hi friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful World Communion Sunday celebration.  We had a beautiful bread installation on the altar that made the chancel smell soooooooo good! This Sunday we looked at the last three of the six antitheses, concerning oaths, concerning retaliation and love for enemies.  Enjoy ...  -Sarah

Guys. Weeks like this are the ones where I miss the lectionary and the ability to say - let me see what the epistle is this week, ha! It wasn't an easy week to walk up to the pulpit, but it's week's like these that are making me a better preacher - and we are all learning more! Here is this week's sermon! Enjoy ...

I have gotten nothing but positive feedback about moving away from the lectionary and into a sermon-series mindset.  To be clear - I don't think there is anything wrong with the lectionary!  I just think I had gotten to a point where I wasn't feel inspired by the cycle and I needed something to kick start me. This week Jesus talks about the law and the prophets.  I wasn't really sure what to do about a children's sermon, so I ended up using an apple to talk about the different parts of God.  An apple has different parts - peel, flesh and core - just like God has different parts - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It was a pretty good seasonal visual, which I liked - I probably didn't think the whole "bring a sharp knife up to the children's sermon to peel the apple" part through, but it all worked out!  I think if I were to do it again I would set up a table with an actual apple peeler.  Next time! Enjoy ... -Sarah

Continuing with our sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount, this weeks sermon focused on the passage where Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth ... you are the light of the world."  I had a really great idea to do a children's sermon where we all tried salt-free popcorn and then added salt to see the difference in taste but apparently salt-free microwave popcorn is not a thing?  At least it wasn't at Stop & Shop.  The "healthy" ones all have sea salt.  I suppose I could have used a popcorn maker, but that wasn't going to happen on a Sunday morning, ha! Anyway, this is a text that is kind of hard to preach because it's fairly straightforward.  But there were three things jumped out at me that I thought were worth reinforcing, so I just did a sermon in kind of a bullet-point format instead of just making one point (if that makes sense?).  I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my congregation, so I hope you get something out of it, too! Enjoy ... - Sarah

Hi friends!  We kicked off the program year at RCC this weekend with a fun Rally "Weekend" - we had a Rally Night on Friday night with a cookout, games, s'mores, movie and fellowship for all ages!  Apparently this was an old tradition at RCC that hasn't happened in a few years (this was my 9th Rally Weekend at RCC and I've never experienced it, so it's been that long, at least!), so we thought we'd do it again this year and had a great time!  The Youth Group stuck around for a lock-in that night and it just kind of put us in the spirit for Rally Day on Sunday. We did a blessing of the backpacks on Sunday during worship - we invite the kids to bring in their backpacks from home and we put tags on them and then say a blessing over them.  It was great to have such a wonderful turnout with our families (42 kids total!). We kicked off a 12-week sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount this weekend by looking at The Beatitudes.  I started by talking about why I chose a scripture-based sermon series (as opposed to a

This is it for our summer sermon series on hospitality!  This week is Rally Day and the beginning of a 12-week sermon series on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which will bring us through Thanksgiving. It was fun to look at hospitality this summer - I actually had a lot of great feedback from people who gave me tangible ideas and suggestions of ways that we, as a church, can improve.  I hope this is one of those sermon series that we keep talking about, long after it's over. The question we answered in this final week was, how can we create a space where people feel welcome? Enjoy ... 

Hi friends!  It has been almost a month since my last sermon.  I didn't realize I would be away from the pulpit from that long, but since I was away for two weeks and then came back to Beatles Sunday, it ended up being almost a month without a sermon. We are still in our six-week sermon series on hospitality.  The topic of discussion this week was:  How do we serve others? Enjoy!

I have been thinking about this sermon since last October when my family went to Disney and I became obsessed with name tags and then again since April and I was preaching on the resurrection narrative out of John and noticed that Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus until he called her by name.  It was a long time coming and the coolest part was that we had a fundraising event at Hillside Country Club the next day and everyone who showed up to help wore their name tag - without me sending out a reminder! Enjoy ...  - Sarah

Hi friends!  Since the Year of Mark is over, we are taking a few weeks to talk about hospitality before we kick off the fall with a new sermon series.  I'm not sure where we will go next - the Year of Mark was compelling because of the continual narrative, which we all really liked.  We'll see!  I'm still trying to think through some stuff.  To be continued! We kicked off our summer sermon series on hospitality with a very hot and humid day and worship in the air conditioned Fellowship Hall!  It was definitely a wonderful alternative and a nice example of how sometimes you have to adjust your plans if circumstances change!  The topic was, why is the important anyway?   Enjoy ... -Sarah

We did it!  We finished the Year of Mark!  I am not really sure what's next - a sermon series on hospitality for the rest of the summer and then, who knows?  The Year of Mark has changed me in a lot of ways, and it certainly has changed my preaching.  It's very unlike me not to have a plan, but I think that is just where I need to be right now!  Let's see where the spirit moves ... Enjoy! - Sarah

Christ is risen!  Love wins!  Resurrection is real! ... and yet the Year of Mark is not over yet. :) This week I preached on the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark and I talked about how, even thought this is probably the least satisfying resurrection story, it is also a really realistic one when it comes to how we experience the Risen Christ in our lives. Enjoy! - Sarah

I preached this sermon on the heels of a really hard funeral for a lot of us the day before.  I had planned to end the service with Old Rugged Cross and when I looked out in the congregation so many people had tears in their eyes.  It has been a hard year for a lot of people and I think reading through this Passion Narrative has been oddly therapeutic as it has reminded us that grace is still present, even in the hard stuff. Have a safe and happy 4th of July holiday everyone! Enjoy ...  - Sarah

When I decided to preach through the Gospel of Mark, I didn't really think much about what it would be like to preach through the end of it.  We usually just tell the story - I've never preached on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday.  It's been a really good challenge for me, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't considering preaching at some point next year during Holy Week.  There's a lot going on in this passage - my sermon barely scrapes the surface!  I talked about the role of the centurion and what this means for us as we see Jesus for who he is and then proclaim that message to the world. Enjoy! -Sarah

Guys. We started the summer with a bang on Sunday. A few highlights. - Our Music Director totally spaced that we moved to 9AM and so worship started "fashionably late". - My sweet little angel baby was in worship because our nursery care provider isn't contracted for the summer and he MADE HIS PRESENCE KNOWN.  When I stood up to make announcements he yelled, "MAMA GET DOWN!" and then cried when Bruce said, "shhhh".  At one point he ran up to the pulpit, found a leftover confetti canon from Easter and set it off.  Bruce took him out and then his friend, Bridget, who was sitting behind him with his mom started crying, "I want Harrison!"  #PKlifebelike - I found a typo in the baptismal liturgy, which was totally my fault and ugggggh.  I hate that. - A cat ran into the sanctuary at the end of my sermon and made it halfway down the aisle before one of the Deacons caught up to her. Sooooo, yeah.  I need to regroup this week. I was preaching on the condemnation of Jesus, which I imagine rendered its own level of cha

Hi Friends! We were off the Year of Mark this week for Pentecost.  There was no denying the Holy Spirit was present on Sunday when you walked into church!  We had a big fabric installation and a cake with sparkler candles and everyone wore red. Sunday was also Children's Day at RCC, so it was a really short sermon before the older kids did their "memorable moments" skit, where they each talked about their most memorable moment at the church this year. Enjoy! -Sarah