by Stephen Phelps | Aug 5, 2012 | economic justice, environment, food insecurity, hunger, sermon 2012, Uncategorized
Unlike gun control or our criminal justice system, which no politician will discuss, hunger and poverty have sometimes mattered to elected leaders. Yesterday, I heard President Lyndon Johnson’s voice on the radio, coming from 1964. He was declaring “war on poverty” in that famous Texas drawl. Yet how tragic was the news that followed. One out of six of us is poor; that is, has less than $23,000 for a household of four. The news story went on to report that although malnutrition is not the scourge in America that it had been before President Johnson started the Food Stamp program, unlike the poor in Johnson’s day, today’s poor are generally employed—and hungry.
by Stephen Phelps | Jun 3, 2012 | baptism, communion, doctrine, sermon 2012, Trinity, Uncategorized
To be a Christian at Riverside, do you have to believe Jesus was born of a virgin? As many of you know, in the 1920s, some years before he began his ministry here, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick got himself and the Presbyterians into a marvelous snarl preaching No! You do not have to believe in the virgin birth.
by Stephen Phelps | Apr 24, 2011 | Holy Week, salvation, sermon 2011, transformation, Uncategorized
Can a new thing be said about Easter? I don’t think so. Were there a new thing to say—a new twist—whose twist? Whose gospel? Mine? And yet repeating old thoughts is just slogans, which are not worth saying twice. Are we then stuck? Throughout its ages, religion has very often gotten stuck in its old thoughts and power has always been the sticking point . . .
by Stephen Phelps | Oct 31, 2010 | Uncategorized
download a PDF of this textlisten to this sermon Text on Sunday, October 31, 2010 Philippians 2: 1-13 The theme we are going to strike is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It’s about the One obedient to the cross, and faithful. It’s kind of odd, isn’t it? —...
by Stephen Phelps | Oct 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
download a PDF of this textlisten to this sermon Text on Sunday, October 17, 2010 Luke 12: 16-22, 30-34; Gen 11: 31—12: 1-5 Much of what you hear said in churches about money does not belong in churches. That’s not because it’s wrong to talk about your money in...
by Stephen Phelps | Oct 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
download a PDF of this textlisten to this sermon Text on Sunday, October 10, 2010Luke 12: 49-56 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, but division . . . father against son, mother against daughter.” Why read such a hard saying on this day, while...
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