Progressive Christian Sermon Repository

My name is R. Scott Thornton. I am the author of Inclusive Christianity: A Progressive Look at Faith and the director of the Sacred Grounds Resource Center at gloria Dei church and the director of Values Through Sports, a ministry working with at-risk, inner city youth in the West Kensington section of Philadelphia. I hope you enjoy my sermon on Grace (file attached).

Luke 9:49-50 "...we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."

I would like to begin this evening by thanking our guest speakers. Perhaps I am overstating a bit, but I feel that in many respects this is an historic event for our community. We have here, in our midst, representative from the three Abrahamic faiths, faiths which together count as adherents more than half the world’s population.

When last we met, we explored passages from the holy books of all of these traditions in the hopes that in exploring some of the common themes found within, we could recognize some kinship with our spiritual brothers and sisters, from the traditions of Islam and Judaism.

This is the archetypical language of human myth.


The quest for the Holy Grail…or the sorcerer’s stone or the Golden Fleece…or following a star.


On Epiphany we once again encounter this truth within our own tradition. If there is nothing else you take from today’s service please understand that our faith is about the journey to Christ. Like the Magi from long ago, we are all following a star to a manger where we encounter God enshrouded in humanity and humanity enshrouded in God.


That’s all.
And this is the central truth to all Christian discipleship:


It is by its very nature a journey.


The journey to Christ encompasses the entirety of our existence. It involves all who we are. It is mysictal. It is practical. It is political. This is what the journey story of the three Magi teaches us.

WWJD Healthcare? (Who Would Jesus Deny healthcare to?)
At Christmas Time and in Light of the Nataline Sarkisyan Tragedy, It’s an Especially Poignant Question to Ask

By Donald W. Nielsen

The popular question, “What Would Jesus Do?” is a question asked by many these days. The registered nurses of the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) would like you to think about asking it, especially at this time of year, and in light of the Nataline Sarkisyan tragedy, in a slightly different way -- Who Would Jesus Deny healthcare to?

I got hot and bothered a couple of times this week. It was not on account of the weather. The first time was when Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Christopher N. Piper, who was killed in Afghanistan, was laid to rest in Marblehead. Every person deserves a decent and peaceful burial. So I had steam coming out of my ears when I read that members of a Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas held a demonstration in Marblehead. The demonstrators said that our soldiers were being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan because God is punishing America. Why? Because we are too permissive regarding gay people.

This sermon is the Lawrence J Mikkelsen Preaching Prize Winning Sermon on the Gospel and Social Justice and Human Dignity

Only a foolish preacher, in these hot summer months when a congregation hopes for short, snappy sermons with lots of funny stories about how blessed they are in God's love, would preach a sermon about the sin of hatred and scourge of racism. I am that foolish preacher!