Sermons by Rev. Carrie Cabush
My Sheep Know My Voice
May 11, 2025
“My sheep hear my voice.” This week I’ve been meditating on how it is that we, Christians living 2000 years after Jesus, can not only hear Jesus’ voice, but recognize it. It is no small task. Especially in an age when anyone with a smart device can use an AI voice generator to make it sound like their favorite celebrity is “saying”…well, whatever they want.
Technology aside, there are so many voices vying for our attention. The voices that we hear often enough - the voices that we give power and influence to - get inside and start to sound like just “thoughts.”
May 11, 2025
“My sheep hear my voice.” This week I’ve been meditating on how it is that we, Christians living 2000 years after Jesus, can not only hear Jesus’ voice, but recognize it. It is no small task. Especially in an age when anyone with a smart device can use an AI voice generator to make it sound like their favorite celebrity is “saying”…well, whatever they want.
Technology aside, there are so many voices vying for our attention. The voices that we hear often enough - the voices that we give power and influence to - get inside and start to sound like just “thoughts.”
Easter as a Season of Feasting
May 4, 2025
You can tell a lot about a space by the way it is designed. So, what piece of furniture seems to be the most important in our church? In some churches the place where people speak - the podium or pulpit - is front and center. But in our church, the altar or the table is front and center. That is because the most important thing we do in worship is share the feast of the Holy Eucharist.
May 4, 2025
You can tell a lot about a space by the way it is designed. So, what piece of furniture seems to be the most important in our church? In some churches the place where people speak - the podium or pulpit - is front and center. But in our church, the altar or the table is front and center. That is because the most important thing we do in worship is share the feast of the Holy Eucharist.
Borrowed Faith
April 27, 2025
Who among us could believe if the disciples had not first seen and touched the risen Christ? These stories of people seeing, touching, interacting with Jesus have been written down in scripture so that we may come to believe. Our faith depends on the faith of those who came before us. To some extent, we all live on faith borrowed from the disciples, the apostles, from family, friends, and mentors that have shown us the way of faith by example.
April 27, 2025
Who among us could believe if the disciples had not first seen and touched the risen Christ? These stories of people seeing, touching, interacting with Jesus have been written down in scripture so that we may come to believe. Our faith depends on the faith of those who came before us. To some extent, we all live on faith borrowed from the disciples, the apostles, from family, friends, and mentors that have shown us the way of faith by example.
Holy Week 2025
Easter Sunday: Resurrection in the Garden
April 20, 2025
When Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, it is not a mistake at all. It is a proclamation of Jesus’ oneness with God. The one who knows how to look death in the face and create new life from it - because he has experienced it first hand. Jesus has not only experienced resurrection, he facilitates it. Author and minister Rohadi Nagassar writes that “Jesus is a gardener who cultivates life in all who come to him.” He takes the death and decay of our lives and turns it into compost, the very stuff that helps bring forth new growth. Sweeter and richer than we could ever imagine.
April 20, 2025
When Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, it is not a mistake at all. It is a proclamation of Jesus’ oneness with God. The one who knows how to look death in the face and create new life from it - because he has experienced it first hand. Jesus has not only experienced resurrection, he facilitates it. Author and minister Rohadi Nagassar writes that “Jesus is a gardener who cultivates life in all who come to him.” He takes the death and decay of our lives and turns it into compost, the very stuff that helps bring forth new growth. Sweeter and richer than we could ever imagine.
Easter Vigil: Speaking Hope into the Dark
April 19, 2025
I wonder what the disciples did on that first Holy Saturday. After the public humiliation and death of their friend, their teacher, their God. After Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. After it was finished. Did they hide away from the crowds, afraid anyone would recognize them as one of those Jesus followers? Did they start making preparations to go home, wondering if the families they had left would take them back? Or, I wonder…if that first Holy Saturday looked something like our Holy Saturday.
April 19, 2025
I wonder what the disciples did on that first Holy Saturday. After the public humiliation and death of their friend, their teacher, their God. After Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. After it was finished. Did they hide away from the crowds, afraid anyone would recognize them as one of those Jesus followers? Did they start making preparations to go home, wondering if the families they had left would take them back? Or, I wonder…if that first Holy Saturday looked something like our Holy Saturday.
Good Friday: The Peace God Offers
April 18, 2025
How did we get here? How is it that the newborn baby in the manger, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and gifted with myrrh, who we proclaimed to be the Prince of Peace - grew up to be the man put to death on a cross, wrapped in burial linens and anointed with myrrh, all because he disturbed the peace?
April 18, 2025
How did we get here? How is it that the newborn baby in the manger, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and gifted with myrrh, who we proclaimed to be the Prince of Peace - grew up to be the man put to death on a cross, wrapped in burial linens and anointed with myrrh, all because he disturbed the peace?
Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another
April 17, 2025
“Everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Seems simple, doesn’t it? And yet, if Christians have a reputation around the world…I’m not so sure it’s for our love. At least not the type of love Jesus gave. The full hearted, embodied, break down barriers and risk it all type of love
April 17, 2025
“Everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Seems simple, doesn’t it? And yet, if Christians have a reputation around the world…I’m not so sure it’s for our love. At least not the type of love Jesus gave. The full hearted, embodied, break down barriers and risk it all type of love
Palm Sunday: Even the Stones Would Cry Out
April 13, 2025
If you have been to the Grand Canyon or someplace similar you’ve seen the layers showing centuries of change. If stones can see or sense the history they’ve lived through, they’ve seen a lot. And so when Jesus says that if the people were silent for his procession into Jerusalem the stones would have cried out, it signals something for us. It signals that God’s creation - even its inanimate parts - long to draw closer to God, like we do. And even the stones, who had “seen” self-proclaimed leader after leader, know that Jesus is different.
April 13, 2025
If you have been to the Grand Canyon or someplace similar you’ve seen the layers showing centuries of change. If stones can see or sense the history they’ve lived through, they’ve seen a lot. And so when Jesus says that if the people were silent for his procession into Jerusalem the stones would have cried out, it signals something for us. It signals that God’s creation - even its inanimate parts - long to draw closer to God, like we do. And even the stones, who had “seen” self-proclaimed leader after leader, know that Jesus is different.
Camp Sunday, sermon by Anthony Briggs, Executive Director of Cross Roads
April 6, 2025
Isn't it wonderful to have joy in church? And to have laughter and smiling, and things where we're goofy here in our faith community. Just being and having a lightness in community. That's what Cross Roads is.
April 6, 2025
Isn't it wonderful to have joy in church? And to have laughter and smiling, and things where we're goofy here in our faith community. Just being and having a lightness in community. That's what Cross Roads is.
The Prodigal Father
March 30, 2025
"The Prodigal Son." This is the title most often given to the parable we heard from Jesus this morning. But there’s a self-righteousness to this title. It says: look how wastefully extravagant the youngest son was. That’s the meaning of prodigal after all, wastefully extravagant. He not only asks his father for his inheritance early - a gesture that says nothing less than “I wish you were dead so I could benefit from your riches” - he spends it all in record time. In the Greek, it says he “scattered his substance.” He lost not only the money he demanded from his father, he lost himself somewhere along the way. And he has the gall to go crawling back to his father to ask for more. Not repentant, mind you, but expectant; entitled. Titling this parable “The Prodigal Son” turns it into a tale of how not to be. It makes us feel better because surely we are better than this selfish, wasteful son. But this parable really isn’t about the youngest son.
March 30, 2025
"The Prodigal Son." This is the title most often given to the parable we heard from Jesus this morning. But there’s a self-righteousness to this title. It says: look how wastefully extravagant the youngest son was. That’s the meaning of prodigal after all, wastefully extravagant. He not only asks his father for his inheritance early - a gesture that says nothing less than “I wish you were dead so I could benefit from your riches” - he spends it all in record time. In the Greek, it says he “scattered his substance.” He lost not only the money he demanded from his father, he lost himself somewhere along the way. And he has the gall to go crawling back to his father to ask for more. Not repentant, mind you, but expectant; entitled. Titling this parable “The Prodigal Son” turns it into a tale of how not to be. It makes us feel better because surely we are better than this selfish, wasteful son. But this parable really isn’t about the youngest son.
The Parable of the Fig Tree
March 23, 2025
I am convinced that Jesus taught in parables because he knew they would endure. That they would be stories that would be told across time and space. Parables are the great equalizer in Jesus’ teachings because they are for everyone. You can access a parable whether you have studied scripture or not, whether you know fancy church words or not, whether you have spent years in a pew or are exploring religion for the first time. All you need to access a parable is curiosity and patience. Because there is no right answer. No one interpretation. Parables are meant to be told and listened to time and time again. Because while the parable may not change, we do and so how we hear God speaking to us through the parable will change too.
March 23, 2025
I am convinced that Jesus taught in parables because he knew they would endure. That they would be stories that would be told across time and space. Parables are the great equalizer in Jesus’ teachings because they are for everyone. You can access a parable whether you have studied scripture or not, whether you know fancy church words or not, whether you have spent years in a pew or are exploring religion for the first time. All you need to access a parable is curiosity and patience. Because there is no right answer. No one interpretation. Parables are meant to be told and listened to time and time again. Because while the parable may not change, we do and so how we hear God speaking to us through the parable will change too.
Gathering the Village
March 16, 2025
Consider the next time you plan to take a train, bus, or subway. Would you rather spend the ride talking to a stranger or sitting in quiet solitude? As a lifelong introvert, I know which one I’d choose, hands down. So much so that last time I took a train I ran back home a block because I forgot my headphones. You know, the universal symbol that says “don’t talk to me” without having to say anything at all. But the thing is, we are comically bad at knowing what will make us feel better.
March 16, 2025
Consider the next time you plan to take a train, bus, or subway. Would you rather spend the ride talking to a stranger or sitting in quiet solitude? As a lifelong introvert, I know which one I’d choose, hands down. So much so that last time I took a train I ran back home a block because I forgot my headphones. You know, the universal symbol that says “don’t talk to me” without having to say anything at all. But the thing is, we are comically bad at knowing what will make us feel better.
The Temptation to Let the Ends Justify the Means
March 9, 2025
What if Jesus had said yes. What if Jesus had said yes to the devil in the wilderness? After all, he had not eaten for 40 days...would it have really done any harm for him to turn a stone into bread so he could eat? Would we be in a better place if Jesus had said yes to ruling all the kingdoms of the world? Would more people have believed in Jesus if he had made a spectacular show by throwing himself off the temple only to be saved by God?
March 9, 2025
What if Jesus had said yes. What if Jesus had said yes to the devil in the wilderness? After all, he had not eaten for 40 days...would it have really done any harm for him to turn a stone into bread so he could eat? Would we be in a better place if Jesus had said yes to ruling all the kingdoms of the world? Would more people have believed in Jesus if he had made a spectacular show by throwing himself off the temple only to be saved by God?
The Three Pillars of Lent
Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, even mid-week prayer are all invitations to interrupt the busyness of our lives. To step off the hamster wheel of achievement and autopilot and remember our mortality. To remember that our time on this earth is limited, but it is also a God-given gift. To consider poet Mary Oliver’s question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” We might not venture off into the wilderness by ourselves for 40 days like Jesus did. But we are invited to spend these 40 days taking a deep look inward and spending more time with God. If you’re wondering exactly how to do that, the Church has identified three pillars of Lent, inspired by our gospel reading today. Three ways to disturb business as usual so that we might live with more intention.
Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, even mid-week prayer are all invitations to interrupt the busyness of our lives. To step off the hamster wheel of achievement and autopilot and remember our mortality. To remember that our time on this earth is limited, but it is also a God-given gift. To consider poet Mary Oliver’s question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” We might not venture off into the wilderness by ourselves for 40 days like Jesus did. But we are invited to spend these 40 days taking a deep look inward and spending more time with God. If you’re wondering exactly how to do that, the Church has identified three pillars of Lent, inspired by our gospel reading today. Three ways to disturb business as usual so that we might live with more intention.