Jordan Rimmer Sermons

   In this sermon I take a hard look at death. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to deal with it. But it is part of life. In fact, Christians have lots of reasons for it to not sting near as badly.

 This year for Reformation Sunday I did a biography of John Knox. He is one of the bravest men I have ever read out and is the father not only of the Scottish Reformation but also of Presbyterianism.

This sermon wraps up my series on the parables of Jesus. It comes from Luke 16 and is described in many commentaries as one of the most difficult parables to understand and apply. Sorry about the beginning of the scripture. I jumped in only to realize that I forgot to push record.

  Five of the 10 bridesmaids from Matthew 25 were considered foolish, but why were they not ready for the groom to come? What can we learn from these virgins?

  This sermon comes from Matthew 25. Jesus separates the sheep from the goats in the final judgment. But what gets you in? It may be as surprising for us as it would have been for those listening.

The passage is from Matthew 7. Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" and does great things for God will get into heaven. This is a terrifying thought! But we have an opportunity to build our lives on the rock...

This sermon looks at the parables of Luke 14 that are about banquets and happen at a dinner. I preached it from a banquet table and then served communion at that table.

This sermon is about the parable of 10 midas. This parable is often overlooked in favor of the more familiar parable of the talents, but this is a rich and interesting parable.

This parable from Matthew 20 is one of the most frustrating parables that Jesus taught. It is just so unfair that all the workers get paid the same. It is outrageous. But perhaps that is the point... And maybe there are some practical implications for this parable instead of just the spiritual insights that are often taught...

This sermon is on the parable of the unjust judge and the tenacious widow of Luke 18. This is a difficult parable because Luke gives and intro about the meaning of the parable and Jesus teaches after he parable and these two "hints" don't exactly line up. This is a simple story with riches of meaning that many people have never heard and many pastors have never preached. Bring it.

In this sermon I look at how Jesus talks about his kingdom using parables in Matthew 13. These have real world applications for us, because we are part of this kingdom, even though it does not always feel like we are or we don't always live like we are.

    This is one of my favorite passages of scriptures. It is so overly familiar to most people that they miss the depth of the parable. I even think that calling this the parable of the prodigal son is a misleading but you will have to listen to understand why.

   In this sermon I launch a series about the Parables of Jesus. I begin with some introductory comments on what parables are and how we need to interpret them. I then tackle the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example.

 This sermon is a history of communion from the Passover meal to our practices today. I pay special attention to the beliefs about communion, the names for communion, and the way it is practiced. I made major use of a powerpoint presentation that you do not have on the audio. 

In this sermon I reflect on Hebrews 12 and the Great Cloud of Witnesses. I have had the text on my mind since I spent time in England where people are actually buried and memorialized in the church. While this is not always a good idea, I think we Protestants may have missed something here. At the end of my sermon I invited people from my church to come forward and write names of important people to their faith who have gone on to glory.

God is constantly living a big story and inviting people to play a part in His story. What if the way God leads us is also a model for how we should lead others?

 In this sermon I look at the body imagery of the Apostle Paul and think it through in terms of story. We as people embody our stories- we physically move into the stories that we see ourselves in. Marketers know this and invite us into a story with their products as part of the embodiment of our story. How does story give insight into how Paul talks about the faith? How do we learn to embody God's story about us instead of the world's story about us?  

 Here I use the story of Nathan and David to look at how our lives our like stories and story can help us grow in our faith. I apologize for the abrupt start to the recording but I did not hit record for the first 2 minutes.

 God said above all the commandments to remember the Sabbath and that the person who does not keep the Sabbath should be removed from the community or even put to death (Ex 31:12-17). Why is Sabbath so important to God? Why don't we practice Sabbath? How do we start a Sabbath habit in our world today? Many of the thoughts of this sermon came from or were inspired by Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggemann.  

                   In this sermon I look at two aspects of our Christian Faith--The Me Gospel or personal salvation and The We Gospel of the kingdom or social justice. These are like two sides of the same coin. When we get too out of balance and emphasize one over the other, then the faith becomes warped to a point that it is no longer Christianity. I am indebted to the book Me and We by my teacher Leonard Sweet which helped me think deeply about this topic.