Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria Va

What has always attracted my attention about this story is the limp – the fact that in his wrestling with God, Jacob emerges blessed, but limping; limping, but blessed. Limping and blessed! Sometimes when we wrestle with God these things emerge in the course of our wrestling. We are left limping, a holy limp, holy because to be blessed is to incorporate all that has been a part of our lives into our lives, in a way that that even the painful parts – the sources of our limp – can become sources of strength, wisdom, blessing. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time as part of a sermon series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 32:22-32.

In the world to which we are accustomed – in which love leads to marriage rather than marriage to love, in which both parties have choice, and in which marriage is to only one person, the differences with the world of Rachel and Leah and Jacob can make this story seem laughable, offensive, or just too plain ridiculous to speak to us. But if we stick with it, as is the case with most Biblical stories, we can learn something from it, and leave this hour of worship not quite the same person we were when the hour began. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, as part of a sermon series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 29:15-23, 25-28, 30-35.

"Like so many people who marry, in marrying into the family of Abraham and Sarah, Rebekah takes on all the blessings and burdens of that family – particularly as these have shaped and formed Isaac into the person he has become by the time she links her life and destiny with his." Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, as part of a sermon series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 25:19-28.

"Taking Rebekah into his mother’s tent represents for Isaac a healing, a retrieving from and connecting with all the things in his and his family’s past that have hindered his life as well as those things that have given him life. Isaac pieces together the past in a place of pain and beauty, so that healing comes in the present, and joy comes in the morning." Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, as part of a sermon series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 24:62-69.

"I’m here because of the youth. The high school youth of this church have inspired me in ways these days when joy is hard to find. A few of our youth told me they wanted to hear from me. I didn’t want to speak. But then I thought about the people I’ve grown to love during the sleepless nights on church floors, both upstairs and abroad. So here I am, and here we are." The Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on the fourtheenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Sunday of Independence Day weekend. She is joined by Westminster youth Anna Harrington (Scripture), Michaela McCormack (Children's Sermon), Conrad McIntosh (Reflection and Solo), and Michael Luhman (Prayers). The Scripture lesson is Romans 7:15-25.

We welcome the Rev. Maggie Hayward to preach in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Rev. Larry Hayward's ordination. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 22:1-14.

As I enter this next and final phase of my own ministry, I stand ready to work with the Session and staff to lead Westminster in doing something we have not yet done during my tenure here: place on the Session Table a significant social and political issue to discern what God is leading us to do as a congregation. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 37:12-25a.

Now I know this is an Old Testament text today, but the hospitality that Jesus calls us to is what Sarah and Abraham put into practice here in the 18th chapter of Genesis. The meal that Sarah and Abraham provide is a foretaste of the heavenly banquets that we all will experience here at communion. Rev. Jacob Bolton preaches on the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, as part of a sermon series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 18:1-15.

When Abraham and Sarah leave their trifecta of “land, birthplace, and family home,” they leave much of their own known world in their going forth in faith. Their movement is spiritual and existential, in addition to being geographical. We might even call it conversion. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on Trinity Sunday, the second in "Beginnings," a series on Genesis. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 12:1-4.

I have often said that the world as God created it is one of beauty and harmony, but we live “after the Fall,” and it is that fallen state into which Christ has come as God’s own Son to redeem us. As believers in Christ’s ultimate redemption, we await and live toward “a new heaven and a new earth” that Christ alone will bring. In this reading of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, the differences we experience as human beings – which seem so ever more challenging and violent this week – grow out of the Fall and form part of that from which God promises to redeem us. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on Pentecost Sunday. The Scripture lesson is Genesis 1:1-5, 26-31, and 11:1-9.

My study of parables often led me to separate the parable proper from the interpretation that Jesus often gave them in telling them. In a playful mood, I would sometimes reverse the order of events to see if a different outcome might illumine the story as Jesus told it. I would often try to look at a parable from the viewpoint of different characters within it. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is Luke 10:25-37.

We have something notable to celebrate today. Today we celebrate the sustaining power at the fringes: power moving on the margins of church and community, on the margins of faith and hope, of society and nation. Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is Luke 8:43-48.

The Christians in First Peter who heard this call were not living in easy times. They were living a quarter a century after the death and resurrection of Christ. They were living in Rome. They were a minority, subject to persecution, some episodic, some systematic. They suffered for their faith, and knew they might be called upon at any time to given an account of why they believed the way they believed. And they were re-shaping their faith in light of the fact that Christ had not returned as many had expected soon after his death and resurrection. Yet still they are being summoned. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Fifth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is 1 Peter 2:2-10.

"Let us remember Jesus as he was, rather than as we want him to be." The intention of this prayer from the Book of Common Worship is to encourage us to remember all of Jesus, hopefully reminding us that we are made in the image of God, not in the image of our idealized Christ. Rev. Jacob Bolton preaches on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is John 10:1-10.

Despite its glory, or perhaps because of it, the First Letter of Peter also turns its attention to the rough and tumble, weal and woe, of life on earth. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is 1 Peter 1:3-9, 13-25.

On this the 2nd Sunday of Easter, let us remember that resurrection is not about a certain day of the year but about an orientation to life, death, and life after death. This day, I invite you to remember that we all are witnesses, to remember when the name of God, the name of Jesus, became more than a mere word to you. Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy preaches on the Second Sunday of Easter. The Scripture lesson is Acts 2:14a, 22-32.

Perhaps in all those Easters we have anticipated and celebrated – with the size of the congregation, the beauty of the weather, the conviviality of the gathering, the suits and dresses and hats – we have overlooked that the first Easter emerged in darkness for people who like Mary were traumatized: going to a tomb at night, finding its entrance unsealed and presumably invaded by grave-robbers. Easter doesn’t occur in the light. But it brings the light. While it is still dark, Easter brings light.

There are many questions that the continuous sweep of a pandemic has raised for us the past few weeks. For all these questions – theological and human – some will soon have answers, some will have answers in time, and some will never have answers. But there is one thing with which we are left: the witness of our fellow human beings. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on Palm Sunday. The Scripture lesson is Matthew 21:1-11, and is read by Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt.

Hebrews boasts that “we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” This assurance can only emerge from those who have been met by God not just in their strength, but in their weakness. Not those whom God finds to be puffed up, but those who are shrunken down. Not those who are found and can see, but those who are blind, and lost. That’s what we need. We need to be met where we are, to go where God would have us be. Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt preaches on the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The Scripture lesson is Hebrews 4:14-16.

On a small scale, I never thought I could accept that the worship of God could occur – at least for me – without the congregation being gathered, in the Sanctuary, in the Chapel, worshipping as a community. But when I walked into this Sanctuary last Sunday, even though the pews were empty, the place was filled with the Spirit. And this week whenever a familiar face has appeared on the monitor I now have set up in my basement, that even though location changes and media of communication is new, the face or faces on the screen are community, the community with whom I worship, the community I love, the community of Westminster Presbyterian Church. Rev. Larry Hayward preaches on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The Scripture lesson is selected verses from Number 13-14, read by Rev. Whitney Fauntleroy.