“Good Students are Good Teachers and Vice-Versa” Sermon based on Luke 2:41-52, Mark 11:15-18 and 12:13-17 Rev. Paul E. Capetz Christ Church by the Sea (United Methodist), Newport Beach There is only one story in the entire New Testament about the childhood of Jesus. As a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus had come to Jerusalem with his...

John Wesley, to whom we owe our Methodist heritage, once wrote an important sermon entitled “A Catholic Spirit.” Here the word “catholic” is to be understood as “universal” or “allembracing,” spelled with a lower-case “c”; Wesley is not talking about Roman Catholicism.

Have you ever been wronged by someone? Have you ever been betrayed? Has someone ever violated you? Have you ever been hurt and wounded by someone? I think we all know what these experiences are like. These are some of the most bitter experiences in life

Sometimes I meet new people, and when they learn that I am a minister, they feel a need to explain to me that they don’t go to church anymore. For some of them, the church used to be a very important part of their lives, but bad experiences led them to leave their churches.

Tomorrow is Presidents Day. When I was growing up, we used to have two holidays in February, one celebrating George Washington’s birthday and another one celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but for some reason we now have only a single holiday in recognition of all the men who have ever served as president of the United States.

Last year a good friend of mine died whom I had known for over twenty years while I was living in Minneapolis. Her name was Liz Heller and she was a Presbyterian minister. I want to tell you about Liz because she grew up at a time when churches like ours did not yet permit women to be ordained as ministers.