I Want to See

“I Want to See,” by Rev. Dr. Mearle Griffith – October 27, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 10: 46-54 As I told the children, we’re going to be dealing with the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus, and it begins with Jesus asking what might seem to us to be an…

Read More

To Serve

“To Serve” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – October 20, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 10:35-45 The Son of Man, which was one of Jesus’ titles, came not to be served, but to serve. The drive from my house to this building is about 40 minutes, so every Sunday morning I…

Read More

All Things Are Possible

“All Things Are Possible” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – October 13, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 10:17-31 Jesus covers a lot of ground in the lectionary passage that we just heard. There’s a lot there. And I’m going to talk about some of it. As I said to the children,…

Read More

Holy Communion

“Holy Communion” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, October 6, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 10:13-16 I want to read some words to you from my favorite Bible commentary regarding what Dave just read for us. Quote: “The disciples here are attempting to enforce the standard social mores. The standard social mores…

Read More

Salt and Light

“Salt and Light,” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, September 29, 2024, based on Matthew 5:13-16 More than once, usually in the setting of a classroom but now in the setting of this message, more than once I’ve said this to people to just try to make my point and I’m going to do it…

Read More

Greatness

“Greatness,” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, September 22, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 9: 30-37 I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll mention it again. I don’t write sermons. I prepare them, and I create them. There’s a blessing to that, and I don’t know if it’s a curse, but there’s two…

Read More

Who Is This Guy?

“Who Is This Guy?” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, September 15, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 8:27-38 I’d like to open up myself a bit here at the beginning of my message and let you know where I’m at spiritually, and I need to tell you it’s a good place. I…

Read More

Be Opened

“Be Opened,” given by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, September 8, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 7:31-3 As I mentioned earlier, this story only appears in Mark. It’s not exactly a well-known, considered pivotal passage of scripture. Nevertheless, I really love it. I love this. I’ll read it one more time, not…

Read More

A Clean Heart

“A Clean Heart,” by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, September 1, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15 So far in our service I’ve been fairly confident that what I want to happen is happening. As we’ve already touched upon, this is one of our lectionary readings, what we just heard, and my goal…

Read More

There’s No Place Like Home

  There’s No Place Like Home, by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat, August 25, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Psalm 84:1-4 There’s no place like home. I think most people when they hear that probably think of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” Click your heels three times, I think, and say, “There’s…

Read More