Hillsborough United Methodist Church Sermons

Third Sunday of Easter (18 Apr 2021) 1 John 3:1-7 Rev. Cameron Merrill “See what kind of love the Father has given to us.” “What kind” as in “from where, from what country.” As if this love that the Father adopts us into sounds like a foreign language to the world, an accent of love. […]

John 20:19-31 Carsten Bryant

The Resurrection of the Lord (4 Apr 2021) Mark 16:1-8 Rev. Cameron Merrill We gather with the women around the tomb this morning, fully expecting, like them, to find the door still shut. The lock bolted. Jesus safely locked away for the past year, waiting on us to return.Except we don't. Instead, we get the […]

Fifth Sunday in Lent (21 Mar 2021) John 12:20-33 Rev. Cameron Merrill For this final Sunday in Lent, we come even closer to–far closer than we would like–to the reality of death. Jesus tells his friends that death is coming, his death is coming, and yet we also discover that he will be with us […]

Fourth Sunday in Lent (14 Mar 2021) John 3:14-21 Rev. Cameron Merrill Snakes are loose among the people of God. What do we do when we realize we are the snakes let loose? And what will it take to draw the poison out of us? God’s ‘cure’ continues to surprise us.

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany (7 Feb 2021) Mark 1:29-39 Rev. Laura Fine Ledford As the crowds press in around him, Jesus goes off to find a quiet place. And in his prayer–take a beat, take a breath, get away–we find a rhythm to our own life with God and with one another. The discovery that […]

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (31 Jan 2021) Mark 1:21-28 Rev. Cameron Merrill We might have thought Jesus comes to organize, to order our lives–but apparently, he comes to disrupt us. He calls out of us the demons we have come to love, dispossessing and disrupting us with his love for us.

Third Sunday after Epiphany (24 Jan 2021) Mark 1:14-20 Rev. Cameron Merrill Mending a net comes in two parts: finding the hole, and tying new knots. When Jesus comes up to these fishers along the lakeshore, they are not just out fishing. They are sitting and mending their nets–and that is what Jesus calls them […]

Second Sunday after Epiphany (17 Jan 2021) 1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20) Rev. Cameron Merrill “The word of the Lord was rare in those days.” Maybe the Old Testament isn’t such an antiquated story from a bygone era, is it? In times when the word of the Lord feels rare, maybe we aren’t looking or listening […]

Baptism of the Lord (10 Jan 2021) Mark 1:4-11 Rev. Cameron Merrill On this feast day, we discover anew that our lives are torn open, ripped apart by the Word made flesh. This tearing away is not always a bad thing, opening up in us room for God to take up space, through us and […]

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (20 Sep 2020) Luke 23:33-43 Rev. Cameron Merrill Our sermon series continues as we look to the Way of Jesus to be our Way of Life. Today, we hear him tell the thief-disciple who looks so surprisingly like us: you will be with me in Paradise.

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (13 September 2020) Mark 1:14-20 Rev. Cameron Merrill The next sermon in our conversation on the Way of Jesus as the Way of Life, we hear Jesus come to the disciples and to us and say, “Follow me.” His invitation to follow isn’t a part-time compartmentalization or a full-time escape; it […]

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (6 September 2020) John 1:29-42 Rev. Cameron Merrill In this first sermon of our new Fall series, we begin to explore how the Way of Jesus can be our Way of Life–especially in a season where our way of life has been overturned. It begins by hearing Jesus say, “Come and […]

Eighth Sunday after Trinity (2 August 2020) Matthew 14:13-21 Rev. Cameron Merrill Jesus comes showing us the character of the kingdom, not through so-called “miracles,” but through signs. This Sunday, we can see the sign more clearly if we see how it is a sign happening around two very different meals.

Second Sunday of Easter (19 April 2020) John 20:19-31 Rev. Cameron Merrill On this second Sunday of Easter, it is still the day of the resurrection, and here we are, locked down with the disciples. This resurrection story is all-too-familiar for us, and in it we find Jesus coming through our locked doors and our […]

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (9 February 2020) Matthew 5:13-20 Rev. Cameron Merrill This morning, Jesus calls us salt, which might be a blessing or a curse in our day and time. But if salt does anything especially well for sure, it makes us thirsty. So maybe, Jesus calling us salt is an invitation: an invitation […]

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (2 February 2020) 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Rev. Cameron Merrill We continue our series, listening to 1 Corinthians and how we might learn to live well together in a divided age. This week, we end with that great chapter in the letter, the Hymn to Love. How might Paul be inviting us to […]

Third Sunday after the Epiphany (26 January 2020) 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Rev. Molly Shivers We continue our series, listening to 1 Corinthians and how we might learn to live well together in a divided age. This week, Rev. Molly Shivers brings us a word about what it means to care for one another in community, for the […]

Second Sunday after the Epiphany (19 January 2020) 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Rev. Cameron Merrill We continue our series, listening to 1 Corinthians and how we might learn to live well together in a divided age. This week, St Paul tackles our understanding of freedom, and how in Christ our freedom might be more (and more dangerous) than […]

The Baptism of the Lord (12 January 2020) 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Rev. Cameron Merrill We begin a new series on how to live well together in a divided world, and we start with the foundations we need to hear Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. We need to know more about Corinth: a fast-moving, fast-growing metropolitan […]

The Nativity of the Lord (24 December 2019) Luke 2:1-20 Rev. Cameron Merrill As we end our series “Labor of Love,” we listen for the ways that Mary’s labor to make room in her body and life for God to come into the world, makes room for us to join in with her as God-bearers.

Fourth Sunday of Advent (22 December 2019) Matthew 1:18-25 Rev. Cameron Merrill Continuing our series about the ways that love is laborious and costly, we look into the life of Joseph, our father of costly discipleship.

Second Sunday of Advent (8 December 2019) Matthew 3:1-12 Rev. Cameron Merrill Continuing our series about the ways that love is laborious and costly, we listen to John the Baptizer: for his labor of love, for the work he takes on in order to help prepare the way for Love the Guest who is on […]

First Sunday of Advent (1 December 2019) Isaiah 2:1-5 Rev. Cameron Merrill As we begin a new season, we start a new series, listening for the ways that love is costly, hard work: how it costs God something to love us, how it costs others to participate in God’s love, and how God’s labor of […]