Introduction: They say confession is good for the soul – if you believe in a soul. I used to wear camel’s hair and eat wild locusts and honey. No, that’s not my confession. That’s my attire during this period in my life to which I am about to confess. When your head ends up on a platter and you’re not a pig, you’ve done something that probably warranted the loss of your head.

I spoke truth to power. Big mistake. Power will put your head in a place where it can’t speak any more.

I made enemies in high places. Herod’s steward, Kooza, the man who ran Herod’s house was married to, Joanna, one of my disciples. Well, she would have been one of my disciples if that upstart Jesus hadn’t come along. He got the leavings from my table.

Originally delivered on January 7th, 2007 by Jack Bonham-Harris.

The text of the sermon can be read online at
http://www.austinuu.org/site/index.php?page=baptism-by-fire

I want to empower each and every one of you here today. I want you to take back the power of prayer. I want you to realize that you are praying and part of you is listening and the part of you that is listening may, in fact, be in a very concrete manner answering all your prayers.

The full text of this sermon can be found online at http://www.austinuu.org/sermons/ and was originally delivered on April 30th, 2006.

What happens when you want one thing and life offers you something quite different? Is there such a thing as a tragedy that becomes a gift? What does it mean to be gifted? What are we to do with our gifts?

The text of this sermon can be viewed online at http://www.austinuu.org/sermons/, and was originally delivered on November 6, 2005.