Guest preacher the Rev. Meredith Ellis reads the parable of the tenants against the Roman ‘domination system’ of Jesus’s day, and asks what Jesus would make of a world where the few hoard while the many go hungry. Christ has no body now on earth but ours, so it’s time to get busy making good trouble.

When the chief priests demand to know by what authority Jesus acts, he turns the question back on them. Rev. Dr. James Olson asks us to see through the distractions of our own day just as sharply: to ask why people are hungry or homeless in the first place, and to keep stirring up good trouble.

From cold sanctuaries to missing toilet paper, Rev. Dr. James Olson has heard every church complaint, and so had Moses in the wilderness. Complaining can be holy if it’s done well: pray first, come with a solution, tell preference from principle, practice gratitude, and no parking-lot conversations.

Joseph forgives the brothers who sold him and blesses them; the unforgiving servant learns too late what he was given. Rev. Dr. James Olson warns against using ‘blessed’ as a boast, sets out the three questions that will guide the interim year, and assigns homework: look for the blessings in your life, and be one.

Matthew 18 gives the church a pattern for conflict: go privately first, then with two or three others, then to the whole community, always grounded in love. Rev. Dr. James Olson asks a conflict-avoidant congregation to face disagreements before they fester, and explains why the passing of the peace belongs right after the confession.

Moses asks God’s name at the burning bush; Peter can’t accept what Jesus says is coming. With help from T. S. Eliot’s cats and Schrödinger’s, Rev. Dr. James Olson suggests we’ll never get God into a box, and that faith asks something simpler: trust, love, do, and learn to live with the mystery.

Peter gives the textbook answer, but ‘Who do you say that I am?’ is a question disciples go on answering every day. Rev. Dr. James Olson turns it back on the congregation through Paul’s one body with many members: what is your gift, and how will you use it out in the world?

A Canaanite woman, an outsider in every way, talks back to Jesus and wins, and the next story is the feeding of four thousand Gentiles. Rev. Dr. James Olson traces how God’s welcome breaks out to everyone, and remembers a church shelter in Northampton that fed its unhoused guests on real dishes, with style and grace.

Having once scored low on evangelism, Rev. Dr. James Olson redefines it with the line attributed to St. Francis: preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Like Peter stepping out of the boat, we’re called out of the comfort of these four walls to live so that people want to know where our strength comes from.

Rev. Dr. James Olson’s first Sunday as the Old Sloop’s interim pastor begins with introductions (call me Jim, and no parking-lot conversations, please) before turning to the feeding of the five thousand. The real miracle, the sermon suggests, was a crowd that reached into its own bags and shared, and it’s why this communion table has no fence around it.