Rev. Dr. James Olson closes several weeks of Jesus's sparring with the Pharisees and Sadducees on the question that matters most, the greatest commandment: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Through Micah, Isaiah, Amos and Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, Rev. Olson calls Christians to love first, without asking who is worthy, since all are; it's not rocket science.

Rev. Dr. James Olson reads Jesus's answer about Caesar's coin as a call to give God what is God's, and widens stewardship beyond writing the check to the time and talent that keep five old buildings and a busy church life going. Remembering the rummage sales of a childhood church, Rev. Olson asks who the church's neighbors in Rockport really are today and urges the congregation to invite their friends.

Understand the recent email scam and take steps to protect yourself and the church.

Rev. Dr. James Olson reads the parable of the wedding banquet as a warning to anyone who claims the name of Christ without living the way Jesus teaches. The sermon then turns to the announced plan to execute Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan by firing squad and broadcast it, and calls the church to speak up: not in our name.

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.