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Showing posts from March, 2013

Uncomfortable

This is my sermon text for Sunday, March 17, based on the John 12:1-8, the story of Mary (sister of Lazarus) anointing Jesus. Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.  Please be seated. I’m stopping reading the Gospel lesson here, because there are things you should know before you hear the rest. First , the story you are about to hear occurs, in some version or another, in each of the other 3 Gospels, but with some different details. If you are aware of those other stories, please try to ignore them, and listen to the story I am going to tell. Second , this is from John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel was the last of the four gospels to be written, and was written to present a different perspective on the life of Jesus Christ. John writes assuming you know the story, he’s just bringing i

Anchors and Explorers

This is my sermon text from a few weeks ago (February 20-21) as part of our "Faith Examples" part of Hebrews 11, specifically Hebrews 11.1-7, the story of Noah. Have you ever climbed a mountain? I watched a program on TV recently where they were showing people climbing a surface that had actually gone beyond 90° parallel; they were climbing on overhangs that were actually beyond vertical. Now as someone who doesn’t have a fear of heights; I’m just not fond of them, and avoid them when possible, I don’t have any true expertise in this, but I paid attention to this program. Plus, we’ve all seen rock or mountain climbing on TV or in the movies, so we’re somewhat familiar with it, while having not done it ourselves. For their safety, they will put anchors into the face of the rock, and run rope through those anchors. The anchors, hopefully, will secure and stop their fall. The anchors allow them to go farther into their climb. During our

Hey God, I'M WAITING!!!!

This is my sermon text from a couple weeks ago (February 27-28) as part of our "Faith Examples" part of Hebrews 11, specifically Hebrews 11.1; 8-22, the story of Abraham. Do you remember lay-aways? When I was growing up, I thought you bought everything, except groceries, by lay-away. For those of you who don’t recall this concept, which is coming back, you would go to a department store, (ours was K-mart, and once in a while, Sears) find the stuff you wanted to buy, and take it to the back of the store. There, the clerk would ring up what you brought back there, and you would pay a portion of the total. They would take your stuff, and put it on a shelf or in its own bin. Then, every week or two, you would come in and make a payment. When you paid off the total, the stuff was yours. Those of you new to this concept may be asking, why didn’t you just pay for it with a credit card? Good question. Credit cards back in the time of rotary phones w

If God Calls You, God Equips You

This is my sermon text from last Wednesday (March 6) as part of our "Faith Examples" part of Hebrews 11, specifically Hebrews 11.1; 23-28, the story of Moses. Have you ever heard someone describe you, or some of your attributes, and think, “Are they talking about ME?” I think that would be the reaction of Moses if he heard the passage I just read. Not that I do not think that Moses is an example of a faith-filled person. I believe Moses is a great example of someone who lived by faith. But he had to work at it. Moses was raised in the court of the Pharaoh, having been pulled from a basket in the River Nile by the Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised by her. He fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who has beating on of the Israelite slaves. He fled to the land of Midian, across the Sinai Peninsula, and lived there for forty years. One day while he was leading his sheep to feed, he came upon a bush that was on fire, but it was not consumed. We’

It's Hard Out Here, Where Is My Milk and Honey?

This is the text for my sermon for our mid-week Lenten services. We are focusing on the examples of faith as listed in Hebrews 11. Specifically, this week's text was Hebrews 11.1; 29-40. Has anyone watched the Bible mini-series? If you have, or if you haven’t, but listened to the reading I just did from the letter to the Hebrews, there is one thing that is clear; being a part of the church has never been a picnic. I have watched both episodes of “The Bible” so far, I got into a hotel in St. Paul just in time for it to start. I have some problems with the series, over what stories they chose to show and which ones they didn’t. But overall, I hope they are achieving their goal of wanting people to enter into the Bible narrative by actually entering into the Bible. That means picking it up, opening it up, sitting down and reading it. But the stories they have shown, especially last Sunday’s episode which covers the people and events that are in toda

Prodigal

I thought I'd do something different. This is my first draft of my sermon for Sunday. (March 10) It's based on the third parable from Luke 15 (verses 11-32), most commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I don't know how much tinkering will go on between now and Sunday morning, or during the sermon, since I don't use a manuscript. So I thought, I'd post what I got, and if someone likes an idea, or hates an idea, great. I really love this parable. But I hate the title that it has been given. First, show of hands, who knows what “prodigal” means? No, really, anybody? The definition of prodigal is giving profusely, recklessly extravagant, lavishly abundant. That has been the label that has been attached to this parable since they started putting headings in Bibles. And I think that it completely misrepresents the parable. Because the parable is not at all about the son who goes away. The wonderful thing about this para