You can find my most recent sermons on the Facebook Live or YouTube pages for Lake Murray Presbyterian Church. You can also see my weekday devotionals for Tuesdays and Thursdays on the same sites. These devotionals become my weekly podcast, Simply Stated, which you can access through itunes. A few worship services with me preaching are listed below.
HOPE IN GOD'S LOVE, GRACE AND FAITHFULNESS
In this sermon I attempt to address the very painful and difficult areas of human life, by directing people to look at the character of God as the source of hope. By depending on God's love, grace and faithfulness we can live with hope, even in the midst of great difficulty.
I have a strong suspicion that a sermon of Andy Stanley's influenced my sermon.
HERE'S A GOOD PODCAST: THE INCOMPARABLE.
The Incomparable is a great podcast for all things Geeky. They actually have a bunch of different podcast that go further down the geek rabbit hole than I care for, but their main podcast--The Incomparable--is one I don't miss. Jason Snell gathers a thoughtful and expressive panel for a variety of different topics: books, movies, comics. I don't give a hoot about Manga, so I skip all those. Comics get tiresome to me, but these jokers make them interesting to listen about while I'm fixing the fence in the back yard. But I've been introduced to a pile of good books, and gotten a lot of pleasure in thinking about some great movies.
It is like listening into a thoughtful conversation by intelligent geeks, who I like. It gives me a chance to listen in to how people outside my little church echo-chamber think, as well. These folks are having passionate and considered conversation about things they care about, no holding back.
Early lessons in water safety and life guarding: don’t put yourself in grave danger in an effort to save someone else. It is always better to reach for the victims or throw a life line than to swim out to them. I know several lifeguards who have ‘saved’ a drowning swimmer just by telling them to stand up. A life guard may have to swim out to someone in trouble, but the life guard takes great care not to let the drowning person overwhelm them in their panic. They approach from behind, preferably with a rescue buoy for the frightened swimmer to grab.
Christmas completely ignores this wisdom. In Christmas, we celebrate the Good News that the eternal Son of God became human. Jesus is not a warrior or hero or even a fit lifeguard. He became a week and utterly dependent baby. The Son of God just jumped into humanity in his birth, then swam into the dangerous deep-end at the cross. The Son of God rushes into the grave danger of the world.
Christmas celebrates God’s decision to join us with a reckless abandon. Not only is God for us, God is with us, in the dangerous mess of creation.
Yes, I'm being contrary with this title. And it is not true. But is was once kind of true. Our Puritans forefathers in New England were hostile to the holiday as part of their hostility to the Roman Catholic Church and disdain for excess. On Christmas day of 1686, Magistrate Samuel Sewell was glad to record that most shops were open and people were going about their business. It is strange to think of commerce as a sign of the dwindling of Christmas. The Christmas season was an excuse for drunken violence and low grade extortion. In 1679 four young men stopped by the home of the Rowdens, pushed their way in, sang a song, then demanded drinks. They came wassailing among the leaves so green. The Rowdens refused to serve the pushy and already drunk young men. The men harassed this old couple and vandalized their home. They broke into a shed and stole apples. Some Holiday spirit. Jump ahead a few centuries, and we find good, old Charlie Brown lamenting the commercialization of Christmas. Blessedly, Linus give us the straight scoop on the meaning of Christmas:
Christmas raises all manner of contradictions. Many people find themselves blue or even depressed because it is the most wonderful time of the year. I decry and get caught up in the excessive buying of gifts. Perhaps these contradictions are inherent in Christmas. The baby at the center of the holiday is a living contradiction. He is both fully human and fully divine. He is one person, but he has two different natures (that is the very old, traditional and trustworthy wayto describe Jesus). Jesus is a living contradiction. Even that claim carries the contradiction of Jesus. He was crucified, dead and buried, but now is alive. Jesus is a little baby at Mary's bosom; through him all things in heaven and on earth were created. Jesus is the Word that existed before creation; Jesus is a squawking, toothless, speechless baby. We cannot make sense of the two things together, but there he is, a living contradiction.
You can join me in my contrary mood about Christmas with Stephen Nissenbam's The Battle for Christmas. I should admit, that while the book is interesting, I still haven't finished it. Let me know if I should. Or for more fun, jam out with the Peanuts gang:
We have entered the season of wacky Bible readings. A few weeks ago we read Luke 21:25-39 in church. Jesus talks about signs in the sun and moon, a figure on the clouds called the Son of Man, then breaks out into a parable about fig trees. To wrap up, he tells us not to get drunk. This kind of Bible passage is hard to understand. It is hard to understand because Jesus is speaking in coded language, and we don't follow this code very easily. Coded language is meant to communicate. Think of the quarterback calling at the line of scrimmage. The other team does not know what he means, but his own teammates do. Jesus speaks in coded language that draws on the rich pool of language in the Old Testament.
When Jesus mentions 'the Son of Man,' all of his listeners would immediately know he was referring to a particular passage in the Book of Daniel. None of his Jewish listeners would have missed this reference. It is much like asking church folks to fill in these blanks:
If you actually ask a Christian congregation to fill in these blanks they can: Den and Whale. (Though one time I had a kid fill in the second blank with the word broom tree. This is technically correct, but I'm pretty sure he was being a smart mouth.)
Jesus' listeners understood the reference immediately. They did not have to go look anything up in the play book. And more importantly, they knew 'the Son of Man' is a code for a reason to hope. God is interrupting the normal and violent patterns of this world to bring his kingdom.
Every one around Jesus understood Jesus reference to fig trees. They were as common and familiar to his crowd as blackberries and backyard tomatoes are to us. Everyone knew that the fig leaves unfurling meant that summer was pretty near. Summer brought sweet fruit. The leaves were sign of something better on the way.
Sometimes we want to turn Jesus' coded language into bizarre predictions about the future. Sometimes we just dismiss them altogether. Both are a selfish mistake. Rather than trying to make Jesus' language fit our expectations, we should open our ears and hearts to the hope he shares for the future.
Seriously. Seeing Star Wars in 1977 caused me to experience the power of a story. I managed to talk my dad into taking me. "Take me to see Star Wars. Please take me, all the other kids have seen it, please take me." "Well, what's it about?" I realize now that no one in the United States could not have known the answer to this question in the summer of 1977. But I gave my convincing answer. "It's about a war, but in the stars!" It worked. Dad took me. I was young enough to be kind of confused, but still entirely consumed by the power of the story. I can tiell that the experience shaped me because the movie dominated how we played all summer and into the fall. And winter and spring. And the next year. Mike thought Darth Vader was totally awesome. Mike probably grew up to like the bad guy wrestlers, er, wrasslers, like Rowdy Ronny Piper. Bart had the completly awesome, life sized model of the death star. It wasn't life sized, in point of fact, but imaginitively, it was at least as big as the moon. I figure any story that shapes the majority of children's play, that is a story with power. So I'm taking the fam to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
If you happen to care, please notice that the Christmas season is full of story. Mary gets some serios news. Joseph, too. Jesus gets some presents. John the Baptist screams at folks in the desert, and they kind of like it. Rudolf lives inn a nightmare north pole, where being different shames his father. (For real, have you watched the 1964 Rudolph movie recently? The north pole is super weird.)
P.S. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, my folks rounded up my younger brother, a cousin and drove us across the Ohio River to a theater in Kentucky. My parents are awesome. When Return of the Jedi came out, my Dad checked me and my two brothers out of school and took us to the 1 p.m. matinee. He didn't tell us he was coming, he just showed up, and BOOM, we are sitting with a tub of popcorn, sharing a jumbo coke and some Goobers. My mom did not even find out about this until four years ago.
We all need a plan for difficult days. Psalm 77 teaches us to cry out, to push and to remember.
Check out Del Ryder and the Crystal Seed by Matt Brough (a Canadian Colleague). My 12 years old twins and fourteen year old all liked it. So did I. Its a great story, and has key themes you can talk about with kids--friendship, trust, loyalty. Or just read it because its a great book.
I don't like to change my mind, but it is even harder to change my actions. And a change of heart is harder still. Often the best way to make some headway is to come at things sideways. Sister Emily was right to encourage us to tell the truth but to tell it slant.
Frederick the Great of Prussia is known as the potato king. People leave potatoes on his grave to honor his memory. And this is fair enough, because King Freddie introduced the potato to Germany on a massive scale. The potato provided people, notably peasants, with a cheap form of food that they could grow for themselves. When the king first offered it to his peasants, did they rush out to welcome his innovation? No. Of course they didn't . Peasants are shrewd. They are suspicious of new things. They ignored and neglected King Frederick's foreign 'taters. So the king developed a plan to introduce the potato to the German people. His plan was based on peasant shrewdness. He planted a large field of potatoes near a peasant village. He set an armed military guard over the potatoes. By day, the guards fiercely protected the spuds, on the pain of death to any intruder. But at night, the guard let down their guard, under the very command of the king. The peasants knew anything worth guarding, was worth stealing. Obviously, they acquired the potatoes, grew them and enjoyed the improvement for their family. The King shifted the people's thinking.
Jesus shifts thinking all the time, often with his stories and sometimes with his actions. In Mark 12, Jesus waits in view of the temple deposit system. All day long men come to make prominent, gold clanking and silver tinkling gifts. Then comes the thin tinkle of two copper coins from an old woman. "Her gift is greater than everyone else's." From a human account point of view this is silly. Three coppers coins is more. Two silvers coins is more. One gold coin is more. But Jesus is accounting by the Kingdom of Heaven standards.
This is super good news for us, because the little bit we contribute is counted as more. Less can be more. It shocks us to shift our thinking.
The pursuit of happiness is part of American life (see the constitution) and may be the vainest chase there ever was. God's word shows us what to avoid and gives wisdom to guide. More importantly, we can have the living wisdom of God in Christ Jesus.
It is common, in some circles, to hear that there are no particular requirements for the words of our prayers. We can pray however we like. This advice is meant as encouragement. It is true as far as it goes. It does not go very far.
When his followers asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus gave us a very clear answer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever. Amen.
We give this prayer the name 'The Lord's Prayer.' It is his prayer because Jesus gave it to us. It is also the disciples prayer because he gave it to us. It is his gift to us. Jesus was not giving us just a set of words to recite in prayer. He gave us a pattern of prayer. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning orients us to God: Our Father, who art in heaven. We are praying to God the Father with Jesus, his Son. The middle is a set of six requests. The end is worship: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. The pattern is meant to shape our prayer. By shaping our prayer, it shapes our heart.
First, notice that Jesus honors the request of his disciples. He is not simply teaching us a prayer, but how to pray. When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, it is while Jesus is praying. He immediately gives them a clear answer: "When you pray, say...." Jesus answers a lot of people with parables. Parables are oblique answers to a question. But when we simply and directly ask Jesus to teach us how to speak with his Father, he gives us a clear and profound answer.
You can find the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11 and Matthew 6. This is the first post on prayer and on the Lord's prayer. There will be further opportunity to dive deeper and understand Jesus' prayer more fully.
We see how God both brings and interrupts the trials of life as an act of grace.
I never thought about flags until I saw this. Flags give us a chance to say something. They only work well if they are kept very simple. But wow do they really work when simplicity guides their design. I admit, that until recently, I have thought the whole emphasis on design was an attractive sort of silly. Sure, it is nice to buy a pretty toaster or soap dish at the big box store, but it did not seem to matter. Roman Mars' has helped me understand that thoughtful design makes a big difference in how we live. Really good design makes a big difference without us noticing the hard work that went into the design.
If you like Mars here, you can check out more of his stuff here: 99percentinvisible.org
He seems the master of making some of the craziest stuff interesting: water fountains, old mail, fortune cookies, pizza. Ok, so I was already interested in pizza.
Does religion have anything to contribute to ethical discourse? It seems an almost silly question.
Read MoreTo be human, is to be made in the image of God. We take joy in creation, are responsible stewards, have freedom, and present God to the world.
This sermon begins a series--"Basic Good News." In it you can learn how I try to lead the congregation from the pulpit. The idea for the series came from my finding a small booklet that contained five verses for a new Christian to learn. My intention was to give young Christians a foundation, and to fortify the foundation of all the congregation. I also hoped to equip the members of the congregation with scripture they might share with others, as a way of sharing the Gospel.
“The Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love.” How can we tell? What does that claim even mean? Our reading makes the bold assertion twice, that the LORD was with Joseph. It is nice to think of God mysteriously warming Joseph’s heart, whispering encouragement and hope for the future. His circumstance and situation certainly do not obviously show God’s presence and love. Certainly, we read that God gives Joseph favor with his jailer. Joseph ends up running the jail, but he is still in the jail as a prisoner. He is jailed for a sexual assault that he did not commit. Joseph believes the LORD is with him, so he tells the baker and the cupbearer to share their dreams with him. He believes he will be able to offer an interpretation, because interpretation belongs to God. And Joseph believes God is with him. We can believe the Bible narrator who assets that the Lord was with Joseph. At least Joseph thought so.
God is present with Joseph in work. Running a jail is hardly glamorous work. But Joseph does prosper. His own jail keeper comes to trust Joseph. If we look at Joseph's imprisonment in the light of his whole life, we see Joseph’s work at various jobs as part of God’s work to reconcile Joseph’s family. Joseph is trusted and successful in many positions: Potiphar’s steward, head trustee in the jail, advisor to the Pharaoh. In his work, Joseph has something useful to do. Even more he is part of God’s reconciling work, even though Joseph does not know it.
Joseph does actually give the Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer a sound interpretation of their dreams. He tells them what will happen. One will be restored, the other executed. In the arena of his work, Joseph has wisdom to understand things that are hidden. Somehow, he finds the LORD is with him.
It can be very hard for us to know in our heart that God is present, or to see his steadfast love. Perhaps in our work we can experience God’s presence. We may trust that our work is part of God’s reconciling work.
A look at Psalm 23 to see the character of the Good Shepherd so we can trust Jesus.
Gillian Welch masters the beguiling simplicity of a gospel hymn. Nothing in the song sticks out as robust or complex. None of the words have more than two syllables. The words touch on the most powerful themes of Christian faith: the crucifixion of Jesus, the cross as the key to the identity of the Savior, the foolishness of earthly wealth, redemption as an event in history. The singing is easy to listen to, but Welch and Rawlings have carefully worked out their harmonies and timing to give remarkable depth of sound to their singing. They start by singing the words of the first verse together, then begin carefully varied repetition in the chorus. The variety keeps us interested without drawing attention to itself. They manage to pull a huge amount of sound out of two guitars, without ever beginning to sound ornate or fussy. Right after the two minute point Mark Rawlings lays into a solo that is quick and full of notes, but his technique allows him to pull each note out of the guitar as a single unique sound. The sound never blurs or smears. They have put a huge amount of information of various kinds into 3 minutes of old-fashioned simple music.
From a London performance 2004
P.S. The name of the band is NOT simply. Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch make up a duo called Gilliam Welch. It's confusing, but who cares. The music is great.