October 7 - Snippet from Sunday - Prejudice and the King

I have yet to meet a church whose members don’t quietly hold prejudice and division from one another in their hearts. Already as a small child, I knew there was division in the heart of the congregation I grew up in and loved. The meetinghouse was situated midway between two small towns. Church members came from both towns to worship together as one body. But whenever there was a congregational vote, the church was split along town lines--who lived where, who went to Bible study in one municipality or the other. This internal divided-ness spilled over to the conversations over coffee in the fellowship hall or the church foyer. Those three men were from Town A, that group of women was from Town B, and so forth.

This is not what Jesus wants for the community he calls his body. He prayed that we may be one just as he is one with God his Father, separate in person but united in spirit (Jn 17.21). But even before the New Testament was fully written, already churches were drawing lines and taking sides.

[. . .] According to James in 2.8, the standard we’re held to is unconditional love, love without discrimination, love without favoritism or prejudice. James calls this the “royal” law; we could also translate it “the King’s law.” If we were to read on to v 11, we’d find James focusing our attention more and more on the King, the one who spoke this law to us.

Whether we identify this King with God in the person of Jesus in Mk 12 or Yahweh God speaking to Moses in Lev 19, this law sums up how our King desires us to live with one another. When we nurse prejudice in our hearts or show favoritism, we walk away from what God wants. It doesn’t matter that prejudice is only a feeling or that favoritism is affects how we treat others only a little. Just as surely as if we committed adultery or murder, James says in v 12, we’re walking away from the path to the good, free, and just life God desires for us.

[. . .] My brothers and sisters, this should not be for us. Jesus’ cross has toppled every dividing wall. While age, money, gender, race, class, interests and hobbies are all still realities we live with, we don’t live by them. We don’t let them determine who we extend friendship to. Jesus has crossed the biggest barrier, that between a holy and faithful God and us faithless people, to make us God’s friends. Where that barrier has fallen, no other barrier should still stand.

(Check out the whole sermon after the jump. . .)

January 30 - The Wisdom of the Cross

Living Water Community Church - Sunday Morning Worship 

1 Cor 1.18-31 - “The Wisdom of the Cross” 

 In today’s passage, 1 Cor 1.18-31, Paul tells the Corinthian saints that God saves us 

through the foolishness and the weakness of a Messiah who is executed on a cross in order that 

we, the ones who are being saved, will hear the emptiness of all the claims of power and 

privilege that distract us from the hard work of love. Paul says, “God chose the lowly things of 

the world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so 

that no one may boast before him.” That’s the theme of today’s passage. 

 In sixth grade I was in the Montana Middle School Science Fair. I was really proud of my 

project. I seriously expected to get first place. But here’s the dirty little secret--my dad had 

actually done most the work on the project. He came up with the idea; he led me step by step 

through the experiments; he showed me how to organize the data. I put in some time on the 

project, but, in reality, if my presentation board won the gold ribbon, my dad would be the one 

who should put it up on his wall, not me. As things turned out, my science project had plenty of 

holes in it (I was never too good at following my dad’s instructions step-by-step), and the judges 

rated me quite low. 

 Now, I want you to picture my awkward sixth grade self pompously bragging about my 

science fair project to all my science fair friends. It’s pretty ridiculous, right? First, I was 

bragging about work that I hadn’t done, work that my father, not I, had done. Second, my project 

wasn’t even any good. I was bragging about a project that really wasn’t worth all that much. 

Ridiculous.

 Paul accuses the saints in Corinth of bragging like misguided sixth graders. Last week 

Kristin told us about the division that plagued the saints in Corinth. No unity in their church. 

Instead there were factions, each claiming for itself one of the early teachers to pass through their 

community--Paul, Apollos, Peter, or some, those really “spiritual” ones, claimed to follow no one 

but Jesus. In the passage that we’re studying this week, Paul confronts the empty, deceitful ways 

of thinking that motivate such factions, such divisions. He exposes them to the tragic and 

glorious light of the Messiah executed on a cross, and he directs the saints to stop seeking 

human honors and to seek the God who saves and redeems them. Paul’s words speak to us today 

also. He calls us to change our hearts and to change our actions. So open your Bible, if you 

have one with you, to 1 Cor 1.18, or follow along on the text projected on the wall. 

March 28 - The True Light Was Coming into the World

Living Water Community Church - Sunday Worship

Jn 12.12-19 - “The True Light Was Coming into the World”

This morning I want to look at Palm Sunday in light of the whole story of John’s Gospel. But before we do that, I want us to become a little more involved in the drama. So we’re going to do a little call-and-response. Stand up, and repeat after me:

Hosanna! Hosanna!

Hosanna! Hosanna!

Blessed is the coming one! Blessed is the coming one!

The one who come in the name of the Lord! The one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the king of Israel! Blessed is the king of Israel!

Hosanna! Hosanna!

Now everyone can take a seat.

The second paragraph of Jn reads:

The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. But to all who have received him--those who believe in his name--to these he has given the right to become God’s children. (Jn 1.9-12)

This is how John begins his Gospel story of Jesus’ life. Why does he begin this way, with these words? More importantly for us today, what do these words have to do with the story we’re celebrating today, with the Palm Sunday crowds going to meet Jesus as he comes to Jerusalem?

The world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. Jesus, who John calls the true light, was coming into the world. But the people living in our world, they refuse Jesus. They don’t welcome him; they turn him away. How does this fit with the crowd waving palm fronds on the road to Jerusalem?

I should admit: Palm Sunday’s always left me a bit confused. The church spends the six weeks before Palm Sunday identifying with Jesus’ approach to the cross, during Lent. We find ways to simplify our lives, to leave room to reflect on them; we fast; we mourn as the tragic shadow of the cross stretches out over us. But then, just before the end of this quiet season, there’s Palm Sunday--and we’re out singing in the streets, breaking out the party favors, shouting down the house. It’s only five days later when we’re back to mourning and contemplation as Jesus dies on a cross. Palm Sunday doesn’t seem to fit very well.

The world did not recognize him.

March 1 - The Faithless Disciples and the Freed Demoniac (Notes)

First Presbyterian Church of DuPage - The Five O’Clock
Mk 4.35-5.20 & Lent - “The Faithless Disciples and the Freed Demoniac”

Note: I normally write my sermons out in manuscript form, composing each word and phrase. This week I made a go at working off only some notes. You can all be the judge of how successful I was (I'm open to constructive criticism!). Here are my notes for my talk on Lent and two scenes from Mark.

What have been your past experience of Lent? Do you have any Lenten traditions? When we talk about Lent, what thoughts do you think and how do you feel?

 We entered the season of Lent this week on Ash Wednesday. The church had a service where we officially marked the beginning of Lent by smearing a cross on our foreheads out of the ashes of last years Palm Sunday palm fronds. Lent stretches through the forty days leading up to Easter

Lent has been a part of the church calendar since the first centuries following Jesus’ resurrection. At first it wasn’t something the whole church participated. Only the catechumens, those people preparing to be baptized take part. A lot of churches liked to baptize new believers on Easter (even though it wasn’t called Easter yet). The catechumens would spend

 the forty days before their baptism in increased spiritual disciplines, like fasting and prayer, discerning the new way of life they were beginning at baptism and repenting, swearing off the old way of life they were leaving behind. The Didache, the earliest church handbook we have, spends a lot of time talking about the Two Ways, the way of life in Christ, following Jesus, and the way of life not in Christ. I’m going to read the first paragraph so you get an idea of what the early baptismal candidates were reflecting on.

The Two Ways and the First Commandment. There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and

 do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts. If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect. If someone impresses you for one mile, go with him two. If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings. 

Didache, chapter 1.

I want to pose another question: What does baptism have to do with discipleship?