Sermons

April 10, 2016

Third Sunday of Easter 

 I try to take preaching with reference to the lectionary readings seriously even though that sometimes isn’t closely related to my sermon theme. My compromise today is to point out two things about the lectionary readings before getting down to the body of my sermon which has a slight relationship to the reading from the gospel attributed to John.

 Psalm 30, verse three, in the New Revised Standard Version reads: “O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from those gone down to the pit.” I’m not sympathetic to the theology of Psalm 30 but I am interested that the author refers to Sheol as a metaphor for recovering vitality and engagement in life. Sheol was understood to be an underworld, like the Greek Hades and the Babylonian Aralu, an underworld inhabited after death by both good and bad people. Sheol is a place of stillness and darkness cut off from the Presence of God. The metaphorical contrast is Heaven as a place of light and living in harmony with the Presence of God.

April 3, 2016

Second Sunday of Easter 

Scripture

Acts 5: 27-32

Psalm 118

Revelation 1:4-8

John 20:19-31

 Good morning! The Revised Common Lectionary readings for today are, for the most part, strong, unambiguous affirmations of faith, which seems appropriate for the Sunday following the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

Because it is the Easter Season, we have a reading from Acts in lieu of one from the Hebrew Scriptures. This Sunday’s passage is the courageous response of the apostles to the very true accusation from the Temple authorities that they were out there teaching in Jesus’ name despite being firmly told by the authorities not to do so. But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority,” knowing full well that this kind of arrogant, in-your-face response raised the possibility that they would soon meet the same fate as Jesus. That this in fact did not happen until many years later and in a different setting does not lessen the risk of faith that the Apostles took that day in Jerusalem.

March 27, 2016

Easter Sunday

 Acts 10: 34-43 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

 I Cor 15:19-26 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 Luke 24: 1-12 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified… “He is not here, but has risen.”

 In February, the Scientific American cover story described scientists who are searching for a ninth planet. They suspect it’s there, even though nobody can see it yet. As you may remember, Pluto was demoted in 2006 to a lesser status as an icy blob, leaving us with eight known planets in a pancake-like configuration around the sun. Now Planet X, as it is called, is thought to be ten times larger than the planet Earth , because of the way it bends the orbits of several icy blobs swirling in the darkness at the outer edge of our known system. Judging by the gravitational pull, astronomers know it must be there, out beyond the planet Neptune. At this point. Planet X is known only by its impact on other celestial bodies.

 That is essentially the message of the empty tomb on this Easter Sunday. It calls us beyond physical facts to a realm of mystery and wonder, where courage and hope abide. We have evidence in lives that were changed by the gravitational pull of the resurrection, but no eyewitness accounts. 

March 20, 2016

Palm/Passion Sunday

Luke 19:28-40 and 22:14-23:56 [Common English Bible]

It’s Palm Sunday. Like Christians for nearly two thousand years, we’ve just paraded through the building, waving our palm leaves, shouting Hosannah! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Let’s do it again:

 Hosannah! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of our God! Hosannah! 

 Come on, wave your palm leaves! 

 Wait — why are we doing this? What’s this all about?

March 13, 2016

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Isaiah 43:16-21

Psalm 126

Philippians 3:4b-14

John 12:1-8

 I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

 Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…

In her book The Call to the Soul, Marjory Bankson describes the six-part cycle of call, with the first three elements of the cycle on one side of the poison river, and the second three parts on the other. As you know, the poison river separates “inspiration from application”; it is the barrier between the inner, private side of call and the manifestation of that call in the outer world. Crossing the poison river requires courage, faith, and trust. And it requires a guide.