Trembling with excitement
Isaiah 60:1-6 (12/31/06)
When was the last time you trembled with excitement in church? Never? Or was it just a few minutes ago, when you heard these words:
“Arise, and shine like the sun;
the glory of the Lord is shining on you!”
The high cost of happiness
Isaiah 55:1-13 (12/24/06)
Joy is the constant, the still point, the foundation, that holds us up and keeps us going through the ups and downs of a lifetime. Happiness is fragile, but joy is enduring. Happiness is fleeting, but joy is permanent. Happiness is fickle, but joy is always there.
Wretched
Isaiah 52:13 – 53:6 (12/17/06)
The story we retell during this holiday season is not the story of a nice baby born to nice parents in a nice place under nice circumstances. The child was born to parents who were poor. His mother had become pregnant under unusual, if not dubious, circumstances. He was born in Bethlehem because his parents were compelled to go there under orders from an oppressive regime. He was born outdoors, his first bed was a feeding trough, because there was no room for his parents in the inn. Perhaps the inn was too crowded, or perhaps there was just no room for them.
How beautiful
Isaiah 52:7-12 (12/10/06)
He has come, bringing good news, bringing peace, real peace, not just “peace of mind.” How sad, how pitiful, it is for us when we think that his best gift to us is “peace of mind.” When you think about it, “peace of mind” is really a rather selfish virtue. As long as I remain calm and contented and unruffled, what does it matter if all hell is breaking loose around me?!!
It does matter! He has come bringing real peace, peace that is rich and full and productive life, not just for some, but for all. Peace that is intimate communion with God. Peace that is people reconciled with each other, nations reconciled with each other, people living in harmony with the creatures of the earth and with the earth itself. How beautiful!
The rock from which you came
Isaiah 51:1-6 (12/3/06)
Hope is different from optimism. It’s not that we think the earth will last forever or that we will last forever or that we will be spared the suffering and loss that are common to all human experience. Hope means that we live in expectation of God’s ultimate victory, that we live toward that day, not resigned to death but eager for life, already celebrating the first tastes of a goodness that will last forever. In the midst of whatever pain we bear, we see beyond it and we see through it to the glory that is already present even now!
Tough love
Isaiah 50:1-3 (11/26/06)
Sometimes love is providing, sometimes love is withholding. Sometimes love is holding tight, sometimes love is letting go. Sometimes love is being gentle, sometimes love is being tough.
Genuine love is always very complex, because life is complex. Genuine love gets involved, takes risks, dares to keep going, dares to keep trying, even when things do get tough, even when love itself may be interpreted as unlove.
Anthropomorphism
Isaiah 49:8-16 (11/19/06)
The living God is not something we have made up, but Someone who has made us up! It is not that we have attributed our nature to an inhuman God, but that God has endowed us humans with a measure of his nature! We love, we can love at all, because God first loved us. This is the startling and unexpected reality: that at the center of the universe, from the being of time until the end of time, is a God who pities, a God who comforts, a God who loves, a God who declares, “I will never forget you!”
Red, white, and blue
Isaiah 49:1-7 (11/5/06)
But no political party and no political leader deserves our absolute loyalty. We serve a different king. We follow a different leader. And it is that king, that leader, who sets the political agenda. It is our job to bring that agenda to light.
Things that go bump in the night
Isaiah 46:1-13 (10/29/06)
Either this is true and we have finally found the one place to lay our fears to rest, or it is not and fear will literally be the death of us.
Right now!
Isaiah 43:14-21 (10/15/06)
Faith sees what God is doing … right now! To live in a past we can never reclaim or to live for the promise of a distant future we will never see is to live in despair. Genuine faith, living faith, faith that makes a difference, faith that transforms lives, faith that transforms the world, sees God here and sees what God is doing now.
When God stands accused
Isaiah 43:1-13 (10/8/06)
This is the role of God’s people, their task, their calling
to be witnesses; to witness to what God has done, to witness to who God is, even in the midst of the darkest times and the most difficult circumstances; to know God, to enjoy God, to believe God, to love God, and to tell and show the rest of the world that this God is for real! “There is no other god; there never was and never will be!”
God, sex, and football
Isaiah 42:1-23 (10/1/06)
Too often this is the way our culture works out its frustrations, the way our culture handles its disappointments, the way our culture addresses its loneliness, the way our culture satisfies its spiritual hungers. Not be addressing the frustration, the disappointment, the loneliness, the spiritual hunger directly, but by providing compelling and attractive distractions, by giving people flashy but worthless substitutes for the real thing, by shamelessly confusing the sacred with the profane.
Do not be afraid
Isaiah 41:1-10 (9/24/06)
My friends! We are not yet at the end! We are not yet at the end of the world and we are not yet at the end of the life of this church! We have work to do! We have good news to proclaim, acts of justice and mercy to perform, peace to make! As Charles Jacobs urged on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of First Congregational Church: “Let us remember to love the past, to … cherish it, but to keep our eyes on a far horizon.”
Comfort my people
Isaiah 40:1-11 (9/10/06)
Fear takes us to new places. But are these places to which we want to go? And do we have a choice whether to go or not? The dark cloud is real, but can we live with it without letting it change who we are?
Garbage in, garbage out?
James 1:19-27 (9/3/06)
Now I am not a fan of burning books or CD’s or banning movies or censoring television, and I do understand that every generation tests the cultural limits of its predecessors, but when you put garbage in, what do you expect to come out? When you fill your mind and heart with nothing but trash, how healthy can you expect that mind and heart to be?
Humble audacity
1 Kings 8:22-30 (8/27/06)
The problem is not bad religion, but bad theology. It is not religion that leads us into war. There are plenty of other things that lead us into war without any religious prompting: envy, greed, pride, anger, hatred … ambition, revenge, fear … oil, money, land … national defense, national security, nationalism. Religion usually comes into the picture after the fact, as a means of self-justification, as a means of enlisting support, as a tool for recruiting and motivating the troops. We, whoever “we” are, ask God to sanction what we have already decided to do. We raise the banner of God’s name over our cause … without God’s permission!
One step at a time
1 Kings 19:4-8 (8/13/06)
For us, too, the journey out of despair or frustration or fear begins with a single step. We may feel sometimes like it’s too much – whatever “it” may be – more than we can handle, more than we can bear. But the way out is to take that first step, to start to move out, to move forward, one step at a time …
All too familiar
Mark 6:1-6 (7/9/06)
We know the story. We have heard it told so many times. We have had every opportunity, every advantage, but we do not have faith! We pass Jesus by, treating the story as if it holds little significance, little relevance, for our lives as they are … the story of a God who sets aside everything and makes every sacrifice for the sake of the creation and the creatures God loves!
It’s a mystery to me
Mark 4:26-32 (6/18/06)
The growth of a plant. The birth of a child. The growth of a child into an adult with a mind and heart and spirit all her own. The mysterious line where life ends and death begins. The mysterious line where life begins. The wonder that life is there at all. It’s all a mystery to me.
Keep watch
Acts 20:17-28 (5/28/06)
The church’s task is not imperialism: conquering the world and establishing some kind of Christian supremacy. The church’s task is evangelism: telling the truth, sharing good news, pointing to Jesus.
Keep on
Acts 18:1-11 (5/14/06)
But the fulfillment of any calling is always problematic. It requires patience and persistence and hard work and a whole lot of grace … a whole lot of grace coming in and a whole lot of grace going out!
God is not far
Acts 17:16-34 (4/30/06)
Today we celebrate the renewing of marriage promises, a rededication to loyalty and love and lifelong companionship. But as we do, we point to a deeper loyalty, a more profound love, an even more fulfilling companionship.
Today we celebrate one hundred and fifty years of our church’s history, a long legacy of working together, of caring for each other, of investing together in our children’s future. But as we do, we point to a higher calling, a wider commitment to people near and far, an investment of our whole selves in the future God has in mind.
All the things you’re not supposed to talk about
Acts 16:16-24 (4/23/06)
Money is not morally neutral. It is a power that competes for our loyalty.
he is not here
Mark 16:1-8 (4/16/06)
It is not always his enemies, but sometimes his friends too that try to keep Jesus right where they want him. Not just them, but us, too.
We call ourselves followers of Jesus, but we really expect Jesus to follow us, to go where we want to go, providing us help and protection and reassurance along the way.
he is the one
Acts 10:34-43 (4/16/06)
This is the rest of the story, the best part of the story, that Jesus is alive. We put our faith, not in the Jesus who was, but in the Jesus who is. We don’t follow him where he used to go, but where he is going now.
The man time forgot
Acts 15:36 – 16:5 (4/2/06)
It is people like Barnabas who make a real difference in this world. Not the people who get the headlines, but the people who do the work. Loyal people, hardworking people, people motivated by love and not by the need for attention. People who bring out the best in the people around them and enable them to succeed. People who stand up for those of questionable virtue, for those who fail, giving them a second chance and a third chance and a fourth, until they finally prove the wisdom of the One who believes in them.
You cannot be saved unless …
Acts 15:1-21 (3/26/06)
Can we make that same pledge, that we will not trouble our brothers and sisters who are turning to God? That we will not lay on the backs of fellow believers a load we have not been have to carry ourselves? That we will remember that we are saved only by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are? That we will not add an “unless” to the salvation God offers to us and to the world in Jesus Christ?
Keep on living in the grace of God!
Acts 13:26-43 (3/19/06)
To live in the grace of God means to live unfettered by the past and unafraid of the future. To live in the grace of God means to live with a strength and power and wisdom and courage beyond your own. To live in the grace of God means never being alone. To live in the grace of God means every day is a new day.
Antioch
Acts 11:19-30 (3/12/06)
What I saw amazed me. So many believers, Jews and Gentiles, all alike embracing the good news, the good news of peace, the good news of healing for broken bodies and broken souls, the good news of God’s victory over the great powers of sin and death. So many new believers, all filled with joy! It filled me with joy to see them!
Open the eyes of my heart … again
Acts 10 (3/5/06)
For some of us, it takes blinding light, a violent storm, a personal crisis, a terrible loss, a crushing failure, to get our attention and make us face reality … But for others of us, it may only take a gentle nudge, a timely reminder, a simple invitation.
Open the eyes of my heart
Acts 9:1-20 (2/26/06)
Close your eyes. Close your eyes to all the things you’re used to seeing. Close your eyes to all the ways you’re used to seeing. Close your eyes to your life as it is, your life as it always has been. See Jesus, only Jesus, and let him open the eyes of your heart.
God is still speaking
Acts 6:8 – 7:60 (2/12/06)
Will we be silent? Or will we be bold witnesses to the God who is still speaking? Will we explore together the frontiers of faith in Jesus? Or will we be caretakers of fading memories? Will we be a nice, friendly, quite harmless church? Or will we speak the truth in love, exposing the flaws of a world not yet just, calling all to repent and to let go and to listen to the God who is still speaking?
It’s the message
Acts 4:1-31 (2/5/06)
Sometimes we get it backwards. Sometimes we get evangelism backwards. We suppose the object is growing the church, and evangelism is the method for achieving that aim. No, it’s not like that. The object is evangelism, and the method is bold proclamation. The work of the church is not growth, it is evangelism, offering to the world a message of good news, a message of comfort and empowerment and liberation and healing and peace.
At the Beautiful Gate
Acts 3:1-16 (1/29/06)
May God’s Spirit stir us to restlessness! May God’s Spirit bring the pale embers of hope smoldering in our hearts to a restless flame! May God’s Spirit awaken us to the palpable presence of God here and now, healing bodies, healing souls, reconciling enemies, proclaiming justice, making peace.
With glad and humble hearts
Acts 2:40-47, 4:32-35 (1/22/06)
Our job as a church is not to create the light, but to let it shine! Our job is to be transparent, to let the presence of God that we have gladly received be seen in our lives and in our life together. Don’t conceal the light; let it shine! Don’t keep quiet; boldly tell of God’s goodness!
Proclaim the message!
Acts 2:1-18 (1/15/06)
The Spirit of God does not give us the message. We speak of the things we have seen, we speak of the things we have heard. We witness to our own experience of God in our lives. The Spirit of God doesn’t give us the message, rather the Spirit of God gives us the power and courage and art to proclaim it.
The work of the church
Acts 1:1-9 (1/8/06)
We are witnesses for Jesus, attesting to the ways Jesus challenges our assumptions, transforms our thinking, changes our hearts, enlarges our compassion, and leads us to do unexpected things in unexpected places.