Believe it
Luke 1:39-56 (12/18/2011)
Life is not a solitary adventure. And hope and peace and love and joy are not individual experiences. We light candles to celebrate our hope, our peace, our love, our joy. Joy, the deepest joy, is always shared.
Hail, O Blessed One!
Luke 1:26-38 (12/11/2011)
It’s just Mary, still just Mary. Just another young Hebrew woman. Just another young woman. Just another woman. Just another human being, like you and like me. God had a job for her, and God has a job for you. God has a job for me. And it’s the same job: to be the agents, to be the vessels, to be the servants by whom God’s love is birthed into this world in tangible form.
The path of peace
Luke 1:67-79 (12/4/2011)
To guide our steps into the path of peace. Peace is a path. Peace is a way. When we say, “The peace of Christ be with you,” we are saying “May the way that is Christ’s way, the way of peace, be your way.” We are saying, “May you be in that way” … “May you be on that way” … “May you be going that way, with Christ,” which, if you are, means, of course, that Christ is going that way with you!
God has heard your prayer
Luke 1:5-25 (11/27/2011)
There is a kind of despair that is quiet and well-disguised and virtually invisible. It’s a despair that goes through the motions, even does more than go through the motions, a despair that acts nobly and justly and keeps promises and fulfills duties and wears a smile …
It is despair because the hopes and dreams that may once have animated your life have long been set aside, because the deepest longings of your heart have been given up. It is despair because you have accepted the fact that what you have prayed for for years will never be, because you know, deep in your soul you know, that things are as they are and will be as they will be.
Lord, bring the day to pass
Ephesians 1:3-10 (11/20/2011)
Whenever we hold tight to what we have, whenever we close our eyes to need and to suffering, whenever we turn our backs to people we don’t like or don’t want to deal with, whenever we build protective walls around “our” stuff and “our” people, whenever we refuse to show mercy or offer forgiveness, whenever we pledge our allegiance to any power or person or thing before Christ … we are working against God’s plan.
Count your blessings
Matthew 25:14-30 (11/13/2011)
We make a mistake, a serious mistake, when we make a distinction between what is ours and what is God’s. It is all God’s, of course! But it is all ours, too! Ours to have and to manage and to use. God has shared all of his wealth with us …
A drink of water
Amos 5:18-24 (11/6/2011)
Walt Staton is a seminary student, preparing for ministry at the Claremont School of Theology. Walt Staton is also a criminal. He was tried in federal court, convicted, and sentenced to 300 hours of community service. His crime? Offering a drink of water to people dying of thirst …
Somebody
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 (10/23/2011)
It’s not about making the most of what we have. It’s not about realizing our potential or being all we can be. It’s not about achievement. It’s not about success. It’s about service, about serving God’s purpose that is so much bigger and wider than me. It’s about answering God’s call to do … something.
Your money or your life
Matthew 22:15-22 (10/16/2011)
And what belongs to the Emperor? This silly little piece of metal! To that he is entitled, but of the rest …
To know Christ
Philippians 3:4-14 (10/2/2011)
Because what if …
What if a visitor, a stranger, comes in off the street and takes it, not understanding what it means, maybe even not caring what it means?
What if a little child comes to take it? Surely a little child can’t appreciate the meaning and significance of the sacrament.
What if someone comes to serve the meal and uses his own words of invitation? What if she uses her own personal words to speak of its meaning? Might not the original meaning, the true meaning, Jesus’ own intentions for this celebration, be confused or obscured?
What if someone who does not believe, who has not repented, who is not a member of any church, comes to take it? Doesn’t that lessen the sacred value of this meal for those who share it with him?
But whose table is it?
Heroes
Philippians 2:1-13 (9/25/2011)
Ambition is a curious thing. We exhaust our reserves of energy and emotion, running after approval, seeking honor, craving love and respect, wanting to be somebody, somebody important, somebody other people will think is important. But all of these things – approval and honor and love and respect and value – all of these things we already have! They are God’s gifts.
Stewards of God’s good gifts
Matthew 18:21-35 (9/11/2011)
And that, finally, is what is at risk – our hearts. What will this calamitous event do to our hearts? It took buildings from us and some three thousands souls from us, but will it also take from us our hearts? Will we lose not just souls, but our soul as a nation? Or can we become even more than what we were before?
Two or three
Matthew 18:19-20 (9/4/2011)
Sometimes in the church, we overstate the importance of marriage and family. These are social units, not spiritual units, not the primary unit of the Christian church. What is the primary unit of the Christian church? Two or three!
Stewards of the mercy of God
Romans 12:9-21 (8/28/2011)
And that is just what is so often lacking in contemporary efforts to bring churches and Christians together … sacrifice. We want to get along. We want to be nice to each other. We proclaim a desire for Christian unity, but we are not ready to make sacrifices to achieve it.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Romans 11:1 (8/14/2011)
The spiritual movement is all down, not up: God coming down, God getting dirty, God all wrapped up in the comings and goings of his people. This is the God the Hebrews met as they worked and played and loved and fought …
Jesus loves me, this I know
Romans 8:26-39 (7/24/2011)
“In all things, God works for good with those who love him …”
We don’t let go. We don’t stop working. We don’t stop praying. We take hope from knowing that God’s Spirit prays with us and for us, and that God is working for good in all things with us.
Wind and water
John 7:37-39 (6/12/2011)
Let me drink. Let me drink deeply of your waters, cold and refreshing and life-giving. Fill me with the life that only your waters can give. Fill me with you.
Everything and nothing
Acts 17:16-34 (5/29/2011)
What do you believe in?
What do you believe in amidst a society filled with people enamored with the latest new thing, a society filled with tasters and samplers and dabblers?
What do you believe in in a land filled with idols – idols here, idols there, idols everywhere – malls and theaters and stadiums and banks their temples?
What do you believe in?
First days
Acts 2:42-47 (5/15/2011)
I don’t think the lives of these first Christians were changed so radically because they were convinced they were living in the last days. I think the lives of these first Christians were changed so radically because they were convinced they were living in the first days!
Peace be with you
John 20:19-31 (5/1/2011)
Jesus didn’t scold Thomas. He offered him peace. He gave him reason to believe, reason to be happy, reason to take the risk of being happy.
He saw and believed
John 20:1-8 (4/24/2011)
The tomb was empty and dark, filled with no signs of life, only the brooding shadow of death, just as this sanctuary is this morning. But in the midst of the darkness, he saw light! With the shadow of death all around him, he saw life! In an empty tomb, he saw Jesus!
Open our eyes, Lord
John 20:11-18 (4/24/2011)
It may take as much for you. It may take as much for you to finally recognize Jesus, there in front of you, there alongside you, alive and with you always. You may finally see him only when he calls you by name …
Come and follow my leader
John 12:20-26 (4/17/2011)
Is Jesus a king? Most certainly, yes! But how does he validate his kingship? By becoming the servant of all.
Does Jesus ride into Jerusalem as a conqueror? Most certainly, yes! But how does he win the victory? By weakness, by humility, by sacrifice.
Is life God’s gift, a precious and wonderful gift to be desired and treasured as long as we have it? Most certainly, yes! But how do we hold on to it? How do we win the right to enjoy it, not just for this fleeting moment, but for always? By giving it away.
Too late
John 11:1-44 (4/10/2011)
When is it too late?
What do you see?
John 9:1-41 (4/3/2011)
The extraordinary irony was that the only one who could see was the man born blind!
A little love
John 4:1-42 (3/27/2011)
God is everywhere, all around us, intertwined into all the times and places of our lives. But sometimes people don’t notice him. Sometimes people don’t recognize him. Sometimes people don’t know him … until they see him in us, until they recognize him through our love.
Wherever it wishes
John 3:1-17 (3/20/2011)
And tell me, how do you do that? How do you go about being born again?
Well, tell me, how did you go about being born the first time, out of water, out of the water of your mother’s womb? You didn’t go about it at all! You had nothing to do with it!
The world did not recognize him
John 1:1-10 (3/13/2011)
Or maybe they didn’t recognize him because they didn’t want to. Because if they did recognize him, because if they did listen to him, then they would have to change.
He has made him known
John 1:10-18 (3/13/2011)
That’s why it is so important to recognize him! Open our eyes, Lord! If we do not recognize him, if we do not know him, we will not know God. Or the God we do know or claim to know will merely be the product of our own imagination or fear or wishful thinking.
Out of this world?
Matthew 17:1-9 (3/6/2011)
God’s glory, God’s light, God’s goodness, God’s mercy, God’s empowering and healing and life-giving love is not out of reach, not inaccessible, not out there, not out of this world. It is here! Among us! With us! And now in us!
Let’s talk about money
Matthew 6:24-34 (2/27/2011)
Either you live with courage and joy and generosity and compassion and peace, or you live with fear and bitterness, protecting yourself against injury, protecting yourself against loss, always anxious, always worried. That’s the spiritual issue, and money is a big, big part of it.
Perfect
Matthew 5:38-48 (2/20/2011)
That’s what we are, bearers of the image of God, so that all who see us may see who and what God is. If we live and act and react just like everybody else – protecting ourselves, enriching ourselves, demanding the right of revenge for ourselves, drawing a clear line between friend and enemy
what will the world know of God?
Lies, sex, and murder
Matthew 5:17-37 (2/13/2011)
It’s not about being good. It’s not about following rules. It’s not keeping the law. It’s about embodying the spirit of the rules, about fulfilling the purpose of the Law. And the spirit of the rules, the purpose of the Law is?
The salt of the earth
Matthew 5:13-16 (2/6/2011)
Being a saint is not about climbing up, rising above, the ordinariness of our lives. Being a saint is about bringing Jesus down, bringing Jesus in, to the ordinariness of our lives. Being a saint is living by grace, living in grace, where, wherever, however, you already are.
Happy
Matthew 5:1-12 (1/30/2011)
And I am almost certain that Jesus was talking to you, too, every one of you. Because you don’t have to be all these things – spiritually poor and in mourning and humble and merciful and pure in heart – you just have to be one of them! If just one of these things is true about you, then you are happy, too.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light
Isaiah 8:21 – 9:4 (1/23/2011)
We are in darkness. Like the Pharisees. we focus on preserving our own religious institutions instead of engaging the world with justice and mercy and love. Like the Sadducees, we more than accommodate ourselves to the culture around us. Like the Essenes, we focus our faith on the world to come, standing by while this world goes to hell. Like the Zealots, we rely on our own wisdom and skill, instead of seeking God’s wisdom and asking for God’s help, and like them, we put our trust in swords and shields, instead of God.
Us and them
Isaiah 49:1-7 (1/16/2011)
Isn’t it fair to say, then, that our task, the task of the Lord’s servant, is make “them” part of “us”? Or to make “us” large enough to include “them” … because God chooses “them” too, because God saves “them” too, because God shines his light on us and on them alike, on all of us?
You will open the eyes of the blind
Isaiah 42:1-9 (1/9/2011)
God’s purpose has not changed. God’s desire is justice, justice for all the world and its people, justice for all to which God has given life. The task God gave Israel, once and forever, the task God gave Jesus, once and forever, is the task God now gives to us too, now and forever. It is still Israel’s task. It is still Jesus’ task. And now it is our task, too, to bring justice.