Peace is … believing
Isaiah 7:10-16 (12/18/2016)
This is what disturbs me: the terrible disjunction between what we say we believe and what is. If we believe God promises peace and if we believe God has already given us the precious gift of the Prince of Peace, then what is going on? This is a crisis for faith, no two ways about it, and if we don’t think it’s a crisis, then either we’re not paying attention or our faith doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.
Peace is … healing
Isaiah 35:1-10 (12/11/2016)
If you knew there was something you could do today to make the world your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will grow up in a much healthier and safer and more beautiful place, would you do it?
Peace is … defending
Isaiah 11:1-10 (12/4/2016)
What does peace on earth look like? Peace is defending: defending not our own assets, our own well-being, our own honor, but defending the assets and well-being and honor of our neighbors, specifically, explicitly, our humble neighbors, our neighbors in humble circumstances.
Peace is … walking
Isaiah 2:1-5 (11/27/2016)
This is the king, hanging on a cross, suffering with people who suffer, suffering for people who suffer, taking on himself the worst this world has to dish out, shaming it by his shame, overpowering it by his powerlessness, shattering its pride by his humility, thwarting its disobedience by his obedience …
This is the king
Luke 23:33-43 (11/20/2016)
No more war … ever! Can you imagine it? Do you long for it?
This is our chance!
Luke 21:5-19 (11/13/2016)
Hope and faith and love. These are not pretty “church” words, used when lighting pretty candles or saying pretty prayers. These are gritty, hardscrabble, rubber-meets-the-road words. It takes guts to hope, determination to have faith, and courage, lots of courage, to love …
Parties, politics, and impertinent puzzles
Luke 20:27-40 (11/6/2016)
The Pharisees and Sadducees lost their way when defending their ideologies became more important than caring about people. Jesus never lost his way. Jesus is the way.
In three days, it will be over. I know for a fact that some of you will vote Republican and some of you Democrat, and perhaps, some of you, neither. But let’s not lose our way!
Lost
Luke 19:1-10 (10/30/2016)
Do you get it? Hear if you have ears to hear! Jesus had places to go, things to do, heavy things, literally the weight of the world, on his heart and mind and he stopped … for Zacchaeus, for one little man, one little lost man, sitting in a tree.
Despicable me
Luke 18:9-14 (10/23/2016)
Why is it that one of the cardinal virtues of the kingdom of God and the cornerstone of the politics of Jesus – humility – has no place, absolutely no place, in our politics?
Never give up!
Luke 18:1-8 (10/16/2016)
Don’t ask your leaders to make your life better. They can’t. Ask God.
Don’t ask your leaders to ensure your safety. They can’t. Ask God.
Ask your leaders to ensure that the laws of the land and their execution are just. Ask your leaders to ensure that no one is left out or left behind, that no one is pushed under or pushed aside.
You
Luke 17:11-19 (10/9/2016)
You are well! Well not because your skin is free of that terrible disease, but well because he speaks to you. Well because he sees you. Well because he sees you. He does not see a leper. He does not see a Samaritan. He sees you …
Ordinary servants
Luke 17:5-10 (10/2/2016)
We are no longer treated as citizens to be inspired to fulfill our sacred duty, but as consumers to be courted and enticed and mollified. We have become, no longer servants, ordinary servants, but spoiled children demanding our own way …
Open the gate!
Luke 16:19-31 (9/25/2016)
It’s about unlocking the gate, throwing open the gate, even tearing down the gate. And not merely to let Lazarus in, but to let you out! It’s not that he needs help from you, but that you need help from him!
First things first
Luke 16:1-13 (9/18/2016)
When money measures me, when it becomes the abstraction of my value as a human being, then money is no longer my servant but my master. It is no longer a means by which I exercise control over my life. Instead it controls me …
One
Luke 15:1-10 (9/11/2016)
When a sheep is lost, you don’t blame the sheep. It doesn’t matter who or what is at fault. The sheep is lost and that’s what matters …
Clay
Jeremiah 18:1-11 (9/4/2016)
God is the artist and we are the clay! God works with us: stretching, shaping, smoothing, sculpting. God works with skill and imagination, with a clear vision for what he wants and a great love for what he does. God is the artist, and we …
We are a work in progress!
Amazed and astonished
Jeremiah 2:4-13 (8/28/2016)
It’s all gift, isn’t it?
Your heart’s desire
2 Kings 5:1-12 (7/3/2016)
Rest. Wait. Be patient.
You are that man
2 Samuel 12:1-7 (6/12/2016)
Forgiveness is not about going back, because you can’t go back, you can’t undo. Forgiveness is about going forward, because God wants to go forward … with you.
Bigger
1 Kings 8:22-43 (5/29/2016)
God is bigger than any of us. God is bigger than all of us. God is bigger than any and all of our churches. None of us have God figured out. None of us know the whole story of what God wants or where God is going. None of our churches can “contain” God. None of our churches have the last word. Which means we have to listen. Which means we have to pay attention. Which means we have to be ready to learn something new. Which means we have to be humble. Which means we need each other. Which means we need God …
Listen to her!
Proverbs 8 (5/22/2016)
Who said God’s a guy? He is called Father, but she is also called Sophia. God does father us, like the best of fathers: protecting, providing, nurturing, guiding, and God mothers us, like the best of mothers: protecting, providing, nurturing, guiding, loving, giving, saving …
Eye for an eye
John 13:31-35 (4/24/2016)
The old commandment said: Do not take. Do not take what is not yours to take. But the new commandment says: Give. Give what is yours to give.
Beauty of the life we have/no matter what
Psalm 23 (4/17/2016)
She sees the beauty of the life we have. Not just the beauty of life as it could be or as it should be or even as it will be, but the beauty of the life we have, the beauty of this life, in all its complexity, with all its challenges and mysteries and disappointments and heartaches …
Loving God in a technology growing hectic lifestyle modern world
John 21:1-17 (4/10/2016)
That’s the second reason Lauren’s title is so well put: it’s about loving God. Loving God, not finding God. She could have said, “Finding God in a technology growing hectic lifestyle modern world,” as if our busy lives crowd God out, push God to the sidelines, leave no room for God in our lives. But that’s not true. God is there. God is always there. We just need to pay attention, to be aware of the God who is already there, to love the God who is already very much present in our lives …
How Christianity has changed
Acts 5:27-32 (4/3/2016)
The sermon title seems to couch a worry that Christianity may change too much, that it may become unrecognizable, that it may become outdated, outmoded, irrelevant, that we may grow beyond it, that it may go the way of all human institutions and die. But it won’t, because it is not a human institution, but a way, a life, a way of life, gifted to us by God, and just when all seems lost – when Jesus himself lies in a grave – God’s grace triumphs!
No matter who
Acts 10:34-43 (3/27/2016)
This is the Good News of peace, the Good News of peace proclaimed by God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. The good news is that Jesus is Lord of all, that Jesus doesn’t belong to some of us, but to all of us, and that through him, God brings peace … to all.
Our common lot
Luke 23:13-26 (3/20/2016)
By sharing our common lot, Jesus utterly transforms our common lot. He sets us free from the tyranny of the crowd and from the tyranny of death. He changes the course of history. He alters the storyline. It’s no longer about the irresistible and death-dealing power of “they.” It’s now about the transforming and life-giving power of “we.”
A woman’s gift
John 12:1-8 (3/13/2016)
And that’s what serving the poor should be: not a calculated, carefully measured duty, but an act of love, of unrestrained, uninhibited, profligate love. Like Mary’s gift, the gift she made to Jesus.
Welcome home
Luke 15 (3/6/2016)
You are home. In this place, in this moment, you are home. We will eat to celebrate our lives. We will eat to celebrate our companionship. We will to celebrate being home. We will eat to celebrate being. This feast is a sign of God’s bounty. This feast is a sign of God’s grace. This feast is a sign that Jesus welcomes all of us. This feast is a sign that Jesus welcomes you.
Welcome home …
Tender
Luke 13:6-9 (2/28/2016)
Do you know any barren fig trees? A son, a daughter, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor who seems to be a lost cause, who has been tended and cared for and invested in and prayed for to no avail? Is it time to cut it down? Is it time to give her up?
He comes
Luke 13:31-35 (2/21/2016)
Jesus doesn’t ask us to come to him. He comes to us, dancing. But not everybody wants to dance. It baffles me! Why not? Why wouldn’t we all want to sing the song and join the dance? Why wouldn’t we want to dance together, instead of fighting amongst each other? Why wouldn’t we want to dance together, instead of marching up that hill, carrying that heavy load, all alone? Why wouldn’t we want to dance, with Jesus, instead of slouching in our chairs filled with self-pity?
If
Luke 4:1-13 (2/14/2016)
Jesus belongs to us. Jesus is one of us, as fully human as any of us are fully human. Jesus shared our common lot. And because Jesus has shared our common lot, our common lot has become anything but common!
He has stood with us. He has stood for us, his brothers and sisters, the fierce warrior who has gone to battle with our greatest enemies, and won! Look at him! He is your brother. He has your back. He has saved your life.
Are you bored?
Luke 9:28-36 (2/7/2016)
We have reason to be doubtful, reason to be angry, reason to depressed or afraid. There may even be reason to be in despair. But there is no reason to be bored!
Familiarity breeds contempt
Luke 4:20-30 (1/31/2016)
When God’s light shines on the sources of our anger, it is these greater dislocations, the hurts that others suffer, not our own, that make us burn, and anger begins to look very much like love.
Nothing
Nehemiah 8:1-12 (1/24/2016)
This is not despair, because despair cries no tears. Their tears are the mark of their desire for God. Their tears are the door through which God will come to them …
Depression and the paradox
Isaiah 62:1-5 (1/17/2016)
Depression is not a sin, but a shadow …
Fire and water
Isaiah 43:1-7 (1/10/2016)
It’s not that the Lord will not be with us at the place of our fears, but that most of us don’t know what fear is. God’s love, God’s tireless and boundless love, is the antidote to fear, but God’s love is about more, so much more, than merely easing our anxieties …
Seeing is believing
John 1:1-18 (1/3/2016)
Seeing is believing. But what if you can’t see?