Sermon Video: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD" - Psalm 118:22-29

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the day we now commemorate as Palm Sunday, he was greeted with cheering crowds waving palm branches and spreading their cloaks on the path as they shouted, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD."  Where did the inspiration for that particular cry of acclamation come from?  The words are from Psalm 118, the last of the six psalms that were part of the celebration of Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  When pilgrims came to Jerusalem for these important festivals, the words they chose to apply to Jesus were already on their minds.
When looking at the context of Psalm 118:26, we discover that just a few verses earlier in verse 22 is the line that Jesus applied to himself after telling the parable of the tenants, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone".  There in that one psalm is both the joyous praise offered to God because of the miracles and teaching of Jesus, and the realization that he will be rejected at first only to be vindicated by God.
The psalm ends as it began, with thanksgiving to God for his goodness and his unfailing love.  As Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd, he well understood that he would be leaving the city less than a week later to the sound of jeers, and he wouldn't wouldn't be gently riding a donkey, but struggling under the weight of a cross.  Jesus knew this, and he also knew that he was following the will of the Father, that death would be swallowed up in victory, and that God would deserve even more thanksgiving when the implications for humanity of the triumph of Easter were shared as the Good News of the Gospel.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Clash of Clans, sub-prime mortgages, and Dave Ramsey

Stay with me for a minute as I explain why a game that I play on my iphone is connected in my mind to the financial meltdown that happened in America nearly a decade ago and the financial guy from the radio.  For most of the free apps that people play on phones or tablets, the way in which they make money is to get you to purchase the ability to speed things up.  Clash of Clans is much the same, in it you build castle walls to defend your settlement and raise armies to attack the castles of other players.  Each task has a countdown timer ranging from a few seconds for small tasks to several days for the large ones.  If you have the patience to wait for the timer to run its course, the game is entirely free, but if you can't wait that long and want to speed it up, the game makers are more than happy to sell you that ability.
I was re-reading Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money this week, it is a brilliant primer on the history of finance, much like all of his books, and it contains a chapter on home ownership that among other things, explains the debacle of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that engulfed the American housing market during the mid 2000's.  That crisis was, in part, the result of people not being willing to wait until they were financially sound enough to afford a traditional long-term fixed mortgage, or not being willing to wait to save up money for other purposes but instead choosing to utilize the equity in their home by re-financing to give themselves money but at the cost of taking on a mortgage whose terms were certainly not sound in the long-term.
Both of these situations revolve around patience, a virtue that I'm sure has been in short supply throughout history, but also one that seems to be more difficult to uphold in a society that offers so many ways to try to get around having to develop patience.  All of this reminds me of the mantra repeated over and over by Dave Ramsey on his radio program that debt is the enemy and to be avoided at all cost.  Ramsey often tells people, for example, not to take out a loan for a car but instead to save up the cash needed to pay for it outright.  This sort of delayed gratification is of course hard to do, ensuring that short-term gain will always look good to those unwilling to invest in their own future.
This same discussion about patience could be applied to how we take care of ourselves, how we eat and whether or not we regularly exercise, and certainly it applies to our political choices because politicians are consistently going to tell the public what they want to hear now in order to get elected instead of what they need to hear about the future.
As we begin Holy Week, the virtue of patience and long-term investment is necessary for all those who plan on attending church on Easter to fulfill their Christmas-Easter twice a year obligation.  Being a Christian is hard work, it takes dedication and commitment, it takes regular participation, it takes more than being in the house of God twice a year.
If you want to spend $5 to speed up that game on your tablet, go ahead, but when it comes to the important things in life, there's a reason why patience is a virtue.

Too dangerous to let them live?

Nicole and I went to the Tuesday evening cheap movies, as is our habit when there is something worth seeing, to see Insurgent, the second in the Divergent series.  I'll say this generically so as to not create a spoiler, in the movie, two primary characters who are identified with the "good guys" shoot two "bad guy" prisoners, one in handcuffs, the other in a prison cell.  The scenes themselves aren't graphic, the movie is PG-13, but still rather disturbing, and certainly a harsh topic for inclusion in a movie geared for teens.  This reminds me of the discussion about the end of the last Superman movie, Man of Steel, where Superman kills General Zod by snapping his neck to prevent him from killing some innocent bystanders.  My friend and neighbor, Pastor Jeff Little from First UMC, objected strongly to that decision because as life-long Superman fan, he was adamant that Superman always has to find a way to win without killing anyone.  With the finale of the Hunger Games due out this fall, and a sequel to The Maze Runner on the way, it seems clear that the topic of killing to protect the innocent, or to advance a worthwhile cause, will continue to be present in the movies.  This is starkly contrasted with the epiphany of Harry Potter at the end of that franchise when he finds pity for Voldemort instead of hatred, and the ending of the latest version of Cinderella, which happily ends with a moment of Christ-like forgiveness for one who doesn't deserve it.

We live in a world with dangerous terrorists, with those willing to blow up churches, mosques, pizza shops, planes, anything and everything in order to kill as many men, women, and children as possible.  Our government routinely orders remote drone strikes in foreign nations as a response to this threat, along with whatever other clandestine means are used to eliminate those who pose a threat, often before they can act.  I'm not offering up a solution to the moral dilemma of having government officials acts as judge, jury, and executioner over the lives of foreign citizens; the quagmire we find ourselves in does not allow for easy answers.  This is simply an observation that art is imitating life, our comic book and dystopian movies that we view as entertainment have come face to face with one of the moral questions that our society has yet to come to grips with.  To save the innocent is indeed noble, but what is it when that saving involves killing others without trial, and what is it when they're killed preemptively?  These are questions worth asking, questions our films are confronting more directly than our government.

Sermon Video: The Sign of Jonah - Luke 11:29-36

How does God respond to unbelief and doubt?  While it is true that God often shows exceeding amounts of patience, especially to the Lost who do not know him, God also responds with disappointment, even anger, when those who should already know him persist in not hearing his word and obeying it.  Jesus was asked by a crowd of his fellow Jews, people of the Covenant who have the Law and the Prophets to guide them, who have the Temple and the priests, and who were raised to know the name of the LORD, for a sign from heaven.  This request for a sign came on the heels of yet another miraculous healing by Jesus.  The response to the request by Jesus was to tell the crowd that no new sign would be given to them except “the sign of Jonah”.  Jesus then explains that the people of Nineveh, a wicked people with no advantages of Law and no prophets before Jonah, had repented when he warned them of God’s impending judgment, and because they repented, despite their lack of advantages, that the people of Nineveh would condemn the generation who listened to Jesus and rejected him.  When you consider all the advantages those listening to Jesus had in comparison to the people of Nineveh, it is little wonder that God would be exasperated with them.

                Jesus then offers a second analogy, comparing the curiosity of the Queen of Sheba, who came to hear of Solomon’s wisdom after hearing a rumor of it, to the stubbornness of those listening to Jesus who though they already know of God, are not interested in listening to his emissary.  After having told the crowd that no new sign would be forthcoming, Jesus concludes by comparing the doubt and unbelief of those who know God, or know of God, but won’t listen to him, to someone who lights a lamp and then places it under a bowl.  The purpose of a light is to shine forth, if the Covenant people are too darkened by sin and unbelief to accept the light, then that light will go elsewhere. 

                The warning to the Covenant people that the Gentiles, who found God’s grace despite not being a part of the Covenant, will stand in judgment against them, is a warning that applies equally to the Church.  There will be no excuse for those raised in the church, or those living in lands where the Church of Christ is active, who fail to respond to the message of the Gospel.  What excuse do a people have who live in freedom, who have an abundance of Bibles, and a Christian neighbors demonstrating the love of Christ, if those people fail to accept God’s offer of forgiveness?  None.  The warning is dire, but so is the need for humanity to accept the grace of God through Christ.  As Christians, such a warning ought to spur us on to vigilance in our own house (both family and church) knowing that each must choose Christ, and it ought to give us further incentive to continue our efforts of personal evangelism to those in our lives who have not yet found the light of Christ.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video

Sermon Video: A House Divided - Luke 11:14-26

As Jesus resume his journey toward Jerusalem for the final confrontation, he heals a man tormented by an evil spirit which had made him mute.  The miracle itself was no different than dozens of other miracles that Jesus had performed, and the healing no different than many, many others that Jesus had healed, but some in the crowd saw this not as the act of grace that it was, but as an insidious attempt by the devil to deceive the people of God.  The doubters in the audience accused Jesus of casting out demons under the authority of Beelzebub the prince of demons, in other words, they were calling Jesus a double-agent, saying that his acts of righteousness were in reality acts of deception.  That such an accusation, against Jesus of all people, is ludicrous doesn’t stop it from happening, just as the lack of evidence doesn’t stop some people from withholding vaccines from their kids.  This crazy situation is troubling, but it does provide Jesus with a chance to illustrate a principle that is applicable in nearly every human interaction and even within the life of every person: A house divided against itself will fall.

The universal principle given by Jesus has wide application, it applies to nations, too many of which are torn by civil strife, it applies to businesses, institutions, churches, families, and marriages.  We cannot long endure when were are fundamentally divided as a group of people.  This is a danger in secular situations just as it can be deadly to a church.  Because division is so dangerous, we ought always to be supporting reconciliation and healing, trying to hold together those who are in danger, and helping to pick up the pieces when splits do occur.  That this is a fundamental problem in the church and society as a whole is beyond doubt.  The divorce rate in America confirms our weakness on the issue of unity, as does the poor record of church splits.

Beyond the groupings of people in danger because of division, we must also be aware that individual people can be torn internally by conflicting goals, an unclear sense of purpose, or even simply a lack of commitment.  We cannot serve two masters, both will be disappointed in us, and we cannot avoid choosing which side we are on because we have already begun by being on the side at war with God, our only chance is to make peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus ends his comments with two important additions to this principle: Those who aren’t with me are against me, and it will be worse for those who see the light but don’t change.  These two thoughts remind us that this is no game, God takes very seriously our choice to either continue as we are or repent and follow him, the good news is that when we do choose to join his side and help out in the work of the kingdom, we’ve chosen the side that has already been victorious in the battle, a battle won by Jesus on Easter morning.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video

A message of salvation by grace through faith.

Nicole and I were in church today listening to a preacher utilize Ephesians 2:8-9 and John 3:16 to talk about how salvation cannot be merited, earned, or purchased in any way, but is entirely an act of grace by God.  He used the analogy of a lifeline thrown to a drowning victim whose only part in the process is holding on for dear life.  It was a message straight out of Martin Luther's sola fide, sola gratia, with the entire emphasis on what God has done through Christ to save a helpless humanity.
For those who don't believe in ecumenism, who disdain efforts among the splintered portion of the Church to work together, the source of this message won't make you happy, for those of us who work every day with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ from different faith backgrounds to help those in need, it is further confirmation that we're on the right course.  The message was the homily of Msgr. Herbein, the priest of St. Patrick's Church down at the end of our block.  Msgr. Herbein is by no means a "radical" priest out of touch with the Catholic Church, rather he is simply one parish priest among many, reading the scriptures and speaking the truth they contain.  There's hope for healing within the body of Christ, we may be one Church in polity, that ship has likely sailed for good, but we can be one Church in spirit when the grace of God is preached and faith the people gathered in the house of God are pleaded with to accept it by faith.

A marriage built on ecumenical goodwill - Our marriage highlighted in local newspaper article.

I was asked by our local religion reporter for the combined newspaper, The Derrick & The News Herald, Curtis Hanna, if he could write a story about my marriage as a Baptist pastor to my wife Nicole, a devout Roman Catholic.  Because ecumenism is such a big part of my ministry here, I was happy to have this part of our life known.  The resulting story is linked in pdf form to this posting, thanks to all the people who have supported us over the years, and glory to God for his goodness to us.

Article page 1

Article page 2

Article page 3

Article page 4

I've written about my marriage to Nicole in lots of other posts, simply click on the tag "my wife Nicole" in the tag list at the right of the homepage of my blog to view them all.  I've also written often about the experience of this ministry, under the tag "being a pastor".

Sermon Video: Persistence in Prayer - Luke 11:5-13

Persistence is an interesting quality in people, it can be the making of our success, and it can be the cause of our destruction.  When persistence is combined with righteousness the result is saintly, when it is combined with vice, the result is grotesque.  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus expounds upon his answer to the question from the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray”, by talking to them about being persistent in prayer.  The Greek term used by Jesus could also be translated as: audacity, boldness, or even impudence.  The overall idea is that we must be actively seeking an answer from God to our prayers and never give up until we find it.  But what are we to be praying for?  What is the object and goal of our prayers?  To answer that question, Jesus first gives a parable illustrating the value of persistence, followed by the command to us that we are to ask, seek, and knock knowing that we will receive, find, and have the door opened for us.  Lastly, before answering the question of what it is we’re praying for, Jesus reminds us that even human fathers are wise enough, and good enough, despite the fallen state of humanity, to give their children good things that will benefit them.  If human fathers can do that much, imagine what our heavenly Father has in store for his adopted children.

                So, what is the object and goal of our prayers, that which Jesus has told us we will receive if we ask?  The Holy Spirit.  Jesus isn’t talking here about jobs, health concerns, money, family troubles, or even freedom or justice, all of which are legitimate things we need and the focus of many of our prayers.  The one thing that Jesus is telling us we must diligently seek from God in prayer, because by so doing we will find it, is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus isn’t talking about salvation, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given eagerly by God to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, and it is that single act of faith that makes God’s grace available to us as we become his adopted children.  Jesus is talking about the life-long process of transformation, we call it sanctification, which follows after our salvation with the goal of transforming us into the likeness of Jesus himself.  We will all one day be like him, in the life beyond this one, but for here and now we can become more like him each day as we purge ourselves of sin and embrace righteousness.  That process is a long and difficult one requiring an ongoing commitment and effort from us, enabled by God’s power working in us, and yes, supported by persistent prayer. 

                What will the answer to your prayer for healing be?  I don’t know, pray and trust in the will of God.  What will the answer to your prayer for that job you need?  I don’t know, pray, trust in God.  What will the answer to your prayer to be more like Jesus be?  God will hear you, he will answer you, and he will transform you if you are persistent, bold, audacious, and even impudent in continuing to ask it of him.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video

Sermon Video: "Lord, teach us to pray" - Luke 11:1-4

There are a lot of different ways, it seems, to pray, and a lot of different things one can talk about while praying.  How then, are we to know how we ought to pray?  The disciples asked Jesus that exact question, after once again observing him at prayer, and were given a response similar to, but not the same as, the Lord’s Prayer.  The Lord’s Prayer, as it is commonly known, comes from Matthew 6 and was given by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount.  This prayer template/example that Jesus shares privately with his disciples is a shorter and slightly different version of that famous prayer.

                What do we learn from the fact that Jesus answers with a similar but shorter and slightly different version of his most famous prayer when his disciples ask him how to pray?  The topics in both prayers highlight for us that there are small number of broad topics included in any prayer, regardless of occasion, and the differences between the two tell us that Jesus was not interested in locking his disciples into a specific, word for word, prayer that they need to repeat, but instead a template from which their own prayers could be created.  The three primary topics in the prayer are: The power/glory/dominion of God, the frailty of humanity (whether moral or physical), and the love/mercy of God in response.  These three topics cover pretty much any prayer that you or I would need to make.  Whether our prayers are public or private, out loud or only in our minds, we can always praise God for being God, ask God for help in our distress, and thank God for his loving kindness.

                The one thing that Jesus doesn’t do when asked by his disciples, “teach us to pray”, is to tell them specific things about when, where, or for how long, they ought to pray.  This isn’t a chore to be checked off of a daily list, but a conversation with our heavenly Father.  It ought to be regular, and it ought to be sufficient, but what that means will vary significantly from person to person and from time to time in our lives.  It doesn’t benefit Christians to compare their prayers habits because it only leads to pride for those who prayer more/longer, and to discouragement for those who pray less/shorter.  In the end, it is not quantity as much as quality that God desires, as we know from our own lives, a meaningful conversation is far more important than simple banter.

                The prayer example itself given by Jesus highlights our ability to call God, “Father”, our hope for his kingdom’s eventuality, our daily dependence upon him, our need for ongoing forgiveness from God to us, and from us to others, and our need for God’s guidance in our future.  These are all standard things that we ought to be focused upon as disciples of Jesus Christ.

                To those for whom the prayers of the Bible, like the 23^rd Psalm, or the dozens of prayers recorded by virtually all of the Bible’s main characters, feel especially poignant, go ahead and repeat them, utilizing the wisdom of others to aid your prayers, such prayers are recorded for a reason.  At the same time, don’t neglect to speak to God in your own words, drawing upon what is weighing upon your God, for God has gifted you too with the Holy Spirit, you can call him Father as you simply have a conversation with your Creator.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video