Sermon Video: The Disciples Sent Out to Preach, Luke 9:1-9

As Jesus continues to be overwhelmed by large crowds in need of his healing and teaching, the twelve disciples are now ready to be sent out to multiply his effort by healing and preaching in his name.  As they prepare to go, Jesus instructs them not to pack anything for the journey, but instead to rely upon the kindness of their fellow Jews when they stop at each village.  This missions strategy on the part of Jesus is an example of a narrative portion of Scripture that requires us to decide whether or not it is supposed to be a guide for us to think/do/act in similar situations or if it simply the basis of a principle that we can draw out from the text without following the pattern exactly.  In other words, when the Church sends out missionaries, should they be prepared and supported by the sending church, or should they rely upon God to supply their needs?  At first glance, the answer of relying upon God appears to be a great example of living by faith, why wouldn’t we want missionaries to live by faith?  In reality, it is a lazy answer that would allow churches to skip their obligation to support missions, and it would put an extra burden on the missionaries who instead of focusing on the Gospel must scramble to survive month to month.  This same critique would apply to anyone who works for the Church, from pastors on down to janitors, it doesn’t make any of them more holy if their church purposefully keeps them in poverty to “increase their faith”.

            Jesus also includes in his instructions a warning for villages that reject the Gospel message and tells his disciples to “shake the dust off your feet” when leaving such a town as a symbol of leaving their unbelief behind and not taking it with you.  The rejection of God, by people who already know who his is, has always been a very serious thing, a risk never worth taking. 

Lastly, Luke tells us that Herod is even interested in meeting Jesus after hearing all about him.  The Gospels don’t record a meeting between Herod and Jesus until the day of the crucifixion when Jesus is brought to Herod.  Instead of finding out who Jesus is, however, Herod at that point insists upon a miracle and mocks Jesus when he doesn’t oblige.  After living a life a sin against God, Herod spits in the face of his savior when he meets him; turning your back on God is a dangerous thing, even when he gives you another undeserved chance, you may not accept it.

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 Sermon Video

Jerome, Erasmus, the KJV, and the Wycliffe Bible Translators

The science/art of translation work will always lead to controversial decisions when the material in question is the Bible.  This isn’t new, not by a long shot.  When Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (so called because it was “vulgar”, like the way common people spoke in his day) was first read in St. Augustine’s parish the people rioted.  They had previously used the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the O.T.’s Hebrew, and didn’t want anything new.  In what seems ridiculous to us today, the people’s objection centered around Jerome’s more accurate translation of the plant that shaded Jonah from the gourd that the LXX had rendered it, to the caster-oil plant of the Vulgate.  Who cares which plant shaded Jonah?  This incident illustrates how seriously Bible translations can be taken by the people they are intended to help.

            Fast forward 1,300 years to Erasmus’ work on a Greek NT (basically returning the text in the West to its original language).  Erasmus was criticized heavily by his contemporaries when he made changes to Jerome’s now nearly sacred Latin Vulgate to the extent that he changed one important text (I John 5:7-9) to reflect the Vulgate’s reading even though it was not in any of the Greek texts that he was working with.  The Vulgate, received with skepticism at first, had become too loved to correct.

            The King James Bible followed this same pattern.  It was not preferred over the Geneva Bible for over forty years, but eventually became the primary Bible of the English speaking world.  When modern scholarship and archaeological discoveries enabled experts to correct some of the errors found in Erasmus’ Greek NT (he only had 7 of the now 5700+ manuscripts that we have to consult), the resulting modern translations came under fire by lovers of the KJV for daring to challenge their beloved text.  Even though genuine errors that had resulted from copyists’ errors were being corrected involving the 2% of the text that needed to be fixed (the other 98% was not affected, even with only 7 manuscripts, Erasmus’ work had been extraordinary), the ardent supports of the KJV were not willing to consider that a new translation of their 400 year old Bible was needed.

            The recent controversy involving Wycliffe Bible Translators regarding the use of “Allah” in Muslim countries for God, and how to best translate the familial relationship between God the Father and God the Son when our understanding of it is difficult to put into the receiving language’s cultural context, illustrates the same passion for Bible translations that plagued Jerome, Erasmus, and the teams that produced the NASB, NIV, ESV, and all the rest.

            I have no problem with those who raise well informed objections to any part of the translation process, from the Greek/Hebrew text being used, to the translation theory behind the words chosen in the new language.  Such conversations can be a useful part of the process.  What I do not accept, and will not have any patience with, is the use of personal attacks used against these men and women whose lives are in service to the Church, such that they are accused of being under Satanic influence simply because somebody doesn’t like their choices in the translation process.  How ridiculous is it for Christians to accuse other Christians of evil simply because they can’t agree on how best to convey the Word of God to the lost?  It would be laughable if this joke wasn’t so serious.  Jerome wasn’t evil when he brought the “vulgar” Bible to the people in a language they could understand, neither was Erasmus when he sought to return to the original Greek as a basis for translation work into new vernacular languages.  The modern Bible translators had no nefarious plans when they updated the text behind the KJV and corrected the minor errors that were found, and neither are the Wycliffe Bible Translators tools of Satan simply because they’re trying to bring Jesus Christ to Muslim lands.  Stop the invective, stop the pronouncements of doom from on high; it sounds ridiculous and only shows that the person making it cares more about being right in their own mind than they do about the work of the Gospel.  Informed and knowledgeable Christians can, and will, disagree about translational issues, but they cannot treat those they disagree with like enemies and lob at them baseless accusations no more accurate than a politician’s TV ad; the only one laughing at this sad joke when they do, is the person they’ve accused their opponent of serving. 

Sermon Video: "Don't be afraid; just believe" - LUke 8:40-56

Following the trip back across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is mobbed by an enthusiastic crowd eager to get close to him.  In that crowd are two people who both have a desperate need for the healing power of the Son of God.  Jairus is a father whose twelve year old daughter is dying, while he garners Jesus’ attention, a woman who had suffered for twelve years from feminine bleeding (thus making her “unclean” in the eyes of the Law) does something to demonstrate her faith in Jesus; she reaches out and touches the tassel of his cloak. 

            At this point, with Jairus anxious that Jesus will not arrive in time, and the crowd already slowing him down, Jesus stops to confront the woman who has just been healed by touching him.  Instead of condemning her for her presumption of touching him, Jesus turns to this woman who has held on to her faith in spite of twelve years of suffering and says, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace.”  What an amazing testament to God’s willingness to forgive anyone who approaches him in faith.

            Meanwhile, Jairus receives word that his daughter has died while waiting for Jesus to arrive.  What was just a heart-warming scene of prayer being answered has turned into a crushing scene of irony.  Jesus may be the Son of God, but he is still only one man, the crowd and the woman who touched him slowed Jesus down; he’s too late.  Rather than allow human limitations to thwart Jairus’ faith, Jesus continues on to his house and then tells him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”  At this point, his own experience would have told Jairus that the situation is hopeless, but Jesus is asking him to trust in the promises of the same God who gives life to all.  Jesus then proceeds to return life to Jairus’ daughter as a further demonstration of who he is, and just as importantly, of the power of faith to overcome our own limitations.

            What insurmountable obstacles, what desperate situations, are you facing?  The answer is always to do our part, remember that both those helped by Jesus were willing to come to him, and then trust God to do his part.

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Sermon Video: "tell how much God has done for you" Luke 8:26-39

When Jesus and the disciples arrive on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee after their traumatic crossing due to the storm, they are met by a naked man who suffers from demon possession.  This man, inhabited by not just one demon but many, falls at Jesus’ feet where the demons beg Jesus not to send them into the Abyss.  Rather than focus on the idea of demons possession, or the topic of spiritual warfare, notice instead the reaction of the locals to Jesus’ miraculous healing of one of their own.  When they arrive on the scene, the locals are overcome with fear; not of the formerly demon possessed man, even though he had terrorized their town, but of the Jewish miracle worker and teacher who had healed him.  In a stunning twist, the locals ask Jesus to leave them alone and go away, and he does exactly that.

            At this point, this story is one of opportunity lost, of God offering to help humanity only to be told to take a hike.  Jesus doesn’t leave it at that, when the now healed man asks to follow Jesus he is told that he must stay behind.  Why?  So that he can, “tell how much God has done for you” to the same people who have just rejected Jesus.  God doesn’t give up on us just because we don’t want his help.  God’s love for humanity prompts him to try a 2^nd or a 3^rd time to reach us and save us from ourselves. 

            There are a lot of people who wouldn’t come to church if you asked them to, they’ve got too much bitterness or anger toward God or the Church to do that.  They wouldn’t listen to a preacher or read a Bible either.  But what if they met God in an unexpected way?  What if they interacted with someone whose life had been transformed by the saving power of Jesus, someone who demonstrated the love of God to them in person?  The laity will always be crucial to God’s efforts to save humanity, especially with those hard cases committed in their own minds to rejecting God.  Jesus didn’t give up, even when they told him to leave, we can do no less.

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Sermon Video 

Hobby Lobby ruling by the Supreme Court

Regarding the Hobby Lobby ruling...Why was Hobby Lobby able to successfully make their case before the Supreme Court?  Because the Green family had DEMONSTRATED their Christian beliefs clearly over time through the policies that their corporation enacted.  When's the last time a corporation was acknowledged as having clear moral values?  Hobby Lobby pays its employees twice the minimum wage, is closed on Sunday to give employees a day of rest and worship, has long provided health care in a business where most employers did not, and pays for full page advertisements at Christmas and Easter honoring Christ.  In case you're wondering, all of those decisions by the Green family cost them money, but because they were the right thing to do, they did them anyway.  Anyone who knows anything about Hobby Lobby knew they were run by a Christian family.  Can your business say the same, can your family? 
Being a Christian is not something for Sunday only, it should be obvious and clear to all that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and not because you're loud or obnoxious about it, but because you show the love of Christ in how you live each and every day.  As Jesus told his disciples, "whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God." (Luke 12:8)  What does it say about you if people who know you reasonably well would be surprised to learn that you're a Christian?  On the other hand, it says a lot about the love of God when people who don't even really know you still know that you're a Christian because you've built up a reputation for honor, integrity, charity, patience, kindness, etc.  The Supreme Court decided that family owned corporations don't have to pretend that they're not led by Christian values, what's keeping you from doing the same about your life and your family?