In this abbreviated Maundy Thursday message, the words of Jesus before he institutes Communion with his disciples remind us that Jesus was relying upon outside support as he prepared himself to endure the passion that would begin in only a few hours. The Passover meal itself was a reminder to Jesus of the faithfulness and power of his Heavenly Father, something Jesus would need as he placed his walked toward Calvary to willingly sacrifice his life. Jesus chose to eat that last meal, with all of its symbolic reassurances for him, with his friends. These eleven men had traveled the dusty roads with Jesus, had learned from his teaching and aided his ministry, but more than that they were his friends. Trusting in God, and leaning on your friends, a wise choice from Jesus as his time of trial began, and a wise reminder to us about the value of the family of God in our own lives.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Abortion and Gay Rights, Colorado and Indiana
I don't spend much time talking or writing about the issue of gay rights, or gay marriage, largely because this issue is mired in irrational discussions, and also because I don't think that what the government decides to do about their definition of marriage has anything to do with what the Church is doing on this issue; they seem to be linked in the minds of most people, but in reality they are not. The fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution of the United States should be for everyone, that this has not always been the case, for various minorities and for women, is a blotch on our history as a people. Things have changed, they're better than they were to be sure, but where more work is needed, to change the law or the culture, that work should be supported by the Church.
The recent furor over the new law in Indiana seems to be a far cry from the battles over "separate but equal" that were the focus during the Civil Rights movement in areas of education, housing, jobs, and other areas concerned very clearly with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If the focus of this law is truly about cakes and photography for weddings, and not about housing, jobs, etc. it seems that we've lost focus on what truly matters in society: life.
In Indiana people are protesting in the streets about the right to buy services and goods, in Colorado, a woman who was brutally assaulted and had her child cut from her womb and then subsequently left in a bathtub where she died, has to live with the fact that her child's killer will never be charged with a crime toward the child because "it" is not considered to be a person until "it" breathes outside of the womb. Life is not a primary concern for the law in America. Life can be taken from the unborn, legally, in all fifty states. The government supports this "right", the Supreme Court supports this "right", and most of the people who are up in arms about potential denials of the right to buy cake support the "right" of any mother to kill her unborn child, usually until the moment it leaves the birth canal, with no questions asked and no restrictions or limitations (And oh, by the way, the father has no right to protect his child, only the mother to kill him/her).
We live in a society where right and wrong are muddled. I have a hard time getting upset about the demand that every business you want must participate in a gay marriage when the abortion clinic down the street goes about its gruesome business day after day. The Supreme Court will soon weigh in on the host of gay marriage laws overturned by judges thus far, and perhaps that will lend some clarity to this highly charged issue, but don't kid yourself into thinking that expanding LGBT rights will make America a just society. Everyone deserves basic human rights, why aren't the unborn included?
Much of this was inspired by reading an article by Matt Walsh, to view his longer and more impassioned post, click on the link below:
It’s Legal to Kill Babies, But Let’s Worry About a Gay Person’s Right to Cake
* I don't know anything else about Matt's opinions beyond this article, just saw it and thought it thought provoking enough to link to it.*
The recent furor over the new law in Indiana seems to be a far cry from the battles over "separate but equal" that were the focus during the Civil Rights movement in areas of education, housing, jobs, and other areas concerned very clearly with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If the focus of this law is truly about cakes and photography for weddings, and not about housing, jobs, etc. it seems that we've lost focus on what truly matters in society: life.
In Indiana people are protesting in the streets about the right to buy services and goods, in Colorado, a woman who was brutally assaulted and had her child cut from her womb and then subsequently left in a bathtub where she died, has to live with the fact that her child's killer will never be charged with a crime toward the child because "it" is not considered to be a person until "it" breathes outside of the womb. Life is not a primary concern for the law in America. Life can be taken from the unborn, legally, in all fifty states. The government supports this "right", the Supreme Court supports this "right", and most of the people who are up in arms about potential denials of the right to buy cake support the "right" of any mother to kill her unborn child, usually until the moment it leaves the birth canal, with no questions asked and no restrictions or limitations (And oh, by the way, the father has no right to protect his child, only the mother to kill him/her).
We live in a society where right and wrong are muddled. I have a hard time getting upset about the demand that every business you want must participate in a gay marriage when the abortion clinic down the street goes about its gruesome business day after day. The Supreme Court will soon weigh in on the host of gay marriage laws overturned by judges thus far, and perhaps that will lend some clarity to this highly charged issue, but don't kid yourself into thinking that expanding LGBT rights will make America a just society. Everyone deserves basic human rights, why aren't the unborn included?
Much of this was inspired by reading an article by Matt Walsh, to view his longer and more impassioned post, click on the link below:
It’s Legal to Kill Babies, But Let’s Worry About a Gay Person’s Right to Cake
* I don't know anything else about Matt's opinions beyond this article, just saw it and thought it thought provoking enough to link to it.*
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
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.
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.
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