Sermon Video: Praise to the Lord of harvests - Psalm 65

In this psalm David writes of the praise that awaits God for calling us near to him (his holy temple) and forgiving our overwhelming sins, and then writes of the many awesome and righteous deeds of God on behalf of his people, focusing in particular on God as wondrous creator who has set up the earth to give forth abundance.  In our own experience, we live in an era where material abundance has never been greater, where hunger and starvation (while still a threat) are no longer the common experience of mankind.  That being said, we have even more reason that David to echo his praise of God, to continue to uplift the name of our Savior.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

The foolishness of "stay in your lane"

The slang phrase, "stay in your lane" has recently been invoked by the NRA to tell doctors that their opinion (in reality, bloody and often horrific expertise) is unwelcome in the controversial debate in America regarding gun control.  {Washington Post 11/11/18 - ‘Being silenced is not acceptable’: Doctors express outrage after NRA tells them ‘to stay in their lane’}  Rather than weigh in on the topic of gun control, a topic I have already bemoaned regarding its vitriol and lack of civil discourse {If I say anything about guns}, let me instead pontificate a bit about the phrase itself, "stay in your lane".  It should seem obvious that when such a phrase is used to try to keep women or minorities, for example, in "their place", that it blatantly violates a Christian worldview based upon Biblical principles.  After all, the Word of God takes pains to point out repeatedly that from God's perspective, "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, NIV)  There is no such thing as a legitimate "place" that belongs to men, or to women, to any ethnic or racial group, to the rich or the poor, to citizens or non-citizens, or any other such distinction.  That such "places" do indeed exist in both the minds of many, in the rules and regulations of society and institutions, and is even enshrined in laws, is a testament to the fallen nature of humanity and our endless capacity to divide each other in order to lessen our God-given equality and God-ordained responsibility toward our fellow human beings.
That man-made groupings used to belittle or devalue other people ought to be anathema to the people of God is illustrated by Jesus choosing to make the hero of one of his parables (the Good Samaritan Lk. 10:25-37) and the recipients of his healing (The centurion's servant Mt. 8:5-13, the Canaanite woman's daughter Mt. 15:21-28) be foreigners whom the self-righteous of his day would have certainly told to "stay in their lane" and away from the Messiah.  Jesus didn't stop with demonstrating God's love for people beyond the Chosen People in terms of race, he also made sure to touch lepers when he healed them, breaking a powerful taboo in the process.  For Jesus, nobody was out of bounds, nobody was a lost cause.
Beyond the affront to Biblical principles of equality, the use of "stay in your lane" also exhibits a gross misunderstanding of where problems come from in society and how they can be mitigated.  Societal problems, whether gun violence, drug abuse, prostitution, gambling, or a host of others, do not exist in a vacuum, do not affect only those involved in them, and cannot be lessened without the help of more than those directly involved with them.  Should doctors be involved in gun violence issues?  Yes.  Should teachers be involved in the opioid crisis?  Yes.  Should ministers be involved in homelessness?  Yes.  Why?  Because we are all created in the image of God, we have all been given the task of combating evil in our midst, and while we hold out no hope that the world's ills can be "solved" while humanity remains in rebellion against God, we do certainly believe that we can and must work together to shine the light in the darkness.
I, as an ordained minister, will not "stay in my lane", whatever that is supposed to be.  I will also not tell non-ministers that they have no business commenting on the affairs of the Church, on theology, or on ministerial ethics.  I am willing to, and I ought to be willing to, listen to the laity of the church, to involve them in ministry, and to heed both their advice and their warnings concerning my ministry.  Arrogance is not an option, dismissal of the value of the contributions that can be made by the overlooked or the outcasts is not an option.  I am a shepherd of the sheep, an honor and a burden, but I am also no more than another worker in the field of the Lord.
We as a society face daunting challenges, this is no more nor no less true today than it has been for thousands of years.  If we are to make a positive difference in confronting these challenges, if we are to help those in need and thwart those intent upon evil, we must do so united, willing to accept help where it can be found, willing to give help wherever we can.  There is no room for "lanes" in the Church of Jesus Christ, so don't worry about staying in one.

Sermon Video: The cost of sin among God's people - Joshua 7

At the 10:50 mark, my daughter Clara interrupts the message to tell me that she can't find her donut from before church, being quick, she escaped the nursery volunteer and ran into the sanctuary to tell me this crucial bit of information...

Following the victory at Jericho, the army of Israel experiences and unexpected setback, caused, they would soon learn, by the sin of one man within the covenant community.  The impurity within God's people contributes to the death of thirty-six men in the ensuing battle, after which the LORD enlightens Joshua about the sin that must be dealt with.  Unfortunately, because the guilty party does not come forward of his own accord, in the end, his life is forfeit.  The episode illustrates the seriousness of sin within the people of God, and its potential to cause harm far beyond the one who commits it.

Sermon Video: The Fall of Jericho - Joshua 5:13-6:27

The story of the fall of Jericho being fairly familiar to many Christians, the text itself from the book of Joshua contains two moments that often are overlooked: (1) The encounter that Joshua has with the "commander of the army of the LORD" in which he is told that God is on "neither" side in the upcoming battle, and the destruction of the "devoted" things in Jericho, which included all living things, people included.
The response to Joshua's question, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" is an important reminder that God is not on our side, rather we have been called to conform to his will.  God cannot be on the side of any particular human being, or group of people, for God is entirely holy, righteous, and just, and no human endeavor can make such a claim.  The focus of God's redemptive story in history is to call humanity back to communion with God, to his will, his mind, his perspective.
The destruction of the people of Jericho is a difficult and disturbing one to consider, but necessary just the same.  Until we understand the absolute right of God to judge the living and the dead, and until we comprehend just how pervasive and vile sin (rebellion against God) truly is, we will fall short of understanding how/why God can pour out wrath on various segments of humanity.  In the end, we must face the reality of the judgment of God, soberly without glee, for it is a tragedy whenever someone created in the image of God is lost, if we are to truly understand grace and mercy.

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After the politics, will you listen?

After you vote today, after the cheering or cursing that will come tonight when the results are known, after the gloating or seeking of blame, will there be an opportunity for the Church to speak Truth and be heard before the partisan passions close people's hearts and minds ahead of the next election?  I know that in the modern American political system that campaigning never ends, that spin is ceaseless, and strategic planning a constant, but perhaps, if the LORD gives us this grace, we might take a step back, turn down the volume of rhetoric and vitriol we're listening to, and open ourselves up to the Word of God that it might speak to us.
What would happen if the people of God viewed the political realm through a Biblical lens instead of viewing the Bible/Church/Gospel through a political lens?  What would change in the Church (and individual Christians) if the world we live in, its problems, and our attempts to "solve" them, were seen through the mind of Christ?  Can you imagine a Church devoid of the need for wealth and power, and instead wholly focused upon holiness, righteousness, and servant-hood?  At present, as is typical in Church history, there are pockets of believers living their lives with Christ at the center, as obediently following the Word of God as their imperfect minds and still present sinful natures allow (As always, by God' s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit).  There are also, however, once more in typical Church history pattern, those within the Church (whether they truly belong to Christ or not) who have chosen instead to live according to the rules of the kingdom of man instead of the kingdom of God.  They retain a lust for power not acknowledging that our Lord and Savior sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven with unassailable glory and might, and it has corrupted them (us).
What would happen if the Church listened to God, not just some of us, and not just superficially, but most of us, and with all of our fiber and being?  I pray that God will be this gracious to us, will allow us a chance to mend our ways and seek him faithfully, and perhaps he will, but it also seems clear to me that as long as the Church is using politics to interpret the will of God, we won't hear the Word of the LORD when it speaks to us.

Philippians 2:5-8 New International Version (NIV)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

1 John 2:16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.