... temple of God and to build it in three days” (verse 61). This was no blasphemy against the temple, for Jesus had been speaking of his body as the temple of God that would be destroyed by his death, and then rebuilt—resurrected—in three days (John 2:18-22). Those who passed by as Jesus hung on the cross clearly understood that he had been referring to his own body, for they taunted him, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!” (verse 40). The religious leaders ...
... to do. I'm supposed to be an expert on the Bible, theology, things like that, not good manners. My models are Martin Luther, John Wesley, Billy Graham, not Emily Post Or Amy Vanderbilt. What was I to do? Can you imagine my delighted surprise when I found that ... found throughout the Gospels. Matthew: "Whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:4), "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matt. 23:12). And where would be ...
... Bible and realized that much of the theology his family embraced did not align with the teachings of Jesus. He recalls the day he studied John 5—Jesus’ healing of a man at Bethesda—that completely refuted his family’s teaching about healing. He writes, “I wept bitterly over my participation ... a claw machine after he climbed in to get a prize at a North Carolina amusement park,” April 18, 2023, by The Associated Press. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/boy-trapped-claw-machine-climbing-get-prize ...
When Robert Rubin (who eventually became treasury secretary of the United States) as a high school senior applied to Princeton and Harvard he received a rejection letter from Princeton but he was accepted at Harvard. He had hoped to go to Princeton. Four years later Rubin sent a letter to the Director of Admissions at Princeton saying: “You ought to be interested to know what happened to one of the people you rejected … I graduated from Harvard summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.” Later, Rubin received a ...
Brendon Gill, a New York theater critic wrote an article in the New Yorker magazine in which he was bemoaning the way all the Broadway musicals are miked and amplified. He said that in great old theaters where actors had spoken and sung with ease for fifty years, audiences are now obliged to listen to what he called a “totally phony sound.” He said that in an amplified world “the voice is never heard in its ordinary resonance ... it is pure tin” (James Harnish, “Like Father, like son,” June 19, 1983). ...
In Cabeza De Vaca’s account of his journey from Florida to the Pacific, between the years of. 1528 and 1536, he tells how the Indians came to him and his companion asking them to cure their sick. The two white men were themselves half-starved, lost and filled with blank despair. Yet, the Indians felt that they, being white men, had super-human power. De Vaca felt that they had no such power. “But we had to heal them or die,” he wrote. Now listen to De Vaca: “So we prayed for strength. We prayed on bended ...
Galatians is the Magna Carta of evangelical Christianity. It is Paul’s great declaration of religious freedom a freedom that involves independence from men and dependence on God. Today, I’ll be sharing with you in three sessions a series of sermons on Galatians, this landmark profession of Paul’s Christian experience. I will not be doing a verse by verse exposition, but will “preach through’ the book, concentrating on the major themes an on those signal passages that are the heart and soul of Paul’s ...
What is the central fact of Christianity - the very heart of this faith which we celebrate today? What is the wonder of wonders in this all-wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ? What would you venture to suggest as the heart and soul of this faith that has changed the course of human history, the face of civilization, and the personal lives of innumerable souls? Think! Is it “the fatherhood of God” which Jesus himself stressed so forcefully? Is it the gracious movement of the Holy Spirit making real the living ...
Somewhere I read of an art show that featured a unique introduction. The entry area of the gallery featured what appeared at first to be four paintings. Actually the paintings were on mirrors and as you looked at each of them, it was your mirrored image that became dominant. It was an imaginative statement about the nature of art. It was an invitation to enter the paintings —— not to remain aloof to an indifferent viewer, but to identify. I want us to look at our scripture lesson today as a gallery of ...
There were two fellows who lived and breathed baseball. They were professional players with the Atlanta Braves and you would think that playing for a living would be enough. But not so – these guys breathed, ate, and slept baseball. More than teammates, they were very close friends. So, they talked with each other about that mattered most in their lives. One of their big concerns was whether there would be baseball in heaven. They loved baseball so much that they were not sure at all they wanted to spend ...
One of the most single television presentations during this decade, I believe, was the television series based on Alex Haley’s best-selling book, Roots. Millions of people read the book, and millions more saw the television drama. It was a moving presentation of a two-century epic of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him. You will recall that Kunta Kinte was the great-great-great-great-great grandfather of Alex Haley, the author. If you did not read the book, you may have missed one of the ...
One of my favorite writers is Loren Eiseley. He is an anthropologist and naturalist who can blend scientific knowledge and imaginative vision, and record his findings with the perception of a painter, the words of a poet, and the heart of a prophet. I share one of his stories in his own words, because the way he puts words together is powerful and inspiring. “The sound that awoke me was the outraged cries of the nestling’s parents, who flew helplessly in circles about the clearing. (A raven had raided ...
Somewhere along the way, I think I got it from one of my heroes, Bishop Gerald Kennedy, I connected a drama critic’s definition of the theater with an understanding of the church. “The theater,” said the critic, “is the dwelling place of wonder.” Isn’t that marvelous? “The theater is the dwelling place of wonder.” But it’s really a better definition of the church than it is the theater. Think about it: THE CHURCH IS THE DWELLING PLACE OF WONDER. How well that resonates with Paul’s word. Listen to it in our ...
We move now to talk about discipline and means of grace. In my definition of Spiritual Form I chose words very carefully – Listen again: “and appropriating by commitment, discipline and action.” Our discipline is armed at cultivating an awareness of the indwelling Christ. Paul’s words to the Romans make it clear. Listen to Paul in Rom. 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your ...
I don’t know how It Is with you, but I can recall occasions when a text of scripture grabbed my imagination, gripped my mind, burrowed its way into my soul, and became a part of my being. In many instances, I can relive the setting when that happened, and it energizes my life. Our scripture for this is such a case. It was Senior Recognition Day at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 1958. From the time I answered the call to preach as a seventeen- year-old country boy in Mississippi, I’ve always ...
In New England, there is the grave of an old Yankee skinflint. While he was alive, he offered his future heirs their legacy in advance if they would give him 12 ½% interest on it. When he died, they put this epitapth on his tombstone: Here lies old 12 percent The more he saved, the less he spent The less he spent, the more he saved Oh Lord, can Ichabod be saved? Now that’s a good question, and we could preach a sermon on that. You remember Jesus said on one occasion that it was as difficult for a rich man ...
A few weeks ago, I told a story about Alexander Whyte, the great Scot Presbyterian preacher. Once an evangelist came to Edinburgh, and to enliven his preaching, he began criticizing the local ministers, among them Dr. Whyte. A man who heard the criticisms came the next day to Dr. Whyte. “The Evangelist said that Dr. Hood Wilson... was not a converted man,” he told Dr. Whyte. The great preacher rose from his chair in anger. “The rascal!” “The rascal! Dr. Wilson was not a converted man!” The visitor was ...
The eloquent preacher Tom Long tells the story of a small church-related college that held an annual event called Christian Emphasis Week. It was the task of the Christian club on campus to invite a speaker who would come and lead a college revival. This particular year they invited a preacher who had come highly recommended. They were told of his dynamism and his unique way of communicating the gospel. The first night of the revival the chapel was filled with the faithful. There were no "animal house" ...
"Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" It's not just children of a certain age who ask that question, although they certainly do. I've been on a number of trips in the past few years with delayed flights, missed connections, and lost luggage, where I've been the one asking the question. Leading up to Christmas (or a birthday or wedding or trip to Disney World) the question becomes one of time rather than distance: "Is it here yet?" On such occasions, we give advice that sounds very much like that in James 5 ...
Today we presented each of our third graders a Bible. Why did we do it? Certainly their parents could afford to buy Bibles, and I imagine that in each of the homes from which these children come there are more than one Bible. It isn’t that we thought that if we didn’t get a Bible to them, they would not have access to the scripture. So, why did we do it? We did it to make a statement - to say not only to these children, but to ourselves - all of us - that for the Christian in the church this is it. This is ...
Dr. Carl Meninger, well-known psychiatrist, wrote a book a few years ago entitled, Whatever Became of Sin. In it, he reported how a stern, plainly dressed man appeared on a busy corner of Chicago’s Loop. As people passed by, he would from time-to-time solemnly lift his arm and point to a passerby and say just one word; “Guilty!” Then without changing expression, he would drop his arm. After a few seconds, he would raise his arm again, and with an accusing finger pointing at another person, he would utter ...
At Stanford University there is a psychologist named Festinger who has a theory which he calls “cognitive dissonance.’ If you teach at a university like Stanford, you are supposed to use big words like that. As strange and new as it may sound, it’s very simple. It means that there is a big gap between my ideals and my actions, what I believe and what I do, my goals and my deeds. There is a difference between the image I have of myself and the image I try to project for other people and that discrepancy is ...
Circumstances sometimes call us to do strange things — things-we would not otherwise do. Circumstances also cause us to do things we should have done but never got around to doing them before, like learning that we might have cancer, might provoke us to write a will. That’s really too serious an illustration for the story I’m about to tell. Two out-of-town visitors were walking along a street in New York City late one night. One of the pair, wary of the reputation of city streets at night, kept glancing ...
There’s a story about G. K. Chesterton traveling on a train, absorbed in a book. He suddenly awoke to his surroundings and discovered that he was on a train, but he had forgotten where he was going. He got out at the next station and sent a telegram from there to his wife. The telegram said, “I’m here; where ought I to be?” The reply came back from his wife; “Look at your ticket.” Now that is our predicament as Christians. We’ve not only forgotten where we are going - many of us have even forgotten that we ...
There is an old story that has made the rounds in the church many, many times, but it’s worth telling again. An eight year old boy was reporting to his folks at Sunday dinner what he had learned at church school that morning. “Boy, was it exciting!” he exclaimed to his parents. “Moses organized all the Hebrews into a resistance group and through careful planning they broke out of Egyptian slavery. They moved as quickly as possible toward Canaan, driving every kind of vehicle available: jeeps, tanks, half- ...