“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” (verse 13) This is one of the most diff cult verses in the New Testament. How do we translate it in order for it to make sense to us today? There’s a marvelously funny story about translation that comes out of Texas. There was a certain Mexican bank robber by the name of Jorge Rodriguez, who operated along the Texas border around the turn of the century. He was so successful in his forays into Texas, that the Texas rangers put a ...
Here is one of Paul’s most tender passages. Yet, there is in it a harshness to it. Paul is firm in his confrontation, and calls a spade a spade. Listen to him again in verse 16: “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” But despite that tough confrontation, Paul pulls back the curtain of his own inner soul, revealing his anguish and pain, his personal limitations, his feelings of failure, his overwhelming sense of appreciation. Can’t you just feel the deep emotion and tenderness in ...
George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “I am by nature and destiny a preacher, but I have no Bible, no creed. The preacher must preach the way of life...Oh, if I could only find it!” Paul had found it — and he preached it. He called it “life in Christ”. As Christians we are the recipients of the Holy Spirit. A new kind of t kind of action is now possible — but not automatic. Let me say that again. As Christians who are the recipients of the Holy Spirit, a new kind of action, a new kind of life is now possible, ...
You may have heard the story about the fisherman who had a fantastic reputation for his ability to catch fish. Everyday he would go out in his boat and bring back an incredibly large number of fish, and his reputation spread far and wide. One day a stranger came to the camp and wanted to go fishing with him. The fisherman said, “Come back to tomorrow morning at 4:30, and we’ll go. The stranger was back the next morning, and two men got into the boat. The stranger was puzzled at what he saw. All the ...
For most of the ten years I was with The Upper Room, we lived in Mt. Juliet. Mt. Juliet is a small rural town about 20 miles east of Nashville, which was fast becoming a densely developed suburb. When we moved there from California, I was looking for space. I’d lived ten feet from my neighbors too long. I wanted at least the “country feeling.” Mt. Juliet had it. At least two “famous” people lived in Mt. Juliet. Charlie Daniels of country music fame, who is the best fiddler and whose band continues to be a ...
Some of you have seen the play, “Big River”, now playing in New York. This setting of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is well done. The music is exceptional. For days after I saw it, I found myself blurting out, “Arkansas, Arkansas, O how I love Arkansas.” I would find myself humming the tune and trying to remember the words of that haunting piece. In one scene, two river rogues who have commandeered Huck and his barge, schemed to put together a sort of vaudeville act for river towns. To arouse curiosity, crowd and ...
A hole is blown open in the cargo area of a 747 jumbo jet, and nine people are sucked out and killed instantly. It is natural to ask, "Why?" A tornado rips through a small community in Kansas destroying buildings and businesses which took a lifetime to establish and we grieve with them. Those are just a couple of the more spectacular of a whole series of tragic and painful events which occur daily, which trouble our hearts and create questions in our minds. Our text this morning tells of some people who ...
On the day Abraham Lincoln was born his older cousin Dennis Hanks went over to see the newborn baby. Later he commented: “Folks often ask me if Abe was a good-looking baby. Well, he looked just like any other baby — like a red cherry pulp squeezed dry, and he didn’t improve none as he growed older.”[1] That may be a typical cousin’s reaction, but admittedly, Lincoln never was photogenic and he probably would not have made it in this age of television with all its glitz and style. Nonetheless, it is the ...
Why do children love this story so much? Tom Wright offered one explanation: “Sunday schools love Zacchaeus. At least they love to act out his story and sing about him. The little man who climbs up a tree to see Jesus provides one of the most vivid short stories in the Bible. Children can identify with Zacchaeus; they often find themselves at the back of a crowd and can’t see what’s going on. Many adults too, can identify with, they like to get closer to Jesus, but find it embarrassing to do so, and ...
I started reading crime novels about fifteen years ago. Like any pastor, so much of what I read relates to theology or ministry that I needed to find some genre of reading that would take me away from what I do twelve hours a day; something to capture my imagination. I started with John Grisham and read everything he has written. Then I moved on to Swedish author Henning Mankell and read all of his stuff. More recently, I have been reading the murder mysteries of Lee Childs. There is nothing like a good “ ...
Mark 7:24-37 · James 2:1-9 · Isaiah 35:5-6 · Psalm 146
Sermon
Thomas C. Willadsen
This morning’s gospel lesson may be the most troubling passage in the gospels because Jesus said a lot of provocative things to the religious authorities. The crowds were delighted with the clever ways he always seemed to best them in battles of wits. This morning’s gospel passage is different — very different. Jesus and his disciples needed a break. Just before today’s passage begins, Jesus had a controversy with some Pharisees. It appears that the Pharisees had traveled from Jerusalem to Gennesaret ...
Our lessons this morning feels like an archery target. The psalm starts with the long view, the perspective of the psalmist marveling at the beauty of creation. “The heavens are telling the glory of God,” it begins, but that translation doesn’t quite capture the essence of what is to be expressed Psalm 19:1 (NRSV). It more closely means, “The heavens are continually telling the glory of God.” It’s always happening, without ceasing. All we have to do is look up, notice the beauty of the stars, feel the ...
They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he ...
Our Old Testament lessons this morning show us two leaders who were terrified. Esther, Queen of the Babylonians, wife of King Ahasuerus, had just thrown a second feast for the king and his right- hand man, Haman. She had invited the two men to a feast the night before, but could not find the courage to ask the king to spare her people. It’s a long story. Esther was a Jew who was living in exile in Babylon. Her Uncle Mordecai was a prominent official in the palace. Haman, however, was a more powerful ...