It was a beautiful summer day and Clarence was enjoying a row in the boat with his lovely girlfriend, anticipating the picnic they would have when they got to the island in the center of the lake. These were days when young men and young ladies wore more than shorts and tshirts when out in public. Clarence had donned a spiffy suit with a high collar, and his female companion had on a long dress with billowing petticoats underneath. Clarence masculinely pulled on the wooden oars as his date sat cooly under ...
A lady wrote to Reader's Digest recently. She wanted to tell about an experience she had taking a young girl from India to church with her. It was the 11-year-old girl's first exposure to Christian worship. The young lady's parents were traveling on business and left her with their American friends. The little Hindu girl decided on her own to go with the family to church one Sunday. When they returned home, her host's husband asked her what she thought of the service. "I don't understand why the West Coast ...
There are some people who never let anything get them down. They are like the little boy who kept bragging to his father about what a great batter he was. Finally the father said, "All right, son, show me what you can do!" So the little boy got his softball and bat and they went out to the backyard. The father stood over to the side while the boy tossed the ball up into the air and then swung the bat with all his might. "Strike one," said the little fellow after he had missed the ball completely. "Strike ...
"We sometimes say that money talks," writes Robert McCracken, "and that’s for sure! A person can tell a great deal about another when he learns how he earns his money and how he spends it. For then you know a great deal about his motives, his standards, his desires and what his real religion is all about." When we investigate the New Testament we find that one-third of all Jesus’ parables and one-sixth of all his teachings have to do with money and material possessions. Jesus approached life from the ...
Would you be surprised if I told you that the number one best-selling book in America is a novel that tells of the sexual and financial exploits of the men and women who seek power in the beltway around Washington D. C.? That wouldn’t be surprising. Well, what if I told you that the number one selling book is a book describing how you can be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams while losing forty pounds? You wouldn’t be surprised at that either. Well, then, what if I told you that the Number 1 best-selling ...
When Jesus prayed, "Our Father," which is pronounced in the Aramaic language as "Abba." It started a revolution in our understanding of God and, more importantly, the way in which we viewed our relationship to God. According to Kittel''s Dictionary of the Bible, "The Word Father, 'Abba,'' tells us that God is not a distant ruler in transcendence, but ONE who is intimately close." (Volume 5, page 988.) As I write this sermon, I can still remember Dr. Edward Long, our ethics teacher at Drew Seminary, ...
A man went to his counselor about a personal problem. He said to the counselor, "I have a real struggle here. I feel like I'm violating my conscience. I'm not being completely honest with myself. I'm living a broken life." The counselor said to him, "Well, would you like to see me about strengthening your will power?" The man thought for a moment and replied, "No, what I would like to talk to you about is weakening my conscience." That reflects our age, doesn't it? We are not so much interested in ...
A man went to his counselor about a personal problem. He said to the counselor, "I have a real struggle here. I feel like I'm violating my conscience. I'm not being completely honest with myself. I'm living a broken life." The counselor said to him, "Well, would you like to see me about strengthening your will power?" The man thought for a moment and replied, "No, what I would like to talk to you about is weakening my conscience." That reflects our age, doesn't it? We are not so much interested in ...
There are two actors in this scene of John's gospel: Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is not a popular figure in the gospels. He appears only a couple of other times in John's record. The last picture of him is in John 19. He and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus after He was crucified in order that He might have a decent burial. One of Rembrandt's most famous etchings portrays that scene. The limp, dead body of Jesus was slowly taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, dressed as the ...
Loggerhead turtles lay eggs among the sand dunes on beaches. The little turtles dig their way up through the sand and struggle along the beach seeking the ocean waters that wash upon the sand wave after wave. It's a hunger that is born deep within them to seek this sea water, for it is life -- even living water. If they don't find it, they die. But if they find the water, they can live over 100 years and weigh over 600 pounds! If a little turtle gets sidetracked, say it falls into a moat around a sand ...
The problem with promises is that you have to trust them. You have to believe that they will be fulfilled, and live as if you believe that they will be fulfilled, before they can do you any good. We don't like to do that. We are cautious people. We want something to be thoroughly proven before we will believe that it is true. We want to investigate an enterprise thoroughly before we will invest in it. But that doesn't really work with believing in God. There is a limit to what we can know about God without ...
This is Super Bowl Sunday, and some of you, I know, have chosen to ignore that. In some years you can do that, but when it is held in San Diego, just a few hundred yards down the street, it is hard to ignore it. In 1995, the Super Bowl was in Miami. We couldn't ignore that one either, because the Chargers were playing the 49ers in Miami. On Super Bowl Sunday in 1995, we gathered here in church, offered up prayers for the Chargers. That night we gathered for a memorial service. Today the Broncos and the ...
The Rev. Miles Brandon of The Episcopal Student Center, Austin, TX notes that our culture is captivated with making lists. It all started in 1955 when Edgar Smith of Fortune suggested that the magazine publish a list of the largest U.S. companies. At that very moment, the Fortune 500 was born. Today Fortune not only prints up the 500 list, but “The Forty Richest People Under 40,” “The Fifty Most Powerful Women in Business,” “The 100 Best Companies to Work For,” “The 25 Most Powerful Lobbyists in Washington ...
From the time Patricia and I first came to Big Canoe, almost four years ago, every day I have thought to myself, “What a rare privilege it is to live in this place, and especially to be a part of the faith community that is Big Canoe Chapel. So many people - so many rich histories - so many varied faith traditions! What a privilege to be here!” At the same time, every day I have thought to myself, “It is difficult to live graciously in the midst of so much diversity. We have to work at that every day!” ...
As I approach this topic, I am reminded of a story of a Sunday School teacher who was trying to explain the dangers of alcohol to a class of little boys. She took a glass of clear water and placed it on a desk; then took a glass of alcohol and placed it next to the glass of water. She dropped some worms into the water and they just swam around. She then dropped some worms into the alcohol and they immediately curled up and died. Holding the glass of alcohol in one hand and the glass of water in the other, ...
The name, Albert Einstein, is one of the most well-known names in all the world. Time magazine chose him as "Person of the Century." His influence is seen in every life around the world. The atomic bomb, the big bang, electronics, quantum physics all bear his influence. He will probably be considered for all time the standard by which all scientists measure themselves. But as tall as he was in scientific theory, he was equally as small in spiritual theology. Because even though Einstein believed in a being ...
I received an interesting Christmas card from a dear friend, a retired Air Force General. On the front was a white dove with an olive branch in its beak, hovering above the world. Inside the card were these words: “Peace on earth.” Beside those words my friend had added a big question mark. Then he wrote, “Is peace possible in a world like this?” This General was asking the $64,000 question. Go to any barbershop or beauty parlor and you will hear various prescriptions for how to straighten out our troubled ...
The fruit or lack of it in our ministries is ever before us. The truth is seen among both clergy and laity. Over a period of time it is there for others to observe and most likely evaluate. Actually, generations and centuries speak to what we have done or not done for Christ and his body, the church — visible and invisible. Paul is inspirationally confident in the product he has labored to bring about. His work evidences a writing on their hearts, not written in ink but with the Spirit of the Living God. ...
Jesus built bridges between the divergent unities of his day. The church must do the same. On September 13, 1987, two unemployed young men trying to make a living entered a partly demolished radiation clinic in Goianaia, Brazil, an 18-hour bus ride from Rio. They discovered and then dismantled a cancer therapy machine, the parts of which they peddled to various junk dealers. One junk dealer in particular purchased for 25 reals a stainless steel cylinder, about the size of a gallon paint can. Inside the ...
It's not enough to say "I love you" once. We must say it over and over and over again. Both the speaker and the hearer don't understand the implications of the words "I love you" until they are said and heard over and over again. "Third time's a charm," we say to our passenger, smiling nervously as we try "one more time" to get the car to start on that snowy morning. "Third time's the charm" is the comfort we offer to a 5-year-old when the child timidly approaches the new two-wheeler after already ...
Whether you were paying taxes this past Wednesday, or were lucky enough to rate a refund, its been hard not to see anything but red this past week. The Declaration of Independence has a phrase that is an indictment of King George. Pretend you don’t know who it’s referring to. The US “Declaration of Independence” declares that its people should not have to deal with meddlesome agencies that “harass our people and eat out their substance.” Big-time billion-dollar bail-outs, trillion-dollar infusions and ...
One of the most endangered species in the world today is “family time.” In fact, you could make the case that there are too many kids being raised in families who do not know the meaning of “family time.” Traveling down an interstate on a long car trip used to be good “family time.” Anybody remember “The Alphabet Game” where kids and grown-ups could work their way from A to Z by getting the letters off the highway signs? Did any of your families sing together those awful camp songs that have a hundred ...
Every morning the early local newscast reports on how good or bad the “daily commute” is going. Strategically perched cameras and computer generated models show whether there is clear sailing or clogged arterials on the major commute-routes. Seattle is a city consistently in the Top 10 for its gelatinous traffic jams – the LA freeway is a breezeway compared to Seattle’s Route 5 most of the time. And the Seattle newscasters like to keep minute-by-minute track of how slow you can go. Now it takes 20 minutes ...
Our Extreme Home Makeover is moving right along, but there is one thing we have not yet mentioned and that is – building codes. As you know, before you can occupy a home, it has to meet standard building codes. Building codes are developed by people who are actively involved in the construction industry. Their purpose is, "To provide minimum standards for the protection of life, limb, property and environment and for the safety and welfare of the consumer, general public and the owners and occupants of ...
One of my favorite plays is “Harvey” by Mary Chase. I’ve seen it stage, on TV and in movie. It is a delight in any medium, more than a delight; it is a challenge, a challenge to our unimaginative, prosaic, living ruts. You may recall that this play is about Elwood P. Dowd, an eccentric, drinking man whose closest friend was an enormous rabbit called Harvey (who was unseen for the most part by anyone but Elwood.) In fact, because Harvey was unseen, yet so real to Elwood, his family hired Dr. Chumley, a ...