To understand the gospels you must remember that they were written some generations after the Resurrection, and written to answer the questions being raised in that generation. In the case of the Gospel of John, which is the lesson for the sermon this morning, it was written at least sixty years after the Resurrection, three or four generations after. So the question being asked in our text is, "Where is he?" "If he has been resurrected, then where is he?" It is a particularly critical question for that ...
To understand the gospels you must remember that they were written some generations after the Resurrection, and written to answer the questions being raised in that generation. In the case of the Gospel of John, which is the lesson for the sermon this morning, it was written at least sixty years after the Resurrection, three or four generations after. So the question being asked in our text is, "Where is he?" "If he has been resurrected, then where is he?" It is a particularly critical question for that ...
The mass suicide up in Rancho Santa Fe provides a grim backdrop for the celebration of Easter this year. The breaking of the story during Holy Week invited comparison with the Christian celebration of Easter and its message of resurrection. But in my understanding of the event, its occurrence during Holy Week was a coincidence. The real precipitating cause was not the celebration of Easter, but the arrival of the comet that many of us saw during the last days of this week. My understanding is that they did ...
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 ...
Much to my surprise the title of this sermon, "Scandalous News," has caused a lot of people this past week to take notice. They would ask me, "What are you going to say?" I said, "I don't do previews." I did say, though, "It's not what you think, but it's probably much better than you could ever imagine." Titles can be misleading, but I have to put something out there on the billboard that will catch the attention of people who are traveling 70 miles an hour. But I do have some standards, I want you to ...
Summer is not far away now. It is a time when many people travel. If you are going abroad, I am sure you have already made plans to do so. If you have told anybody about your plans, I am sure you have gotten a lot of advice on where to stay, where to eat, and what to see. Through the generosity of many of you in this church, Jean and I were able to take a trip to Germany last summer. We had a wonderful time, made so in large part because of the advice that some of you gave us who had been there. The best ...
A student at The University of Georgia got a job as a disc jockey at a little radio station in Commerce, Georgia. He also got a room at a hotel in town and commuted to school, which was not far away. Sometimes at night, he would crawl out of his window and sit on the roof of the hotel. He would look out over that little town. One night when he was up there, he wrote a song called “City Lights.” The rest is country music history. His name was Bill Anderson. An Episcopalian minister in Boston worked himself ...
Our eight year old came home from school a few weeks ago singing a new song they had been learning, "Lord, Make Me A Sheep." Now . . . even though the song was cute and catchy, and even though I know it was teaching an important theological truth, it still rankled. Make Me A Sheep? It just doesn't sound like a dream any father or mother should want for their son or daughter. Make me courteous and kind. Of course. Make me strong. Yes, definitely. Make me independent. Sure! Make me courageous. Of course. ...
Theme: The Christian tradition invites us to celebrate 3 advents the 4 weeks of advent. It would help your sermon if you wore some kind of “garment” that signified your ordination or calling. The Word-Made-Flesh . . . Exegesis of Romans 13:11-14 It seems strange that as the church’s calendar enters into its most hopeful, anticipatory season, the first of our four Advent readings turns once again towards that final Day of Judgment and end-time scenarios. Yet the eschatological words from Paul to the Roman ...
Since before I can remember, I went to Vacation Bible School every summer. I loved Vacation Bible School and I have many fond memories of my experiences there. I remember rousing games of “Red Rover” in which the boys tried to impress the girls. I remember making first century houses out of clay. There were times when we dressed up in bath robes and re-enacted Biblical dramas. I remember spatter painting – I loved spatter painting! We would get a leaf or a flower or some other object and put it on a piece ...
There is an old story about a henpecked husband who went to a psychologist. He was tired of being dominated by his wife. The psychologist told him, “You do not have to accept your wife’s bullying. You need to go home right now and let her know that you’re your own boss.” The husband decided to take the doctor’s advice. He went home and slammed the door on the way in. He confronted his wife and said, “From now on you’ll do what I say. Get my supper, then go upstairs and lay out my clothes. After I eat, I’m ...
A Sunday School teacher asked the children in her class: "How many of you would like to go to heaven?" All of the children raised a hand except one little guy named Derrick. When the teacher asked him why he didn't want to go to heaven, he said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, but my Mommy told me to come home right after church."1 Well, like that little boy, heaven is still a desire and a dream for most Americans. 77% of Americans believe in heaven, and 76% of Americans believe their chances of getting there are " ...
What do Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, William and Mary, Brown, and Princeton have in common? They were all founded by Christians for the primary purpose of propagating Christianity and training gospel ministers.1 Of the first one hundred colleges and universities built in the United States, eighty-eight were founded for the purpose of furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the cornerstone of Harvard University (which incidentally was named after the Reverend John Harvard) etched in bronze you will ...
There's is an old fable about an Emperor who many years ago gathered together the wisest people in his kingdom and said, "I want you to assemble all of the great knowledge of our civilizations so that it will be available for future generations." They worked many years before returning with ten bound volumes. The Emperor glanced at the stack of books frowned and said, "Too long." The sages scurried back to work and did not return until they had edited the ten volumes down to one. However, when they handed ...
I heard about a man that went to see his doctor because he was feeling absolutely terrible. The doctor gave him a careful examination, left the room to look at some tests, came back in with a very somber expression on his face, and said: "Sir, I don't know how to break the news to you, but you have rabies and you're going to die very soon." The man very calmly got out a piece of paper and began furiously writing. The doctor said: "What are you doing, making out your will?" He said: "Oh no, I'm writing out ...
There was a Gypsy in England who stopped a preacher one day; not knowing he was a preacher, she said she would tell his future for $500. The preacher said, "You mean you can tell me what I will be doing a year from now if I give you $500?" The fortune-telling Gypsy said, "I can tell you exactly what you will be doing a year from now." The preacher then asked, "You mean you can tell me what I'll be doing this time tomorrow?" The Gypsy said, "Absolutely." The pastor then said, "If you will tell me what I was ...
A great preacher in our Convention once told the story of skiing in Colorado, and he noticed on the slopes some people wearing red vests. Wondering who they were, he went closer and read these words on them: BLIND SKIER. He was astounded. If you've ever been skiing or just watched other people ski, you know how hard it must be to ski with two good eyes, much less with no eyesight at all. He wondered to himself, "How do they do it?" He went to a ski instructor and asked him how a blind person could ski? The ...
It was bound to happen. God knew it. Joshua knew it. Someday, a child would ask the question. · Someday, when the people were comfortably settled in the Promised Land and the tales of Abraham and Sarah living in tents had given way to high rise lofts and seaside condos; · Someday, when the stories of Moses and the manna had blended into a mosaic of ancient myth and the traveling tabernacle had been replaced by a permanent temple; · Someday, long after the bones of Joseph had found their final resting place ...
A parable, a statistic and a post script… The Parable Once upon a time, a group of people in a small town realized their town was in trouble. So they built a swimming pool, opened it to the neighborhood and invited everyone to come. And the people came. And they were happy. They discovered a new sense of community and the whole town was renewed. The idea spread to other towns and soon there were swimming pools in every town and every neighborhood. Soon there were so many swimming pools, they decided to ...
“Shoot Me First.” That’s what a courageous 13-year-old Amish girl said to the crazed man who broke into her school on Monday, October 2, 2006. “Shoot Me First.” He did shoot her, killing her along with five of her schoolmates, aged seven to thirteen. Then he killed himself. The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old milkman entered the humble one-room schoolhouse with the intent of killing as many students as possible. But one student, Marian Fisher, the oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead that ...
A child saved the day for Jesus. Could it be that our children save the day for us? Is it time for us to sit at the feet of our children? Meet a 5-year-old girl named Megan. Like many kids her age for generations before her, Megan was terrified of a monster that lived under her bed. What to do? But unlike any previous generation before her, Megan did something about the monster under her bed. She sat down at her computer and used a software package for children to tell her story about how scary the monster ...
God is most attentive when God seems most absent. Canadian geese are the bane of every golf course manager's existence. The vast expanse of rolling green grass, clipped to just the right height for goose grazing, marvelously accessible water hazards and fine "roughs" for nesting combine to invite sometimes thousands of the winged squatters onto previously pristine golf courses all over the country. The problem, of course, is that everywhere the geese go, well, the geese go. Ever notice how much golfing ...
Question: Do you ever feel as if the whole world is against you? Well, I've got news for you. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, it is! If you are a friend of God you are an enemy of the world. God expects you, from the moment you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night, to "go out and whip the world." For the next four weeks I want to share with you exactly how to do that in a practical personal way. I want to deal with a problem that we all face every day. It doesn't matter whether you're ...
"No One Left Behind" - that is a universal creed that is shared by every firefighter, soldier and law enforcement person in America. Whenever they go out on a mission to fight fire, to fight crime or to fire an enemy of our nation, they are determined that when it comes to their own there will be "No One Left Behind." I don't know where this motto originated, but it could have come from the story we will study today. The Kingdom of David, which then was passed on to his son, Solomon, was known as the ...
A great preacher in our Convention once told the story of skiing in Colorado, and he noticed on the slopes some people wearing red vests. Wondering whom they were, he went closer and read these words on the vest: BLIND SKIER. He was astounded. If you've ever been skiing or just watched other people ski, you know how hard it must be to ski with two good eyes, much less with no eyesight at all. He wondered to himself, "How do they do it?" He went to a ski instructor and asked him how a blind person could ski ...