Preaching is an awesome responsibility - to mount a pulpit and proclaim God’s word. I remember my first visit to China in 1979. The Bamboo Curtain was just being drawn a bit. Miraculous things have happened since then, as you very well know. But back then you couldn’t meet publicly with Christians - so, on my trip we met in secret. I remember being with three couples in a hotel room in Beijing. It was as near to what I think it must have been in the early church when Christians gathered in the catacombs to ...
In September of 1997 there was a groundbreaking service for a Catholic cathedral that is going to be constructed in Los Angeles. The Diocese of Los Angeles commissioned the famous Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo to design the building. Their hope is that the cathedral will be completed by the beginning of the millennium. It’s to be a peculiar witness to the glory of God. There were models of the cathedral at the groundbreaking service and on the basis of the models a Los Angeles Times reporter wrote a ...
The glorious good news of the gospel is not only are we pardoned by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as “new creatures” – “everything old has passed away…everything has become new” (II Cor. 5:17). We are not on our own. After expressing the truth that we are justified by faith and have peace with God through Jesus Christ, (Romans 12:1). Then states a heartening aspect of the gospel: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that ...
It was an incredible military breakthrough. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Commander Joe Rochefort broke the Japanese codes. From an intelligence base on Oahu, he predicted an attack on Midway Island for June 3, 1942. Because of Rochefort's skill, the United States surprised the Japanese Navy with its first defeat in 350 years. Four carriers were lost, one cruiser, 2500 men, 322 aircraft, and the best of their pilots. The tide turned in the Pacific; Japan never recovered momentum. Commander ...
Patrick Morley has said that the turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is. Peter would come face-to-face with the God who is. This would be a turning point in the life of the disciples. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But ...
This message comes both to a rich young ruler and to the disciples. It comes to them after a teaching on becoming as little children in order to come into the kingdom of God. Right after this teaching, a rich young man runs up and we see the response of the disciples to Jesus’ teaching, and He has more to say. This morning Jesus has something to say to those who are seeking Him and want to have eternal life. But He also has something to say to those who have been found by God and have eternal life And as ...
I confess that I have been struggling on how to approach this sermon this morning. We are coming into the season where we talk about stewardship and ask that you consider what your support to the Church will be in the next year. My instinct on these matters is always to be non-direct. But the gospel lesson for this morning, you heard it, makes it hard to do that. It is anything but non-direct. It is one of Jesus' shorter parables, just a few lines. It begins with the question, "What do you think? A man had ...
There is a popular story going around about a husband and wife who are discussing their living wills. The husband is adamant about his desires. “Just so you know,” he says, “I would never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If I ever get to that state, I just want you to pull the plug.” His wife thought about this for a moment, got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all his beer. Some of us know somebody who’s in that kind of vegetative state. We want to ...
They didn't get a TV Guide so they planned their television viewing by the commercial previews. Sometimes the networks don't tell you everything in the previews, like, this particularly good adventure is a two-part mini-series, and you need to watch tomorrow night, too. And the most dreaded words in the English language flash across the screen: To be continued. You didn't know? You watched the whole show thinking it would all be resolved and over at the end? Then it happened at the most inopportune time: ...
Lawrence Henry was 88 years of age when he shared with his family the only sermon he ever preached. Lawrence was a farmer born in 1900 in the Coteau Hills of South Dakota. He received an eighth grade education, raised four children, and died in 1996. The sermon is titled, "Saved." Here are two key stories in Lawrence's own words: "Today I will use the word ˜saved' as the key word in some of the experiences I have encountered in my past 88 years. The word ˜saved' is a small word consisting of only five ...
Have you ever waited for someone or something until you just didn't think you could wait anymore? Whether we are waiting for a letter, waiting for a repairman to arrive, or we are the repairman waiting to be paid, waiting gets to us. Waiting is a miserable experience. If we are waiting for a phone call, we pace the floor, wring our hands, and end up taking our frustrations out on the phone itself: "Ring, you stupid phone!" The more important the thing we are waiting for, and the longer we have to wait, the ...
Life never stands still. It can crawl along too slowly, zip past us before we know it, torture us with opportunities we can never get again, or bewilder us with which path to take. But it never stands still. A woman who learned about life's twists and turns shared her story with a pastor friend of mine. Shortly after her marriage, in full flush of love, she went out for a jog. Bursting with a feeling of how delicious her life was, she offered up a prayer of gratitude to God for her marriage, her health, ...
We get only a sip from the book of Judges. A sip may be all we want; a big gulp of the book might be more than we could take. So, the lectionary committee measures out a small spoonful of this book, seven verses, and gives us a sip once every three years. The committee must be afraid that all of the blood and gore would turn our stomachs and all of the sex would distract us. So, the bottle marked "Judges" has a sticker from the committee that reads, "Caution, do not exceed recommended dosage." For our part ...
Some of you may have read a remarkable short story sometime during your school years by D. H. Lawrence titled, “The Rocking‑Horse Winner.” I wonder if you remember how the story begins? It is a haunting tale about a family living above its means. The mother is considered by friends and neighbors to be the perfect mother, in spite of the fact that deep down she knows she has difficulty loving her three children. It’s important to the husband to keep up the pretense of success--the large house, staffed with ...
In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is the Jewish father of five girls living in a Russian village who finds himself going through a period that is continually challenging his traditions. First, his oldest daughter, Tzeitel does not want to accept the man picked for her by the village matchmaker. But Tevye has already struck up a deal with this man to marry his daughter. And so Tevye goes through a mental wrestling match with himself that goes something like this: "On the one hand ... I'm the papa, ...
For a man who claims that he does not know much about the coming day of the Lord, Paul has certainly written us a vivid description of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Paul speaks with authority when he says that when the day of the Lord comes, those who are dead and in the grave will be awakened by the trumpets of the angels and they will rise up and meet the Lord first. Those who are still alive when this happens will have to wait until all the dead are welcomed before they get to enter into the joy of ...
Imagine you are a race car driver in the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. How would you deal with the inherent risks associated with this sport? How would you deal with the possibility of crashing, even dying, on that track? According to one driver, you don’t. “[If a fatal accident occurs,] you don’t go look at where it happened. You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened.” The Indianapolis International Speedway operation itself encourages this ...
There are certain periods in history that seem to give birth to genius. The latter part of the 18th century in this country was a time of political greatness rarely achieved by any nation. Why was it, we ask, when the population was limited to the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, just a few million people, a fraction of the population of the country today, that there were so many great leaders and philosopher/statesmen? It was amazing. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Adams. Those few men ...
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 ...
I always wondered what Jesus would do with Mother's Day. There was no such thing in his time, as you know. And contrary to what some people think, Mother's Day is not one of the holy days in the Church's calendar. But I still wonder about Jesus. What would Jesus have done with Mother's Day? Of course, we don't know. But we do know that there was a command, one of the Ten Commandments, to honor your father and your mother. It is a tradition, we are told, that he did observe. The testimony is in two places, ...
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 ...
Genesis 12:1-8, Romans 4:1-25, 2 Timothy 1:1-2:13, John 3:1-21
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-8 By faith Abraham accepts Yahweh's promise and obeys his command. Around 2000 B.C. a man named Abraham lived in Haran. Yahweh came to him and called him to leave his home and family to go to a strange, unknown land where he would become the father of a great nation. Abraham proved his faith in Yahweh by trusting his Word of promises and obeying. He left all for a great adventure in faith. Yahweh promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to all nations. Abraham ...
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 1:8-2:10 The birth of Moses. The story of the Patriarchs ended with Joseph's bringing the Hebrews to Egypt. In due time they multiplied until they became a threat to the Egyptians. The story of the Exodus begins with the birth of Moses who was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. The next ten readings will take us from Moses' birth, to the release from Egypt, to the wilderness wanderings for forty years, to Moses' death. Old Testament: Isaiah 22:19-23 Worthy and unworthy leaders ...
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 16:2-15 Yahweh provides food for the Israelites in the wilderness. Only a few weeks after deliverance from Egypt, the people complain about the lack of food. They murmur against Moses and Aaron, but God knows that they complain about him. They doubt whether Yahweh cares about them and his ability to provide for them. In response to their complaints, Yahweh sends quail in the evening and bread, "manna," in the morning. To this day the manna is a mystery - "What is it?" Moses ...