Words of Welcome

1 Corinthians 13 Love covers a multitude of sins, or something like that! Love can be romantic, but that’s not always true. When I say "I love Cheryl," hopefully that means something different from saying "I love the San Francisco Giants" or "I love pizza." Because "love is a many-splendored thing" it’s about feelings and emotions, but all too often feelings and emotions can change from one moment to the next. And so love can be fickle and fleeting. Consider the teenager who falls desperately in love, one day, thinking it’s the real thing, and yet more often than not, by the next day they’ve moved on to someone else. We say "God is love," but do we have in mind an emotion that’s fleeting and dependent on the moment? Our English word "love" has many nuances and uses, but the Greeks had four very precise words for love, which C.S. Lewis placed into two categories: Gift-Love and Need-Love. Lewis wrote: "The typical example o

Nehemiah 8:1-10 Legend has it that when I was a very young child I would stand up in my crib and preach. I'd shake my finger and prattle away, speaking to no one in particular. I can't say that I was a great preacher in those days, but I did make an impression on my grandmother, who told my mother: "Someday Bob will be a preacher." Now, I can't confirm this story since my memory doesn't go back that far, but if it’s true, I hope I’ve improved on the quality of my sermons! It takes a bit of audacity to be a preacher. Barbara Brown Taylor compares the preacher to a tight rope walker: Watching a preacher climb into the pulpit is a lot like watching a tight rope walker climb onto the platform as the drum roll begins. The first clears her throat and spreads her notes; the second loosens his shoulders and stretches out one rosin-soled foot to test the taut rope. They both step out into the air, trusting everything they have done to prepare for this moment as they su

Isaiah 62:1-5 A bride always stands out at a wedding. Even the groom is overshadowed by her presence. To give you a sense of the disparity between bride and groom, let me tell you about a Midwestern tradition called the groom’s cake. Being from the West Coast I’d never heard of such a thing, but in Kansas, it seems that every wedding reception has a groom’s cake. Compared to what has to be called the "bride’s cake," this little cake is humble and nondescript. It’s just a simple ordinary cake – no tiers, arches, or fountains. It’s just cake, frosting, and maybe the groom’s name. Perhaps the reason why a bride stands out on her wedding day is that she’s simply more beautiful than the groom. No one pays much attention when the groom and his attendants enter the sanctuary with little fanfare, but when the bride's maids begin to enter everyone pays attention. They know that the real show is about to begin. The crowd turns and watches expectantly, hoping to get a good look at t

Matthew 2:1-12 You thought that Christmas was over, but here in the church the Christmas decorations remain. There’s a reason for this. We have one more thing to do – we have to put the wise men into the story. As everyone knows, a complete manger scene needs wise men. A complete set has Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, a few animals, and of course three kings. There’s only one problem with this set up. Luke doesn’t have magi or a star and Matthew doesn’t have a manger or shepherds. On Christmas Eve we heard one story, now we hear the other, and as we listen to this story we transition from Christmas to Epiphany. Matthew really doesn’t have a Christmas story, instead he tells an Epiphany story. An epiphany is an appearance of God and such an appearance is often a moment of enlightenment. Since the magi represent the east, maybe we could use a Buddhist term here: – a word like "mindfulness." The Buddhist writer Thich Nhat Hanh defines mindfulness as the "kind of energy th