Words of Welcome

Romans 1:16-17, 3:21-28 Down through the ages, parents have been tempted to use the threat of divine judgement to keep order in the house. Parents tell their kids: You know, God is watching – so what would God think? Or, something to that effect. Of course, the kids can always throw that back at their parents! Whatever the case may be, such questions assume that God not only looks over our shoulders, but when God doesn’t like something, we’re going to suffer the consequences. Now, I do believe that God has high expectations for us – like any good parent has for his or her children. But the flip side to this idea can be troubling. If we start from the idea that our relationship with God is one of parent and child, then the question is: Must a child earn the love of his or her parent? If not, and if God is our parent, then does God expect us to earn God’s love and affection? St. Paul, like many of us, believed that if he was good enough, zealous enough, observant enough, then God would l

Matthew 10:40-42 If you’ve ever watched a Western movie, you’ve probably seen one of those reward posters that were prominent in the Old West. "Wanted: Dead or Alive – Black Bart – Reward: $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction." We tried something like that with Osama Bin Laden, but so far we haven’t had any takers, even though the reward is $25 million. Being married to a teacher, I know that elementary teachers also use a reward system to keep order. Cheryl uses tickets, and if you get enough tickets you get a prize of some sort. It seems to work pretty well for her. And of course, diplomacy is based in a reward system. You don’t get very far with diplomacy if all you have is a stick. Most diplomats find that the carrot works much better than the stick, and it’s a lot cheaper and safer in the long run – no messy wars to deal with. When it comes to preaching, fire and brimstone is a bit like the carrot and the stick principle. If you turn to Jesus, y

Matthew 28:16-20 I love Homer Simpson. He is the proverbial couch potato. He’s content with his lot in life, goes to church, but doesn’t take it too seriously, in fact, he’s more at home at Moe’s Bar or in front of the TV than anywhere else. Instead of taking on life, Homer let’s life come to him. He may enjoy watching an action flick or a football game, but he has no interest in getting in on the action. Yes, I like Homer Simpson. I could even enjoy being Homer Simpson. Whether Cheryl would like being Marge Simpson – blue hair and all – is another question. Knowing Homer Simpson as well as I do, I think he’d be a bit uncomfortable listening to this morning’s text. It has too many active verbs. For those of you who are grammar afficionados, you know that good writing requires active verbs. While that may be true, Homer Simpson likes a more passive style, and so he might not like the Great Commission with all of its active verbs. It’s too action oriented and not the kind of religion tha

Today is Mother's Day -- and Pentecost Sunday. It is a day to honor mothers but it is also a day to pause and consider a different way of living on the Earth. Below is Julia Ward Howe's " A Mother's Day Proclamation ," a proclamation that calls on the women of the world to join together and bring peace. Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance

Numbers 11:24-30 It’s not often that we celebrate Mother’s Day and Pentecost on the same day, and when it does preachers get put in a difficult situation. You could try to mix them together in a sermon, and I’m sure that mothers can be prophets, but it’s still hard to put them together. As you can see from the sermon title, I’ve decided to focus on Pentecost – sorry Mom! I have a question for you: Moses says he wishes everyone was a prophet, so are you ready to be a prophet? When you hear that question you may be wondering what a prophet does, or you have an idea and it doesn’t sound very promising. I expect the image most people have is a strange looking guy with a long scraggly beard. He stands on street corners yelling at people who walk by, wearing rough burlap robes and a sandwich board that boldly declares: REPENT, THE END IS NEAR! If that’s your picture of a typical prophet, I doubt you’d be interested in the job. It’s true that biblical prophets could be a bit strange. Think of

John 17:1-11 We get anxious when change is at hand. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, change makes us nervous. And we’re getting ready for change, and I think we’re just a bit nervous. Although my future is somewhat clearer than yours, I share in your anxiety as we both head out in new directions. It is in the midst of this anxiety that we come to hear Jesus praying in the garden. In John’s telling of Jesus’ final hours, we hear him pray for his community. It’s often called Jesus’ high priestly prayer, because he takes on the role of an intercessor with God, and in this role he asks God to see them through the difficult times ahead. But more importantly he prays that they might share in God’s glory, even as he has shared in God’s glory. He asks that they might experience the same intimacy with God that Jesus experienced. And in the midst of this prayer, Jesus brings up eternal life. To experience intimacy with God is to share in eternity with God, so what does this mean? I. SHARIN