Words of Welcome

1 Corinthians 15:12-20 The spirit of Easter has arrived early in three sets of lectionary readings from 1 Corinthians 15. Paul already revealed to us the core Christian message contained in the church’s confession “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” ( 1 Cor. 15:3 ). That’s Paul’s message, but if this is true, why are some members of the Corinthian church questioning the truth of this message? Why cast doubt on Paul’s message about the resurrection? Paul’s question is as relevant today as it was in the first century. People are still asking questions about the resurrection. Some people have trouble imagining the idea of bodily resurrection, especially since scientific proof is difficult to come by. Paul did offer up witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, but even that doesn’t suffice for many. It’s possible this was nothing more than a mass hallucination...

  1 Corinthians 15:1-11 When did you first hear about Jesus? Who shared the message of Jesus with you? Was it a parent? A Sunday school teacher? A pastor? A friend? Do you remember what you heard? What was the message you first heard?   Depending on how old we were when we first hear about Jesus, the message could have been fairly simple. It might have been as simple as “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” While this children’s song is a good start, it’s only the beginning of a lifelong process of growing in spiritual maturity.  I don’t remember when I first heard about Jesus, but I’m guessing I was fairly young. Since I grew up in the Episcopal Church, I was accustomed to regularly reciting either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed . Even if I didn’t fully understand the words, I heard the message. While the first creed is relatively simple, the second is a bit more detailed. Those two ancient creeds gave birth to many other statement...

Matthew 16:21-28 Yesterday, at our retreat, which Alex led with great wisdom and wit, we “played” a few games, and after each game our  facilitators had us debrief our experience.  We talked about how felt and what we learned, with a special focus on what these experiences said to us about the way the church works.  We actually did this several times, and each time we would talk about our feelings and our insights about the way we communicate with each other and as a church.   One of the important lessons learned had to do with listening, and to listen we have to stop talking!   For some of us, that’s not easy to do!   But as the Psalmist wrote: “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).   Jesus would debrief his disciples on occasion, especially after a big event, like feeding a few thousand people with a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish.  He would  also gather them up after a teaching session.   So, as Jes...

John 8:31-36 Years ago I attended a national Disciples Seminarian’s conference. During one of the sessions, a Disciple seminarian from Harvard told us that there weren’t a lot of Disciples in New England. In fact, most people in that part of the country thought the Disciples must be some kind of exotic cult. It’s true, Jim Jones was a Disciple, but I’ve never thought of the Disciples as either exotic or cultic. Whatever I might think, it’s quite possible that there are a lot of people who don’t know who the Disciples are. That is as true in Michigan as it is in New England. In fact, it’s quite possible that there those here this morning, who aren’t sure what the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) stands for! Now, I’m not a lifelong Disciple. I’ve spent quite of bit of my life in other branches of the Christian community, but I’ve become a committed Disciple! And it’s not because the Disciples let you believe whatever you want. I’m a Disciple because of what thi...