Words of Welcome

  Romans 8:12-25 This past week we experienced a heat dome that raised temperatures to more than 100 degrees, followed by a blast of the worst air in the world due to Canadian forest fires. Of course, a power outage led to the cancellation of the service on July 5th. In other words, we haven’t been experiencing the most pleasant weather of late.  I’m not sure if Paul had weather-related issues in mind when he wrote here in Romans 8 about the groaning of creation, but it does seem that creation has been groaning because the spirit of death and corruption is permeating creation.  Paul tells us that creation groans because it is waiting to be set free from its bondage to decay. You might say, that Creation is waiting for its redemption so it can start over from the beginning. According to Genesis 1 when God set about creating the universe, God declared that each element of creation was good, including God’s human creation. Unfortunately, things began to go bad in chap...

John 20:19-31 I like St. Thomas. He’s a realist who isn’t afraid to ask questions. He’s an empiricist who embraces the principle of “seeing is believing.” So, when he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other disciples, he was skeptical. He wanted to see and touch Jesus for himself.   While his skepticism led to an unfortunate nickname of “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas didn’t ask for anything that the other disciples hadn’t already received. The others believed Jesus rose from the dead because he appeared to them. Remember that Jesus’ male disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene’s testimony until he appeared to them. So Thomas was in good company when he made his demands.    Modern folks also struggle to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection. As the eighteenth-century skeptic, David Hume reminds us, resurrection isn’t an everyday occurrence. Even if we embrace the biblical message of resurrection, most of us follow Hume’s skepticism when it come...

Luke 9:28-36 This morning we join Peter, James, and John, as they hike up a mountain with Jesus, so he can take time to pray. We get to see what happens on the mountain through the eyes of these three disciples. What we see is truly amazing. We watch as Jesus’ face suddenly radiates light and his clothing became as white as new-fallen snow. If that wasn’t enough to catch our attention, two men appear and begin talking with Jesus. We soon learn that these two men are none other than the prophet Elijah and Moses the lawgiver. If you were there on the mountain top with Peter, James, and John, what would you make of this?  The three disciples had been with Jesus long enough by this point in the story to have seen some amazing things. They had to know there was something special about him. They’d seen him heal people and feed the five thousand. They’d heard him preach. In fact, just a few days earlier, Peter made the good confession that Jesus is the Messiah ( Lk 9:17-20 ). Neverthe...

Psalm 138 Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a brief introduction to the Book of Psalms. He titled it The Prayerbook of the Bible, because he believed that these prayers form the foundation for all our prayers, especially when we offer them in the name of Jesus. This is what he wrote:   God’s speech in Jesus Christ meets us in the Holy Scriptures. If we want to pray with assurance and joy, then the word of Holy Scripture must be the firm foundation of our prayer. Here we know that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, teaches us to pray. The words that come from God will be the steps on which we find our way to God. [ Life Together/Prayerbook of the Bible, DBW , 5:156]. We approach God with prayers and hymns drawn from Scripture, offering words of praise and thanksgiving, as well as lamentation and complaint.

Romans 8:12-25 There are seven parables in  Matthew 13.  I preached on the parable of the sower last Sunday, and next Sunday Naomi will have five other parables to choose from. That leaves the parable of the Weeds, which is this week’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Even though I’m focusing most of my preaching this Pentecost season on the Gospel of Matthew, this morning we’re taking a short break and attending to a word from the book of Romans. In Romans 8, Paul speaks of two kinds of obligation. According to Paul we owe a debt either to the flesh or to the Spirit. We call the first obligation selfishness, and it leads to death and destruction. The other possible debt or obligation leads to freedom from fear and abundant life. If we embrace the Spirit, we will be adopted as children of God. If we’re children of God, then we are joint heirs with Christ of all the promises of God. That means that we can, with Jesus, address God as “Abba, Father.” 

Ezekiel 37:1-14  God grabbed the prophet Ezekiel and dropped him into the middle of a valley filled with bones that had been bleached by the sun of any sign of life. They were so dry that even the marrow was gone. Then, as Ezekiel took in this sight, God posed this question: “Can these bones live?” How would you answer that question?  I know that part of me would have answered with a tinge of sarcasm, “are you kidding?” But hopefully, I would follow Ezekiel’s example and simply say: “O Lord God, You  know.” That is a prayer of faith that allows for God to do what I may think is impossible.  Each of the Lenten lectionary readings from the Old Testament, speak of acting in faith. Sometimes, the texts describe situations, like  in the Garden,  where the people  demonstrate a lack of faith in God, but there are other texts that tell a different story of faith, like the story of the  call of Abram and Sarai  to migrate to a strange l...

Mt McLoughlin Luke 9:28-36 As the season of Epiphany comes to a close, we find ourselves standing on the Mount of Transfiguration, listening as God reaffirms the commission given to Jesus at his baptism. We go up the mountain to pray with Jesus and three of his disciples. With Peter, John, and James, we watch as Jesus prays. As he prays his face begins to radiate light, and his clothing becomes a dazzling white. In that moment the glory of God that is present within him is revealed. It is a blessing to be in this place at this moment, so that we can witness this revealing of God’s presence. Then, as we stand there in awe of what is happening, two figures from the past appear – Moses and Elijah. This is a moment to behold. It is the moment of Jesus’ transfiguration. 

Revelation 1:4b-8 Over the next few days we’ll have an opportunity to consider the blessings that have been poured out upon us by God. It really doesn’t matter where we gather. The important thing is to stop and offer words of praise to God, “from whom all blessings flow.” We’ll have at least two community opportunities to share in words of Thanksgiving before Thursday. Tonight the Troy-area Interfaith Group is hosting a service at the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit in Rochester Hills. Then on Tuesday evening the Troy Clergy Group is sponsoring a service at Northminster Presbyterian. We also have the opportunity this morning to offer up symbols of gratitude to God through signs of our commitment to the life and ministry of this congregation. These celebrations occur under the shadow of the recent terrorist attacks in Mali, Beirut, Nigeria, and Paris, that have raised our anxiety levels. Fear seems to be taking hold of many in our midst, and there are people and grou...

Galatians 2:11-21 What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about going to church?  Behaving properly? Believing the right things?  Is it like being a member of a service club such as Kiwanis?  Or, is it a social club like a bridge group? Trying to answer that question is becoming increasingly difficult.  It’s easier to say what it’s not than say what it is.  But whatever being a Christian means, the way we answer the question is changing. For instance – there was a time in America when it was the respectable thing to belong to a church.  If you wanted to get promoted at work or run for office, you had to be a member of a church, and being the member of the right church was even better.  It was better to be an Episcopalian or Presbyterian than a Pentecostal – though it was better to be a Pentecostal than nothing at all.    Back then, all you had to do to grow a church was open the door.  But that day has l...

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Last week, in our reading from the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist told the crowd that he baptized with water, but another would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit and Fire.  When Luke moves to Jesus’ baptism, he leaves us with the impression that Jesus, upon the Spirit falls in the form of a dove, is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. In Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, Jesus gathers the disciples together and tells them to wait until the Spirit falls on them, because the Spirit will empower them to proclaim the good news of God’s realm to the ends of the earth.  Then, as story the moves to the day of Pentecost, the Spirit falls on the entire community and they begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus in languages they’d never learned, and as a result God was glorified and the Age of the Spirit had begun. But what does this Age of the Spirit look like and what does it mean for us?   In today’s readi...

John 20:19-31 I like Thomas.  He’s my kind of guy.  He asks good questions and pushes the right buttons.  He’s a realist and an empiricist.  So, when he hears that Jesus is risen, he wants to believe, but he also asks: “Are you sure?”   Thomas has gotten an unfortunate nickname, but is it fair to keep calling him “Doubting Thomas?”  After all, he didn’t ask for anything that the other disciples hadn’t already received.  Besides, the other disciples didn’t accept Mary Magdalene’s testimony, so why should he believe them?  Back in the 18th century, David Hume suggested that we should be skeptical of claims that don’t fit with normal human experience, and that led Hume to question many religious claims including the resurrection, because there simply isn’t any evidence from normal human experience to support these claims.  And I expect that even if you believe in the resurrection, you’ve embraced at least some of Hume’s pri...

Mark 2:1-12 If you’re a stickler for making sure that there’s “a place for everything,” and that “everything should be in its place,” then you might not want Jesus to stop by for a visit. From everything I’ve read, chaos usually follows in his wake. And as we’ve seen from today’s text, even houses get damaged when Jesus comes to town, though it would appear that in this case, it’s Jesus’ own house that gets damaged when he opens it up to the community. As the story goes, Jesus had just returned home to Capernaum from his sojourn in the desert. When word gets out that the preacher boy is ready to make his local debut everyone in town stops by to hear a word of wisdom or argue a fine point of theology. The house got so crowded that no one else could get in, which was unfortunate, since there was a disabled man in town who needed to see Jesus for some healing. But, this man’s friends had a lot of faith and they weren’t deterred by a full house. They simply climbed to the roof an...