Words of Welcome

  Reminder, by Mike Moyers Genesis 9:8-17 We serve a covenant-making God. As we journey through Lent, we will encounter some of the covenants present in the Old Testament. We’ll reflect on what these covenants say to us as a congregation and as individuals.  We begin this morning with a unilateral covenant that God makes with all creation. It speaks of God’s faithfulness but it doesn’t impose any specific requirements on us. This one applies to God and God alone, but this covenant offers us a word of hope. That is because it guarantees God’s faithfulness to the covenant. While this covenant doesn’t require anything of us, if we take the word we hear this morning to heart, perhaps we can embody its message in our own relationships. This first covenant provides the foundation for every other covenant, including the one that binds us together as a church. When the Disciples of Christ restructured itself as a denomination in the 1960s, the denomination chose the biblical con...

John 17:20-26 When Jesus concluded his farewell remarks, he looked up to heaven and said: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” ( Jn. 17:1 ).  With these words, Jesus began what is often called his “High Priestly Prayer.” In a few moments, he will leave for the Garden where he will be arrested, but first Jesus prays for himself, for his disciples, and for everyone who will believe in him through the witness of his disciples.  Two words stand out in this prayer—the words in and one, which in Greek are en and hen. The word in reminds us that our oneness is rooted in a relationship that begins with Jesus and the Father, and then extends outward to include everyone who will believe. The prayer begins in verse one, but we pick up the prayer in verse 20. Jesus has already prayed for himself, that God would glorify him. He has prayed for the disciples, asking that they would be one as he and the Father are one. Now, Jesus focuse...

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 The closest I ever get to sowing seeds is laying down grass seed to fill in the gaps in the lawn. I can’t say I have any expertise in this, or much success, but I try. When I sow the grass seed, I try my best to get the soil just right. I go to the store, pick up top soil or even planting mix. I dig out the weeds and rocks, and put down a layer of that specially prepared soil. I try to buy grass seed designed to sprout quickly and has a long life span, though it rarely works as promised. As Cheryl can attest, I do what I can to make the front yard look nice, but I confess that I don’t have a green thumb. 

Matthew 9:35-10:8 Last Sunday we heard Jesus issue the Great Commission: “Go into the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This morning we hear another commission, but it’s more localized. We find ourselves on the far side of the resurrection, and as Jesus travels through Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of God’s realm, he realizes the people of Israel are “like sheep without a shepherd.” Because he has compassion for them, he tells the disciples that while “the harvest is plentiful,” the “laborers are few.” The metaphors are agricultural—shepherding and harvesting—but the point is simple. There is work to be done, which means more laborers, more shepherds, more harvesters, are needed.  Jesus responds to this situation, by asking the disciples to pray that “the Lord of the harvest” would “send out laborers into this harvest.” As the reading continues, we discover that the answ...

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel . . . Stir up your might and come to save us!” In ages past, the Shepherd of Israel took a vine out of Egypt and planted it in a new land. This vine spread out covering the land from sea to river. It grew strong and powerful. Unfortunately, over time the vine lost its luster. For some reason the Shepherd had failed to properly care for the vine, or at least that’s the view of the Psalmist, who asks God to repent and look down upon God’s people and restore the vine to its former glory. Yes, Lord, make your face to shine upon us once again!

Genesis 15:1-11, 17-18 We worship a covenant-making God, and as Disciples of Christ we speak of the covenant relationship that binds congregations, regions, and the General Church to each other. Ronald Osborn was one of the leading figures in creating a restructured Disciples church, and he wrote:  In religion, in marriage, and in the life of a nation, a covenant is a sacred bond sealed with an oath or vow of allegiance. In the community of Christians the pledge is called a sacrament. A Christian swears faithfulness to God. God promises faithfulness to the church. This two-way pledge is seen most clearly in the Christian covenant sacraments of baptism and communion.   [ Faith We Affirm ,  p. 59] When God called on Abram and Sarai to leave their homeland and head toward a strange land, God promised to make them to be a great nation that would bless the rest of creation ( Genesis 12:1-3 ). Three chapters later, Abram is beginning to wonder whether God intends to...

Galatians 3:23-29 Famed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld allegedly declared: “Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”  Our clothing choices say a lot about who we are, or at least how we want to present ourselves to others.  Some of us like to dress up, and some of us want to go casual. Our clothing speaks to the culture in which we live and often our station in life. Sometimes our clothing projects an image of who we wish to become. Our clothing choices are ultimately statements of our identity. We may decide to be bold in our choices or try to blend in. Sometimes those choices are made for us.   Many people wear a distinctive uniform. Police, military personnel, fire-fighters all have distinctive uniforms.  Go to a hospital and you will see a variety of uniforms that help identify a person’s job. A physician wears a longish white coat. A surgeon wears blue scrubs. Nurses and nurses’ aids each wear different colors of uni...

Peter Bruegel, "The Wedding Dance," DIA Ephesians 1:3-14 During this season of Epiphany we’ve been reflecting on our “God-Talk.” Even though our words are inadequate to the task, we do speak about God.  We use metaphors and analogies and stories to give voice to what lies beyond human understanding. We are like Peter, who came up to Jesus after watching him being  transfigured on the mountain and offered to set up tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. He made this offer because “he did not know what to say.”   Can you identify with Peter?  Do you find it difficult knowing what to say about God?  And yet, we do speak of God.  We speak of God the creator, the God who is love, the God who judges, and the God who saves. As Christians we often point to Jesus and say, whoever God is, God is like Jesus!  That is why most Christians use the word Trinity to speak of the God whom we experience in Christ and through the presence of the Holy Spiri...

Matthew 26:26-29 It is stewardship season once again. This means that the council members are making out budgets to fund next year’s ministries.  The budget covers things like church maintenance, staff salaries, and funding for the ministries and mission we engage in. Budget-making requires both realism and faith. We can’t spend more than we take in through pledges, offerings, and endowment earnings, which means that if you’re not up-to-date on your pledge – Wynn Miller would like to see you!  After all, we can’t pay our bills with promises of future income.  At the same time the budget needs to be a document of faith. It needs to tell a story about our vision as a congregation. While we’ve not yet developed what is called a Narrative Budget that focuses more on the mission than numbers, our budget should express a vision for mission and ministry. So, when we write a budget we need to leave some room to grow in our generosity and vision for mission.   ...

Psalm 133 It seems providential that on the Sunday when I’m preaching on the call to Christian Unity as a founding vision that we begin a  Week of Compassion  emphasis that has its theme “We Are One.” We began worship this morning singing “ Somos Uno en Christo ” – “We are One in Christ.”  We sang it in both Spanish and in English as a reminder that the body of Christ embraces many languages and people. No matter our differences in appearance and culture, in Christ we are one.   Barton Stone, one of our founders, declared that  “unity is our polar star.”   It is the guiding principle for the Disciples as a movement.  Thomas Campbell, another founder, declared that the  “Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures.”   Campbell and Stone were commi...

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 John went down to the Jordan to preach a message of repentance and baptize everyone who responded to the message.  Despite his odd appearance and the harshness of his message, hundreds came to be baptized.  Some in the crowd wondered whether or not he was the Messiah, but John pointed away from himself to another.  While he baptized with water, the coming one, the one whose way he prepared, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with Fire. One day, as John was baptizing, Jesus came and got in line.  Unlike elsewhere in the Gospels, John doesn’t try to stop Jesus from being baptized. He doesn’t even seem to recognize him.  He just immerses Jesus in the waters of the Jordan, like everyone else.    However, when Jesus emerges from the water, the heavens open, a dove descends, and a voice calls out from the heavens: “You are my son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”  At this moment God makes a cl...

Mark 7:1-13   I expect that most of us have never heard God speak directly to us in an audible voice.  We’ve never had a burning bush or Damascus Road experience.  So, if this is true, then how can we hear God’s voice?      Last Sunday we talked about how God might speak to us through Scripture, but even if it is the Word of God, is it the only voice through which God speaks?  Going forward I suggested a couple of other possibilities including Tradition, Reason, and Experience.  Having spoken on Scripture, as you might expect from this morning’s anthem, today I’m going to speak on Tradition.      Now, in Mark 7 we find Jesus confronting an angry group of religious leaders who are appalled that Jesus’ disciples hadn’t properly washed their hands before eating.  While it may sound like an issue of good hygiene, it was really more a question of following tradition.  These leaders didn’t ap...