Words of Welcome

  Matthew 25:1-13 Most of us have been to a wedding and maybe even in a wedding or two. Over the years I’ve been the groom, a co-best man, groomsman, usher, and of course, being a pastor, I’ve officiated at a few. Like most pastors, I have a few stories to tell.  Most of the weddings I’ve officiated went fairly well, though there were a few that could have gone badly. The most memorable event took place during one of my earliest weddings. That was when the bride almost went up in flames. I learned my lesson: Don’t let the bride’s train catch on the free-standing candelabra after lighting the unity candle. Better yet, don’t use free-standing candelabra. There also have been a few weddings that were delayed for one reason or another. In one a bridesmaid got sick on the way to the church and in another a drunk father-of-the-bride disappeared right before the wedding began. Of course, these were the exceptions, not the rule.  This morning, Matthew takes to a wedding sc...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 It seems strangely appropriate to hear an apocalyptic reading from scripture at the close of a week featuring rising COVID cases and a bitterly contested Presidential election. Are these signs that Jesus is about to return and take us home? If so, are you ready?    In last Sunday’s reading from 1 Thessalonians 2, we heard Paul commend the Thessalonians for embracing his message as a word from God ( 1 Thess. 2:9-13) . Now, Paul addresses the matter of Jesus’ return in glory and the fate of those who had already died. This reading draws on Jewish apocalyptic imagery that envisioned the replacement of the old, broken, world order with God’s new creation. This is the message Paul had preached in Thessalonika.  The only difference is that he envisioned Jesus being the agent of this dramatic break in human history. The Thessalonians were looking forward to this new day, but they were worried about the fate of those who had died before all of this too...

2 Peter 1:16-21 The season of Epiphany begins with a star guiding the Magi to the home of the Holy Family. It closes with Jesus standing on a mountain, his glory revealed to his disciples, and his mission confirmed by a voice from heaven. As we gather here on Transfiguration Sunday, we’re invited to consider the question: Who is this Jesus?  According to Matthew Jesus ascended the Mount of Transfiguration in the company of Peter, James, and John. When they reached the summit, Jesus was transfigured, so that  “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Then they were met by Moses and Elijah. Even though Peter had proclaimed Jesus to be the messiah and Son of God only a few days earlier, he and his colleagues were overwhelmed by this sight. Then to top it off, a voice from heaven called out: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him” ( Matt 17:1-8, Matt 16:16 ). This morning we encounter an abridged ve...

Revelation 21:1-6 One of the consistent messages of the Book of Revelation is that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. To borrow from Aristotle, God is the first cause. Or, as the Prologue to the Gospel of John puts it:  “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And, everything that exists was created through and by this  Word. Finally, a few verses later we learn that this “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” ( Jn. 1:1-18 ). Not only is God the beginning of all things, but according to the Book of Revelation God is also the completion of all things.    If God is the beginning and the end of all things, should we not also say that God is also present in all things at all times? As Rick Lowery reminded us yesterday in his sermon at the Festival of Faith, in a moment of theological crisis, the people of Israel learned that God is not limited to a piece of land, but that God is th...

Revelation 22:12-17 Back when I was in high school, I was really into eschatology. I mean, I read all the end times books, including Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth. I also played Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction and Larry Norman’s “ I am the Six o’clock News” on my record player. Sometimes at church we had rapture practice – which involved jumping off chairs in the sanctuary. I think I can safely say that my friends and I thought that Armageddon was just around the corner. In fact, by our calculations, which we took from Hal Lindsey, the end would come in 1988. Now, just in case you didn’t know, it’s now 2008, so I guess we were just a bit off in our calculations. That was then, and as they say, this is now. But, I’m still into eschatology, just not the kind I indulged in back then. This word, eschatology, might sound a bit strange and exotic. It’s not a word we use very often on normal conversation, but even though most people don’t know the word, it’s an impo...

Matthew 9:35-10:8 I don’t have a lot of personal experience with farming. Although I may have grown up in an agricultural area, I’m still a city boy! Besides going out in the back yard to pick some apricots, the closest I’ve ever gotten to farming was an essay I wrote for a history textbook on the Agricultural Revolution of the 18th Century. So when it comes to talking about harvesting, any expertise I have comes from book learning. Fortunately you’ve not come today hoping to learn gardening techniques. If you have, then you have to look elsewhere! I don’t know if Jesus was an expert on farming either, but he seemed to understand the basic principles of farming. The first principle is simple -- if something looks ripe, then you better pick it! The second principle simply insists that it takes workers to harvest a crop. Jesus may be correct about the principles of farming, but I don’t think he was interested in farming per se! So, maybe in this passage, when he ta...