Words of Welcome

John 6:51-58 Welcome to the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This morning we jump right into the middle of a long and complicated story that began with Jesus feeding the 5000 but has taken some interesting twists and turns. So, this morning we’re doing something similar to jumping into the middle of a TV series that’s been on for several weeks and we don’t have a clue as to what is happening. Therefore, I need to catch you up with the story. According to John, after Jesus fed the 5000 the crowd tried to make him their king, but he slipped away to a quiet place where he could pray. Then, when evening came, he took a stroll across the lake toward his home base in Capernaum. But, first, he caught up with the boat carrying his disciples across the lake. The next day the crowd gathered once more in Capernaum hoping Jesus would give them more bread. That leads to a conversation about bread from heaven. You know, like the manna Moses provided, or, rather, God provided in the wildernes...

    Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach, CA 2 Corinthians 5:6-20 Last Sunday we heard Paul invite the members of the Corinthian church to live by faith by focusing on eternal things that can’t be seen, rather than temporary things that can be seen. This morning we continue that conversation, as Paul once again invites us to walk by faith and not by sight. He wants to assure them that whether they are in the body or not, God is always present with them and that God has a purpose for their lives.  Paul tells the Corinthians that he sought to live in a way that pleased God. If he could do that then when he stood before God’s judgment seat he could give an account of his life confident that he had given his all to the work of God. He wants the same to be true for the Corinthian believers. Standing before God’s judgment seat to give an account of our lives might seem a bit scary because nobody enjoys going before a judge. I’ve only had to go to court once, and that was for a spe...

2 Peter 1:3-11 All good things must come to an end, and so while there is much more to say about salvation we come to the end of our journey this morning. Over the past several weeks we’ve discovered that salvation is a complex idea. Because it can be seen as otherworldly it can seem irrelevant and even off-putting. Let’s stick with the here-and-now. But, as we’ve seen salvation is about more than Jesus dying for our personal sins so we can get to heaven. Salvation includes reconciliation, liberation, healing, and taking on a new identity in Christ. As we celebrate Ascension Sunday, it’s appropriate that we focus on salvation as union with God, or as we read in 2 Peter, in Christ we are becoming “participants in the divine nature.”   Eastern Christianity tends to be more mystical than western forms. They place great emphasis on becoming one with God, and they use the Greek word  theosis  to describe this union.  Theosis  can be translated as de...

John 3:14-21 The cover of the February 23rd issue of  Time Magazine  declares: “This Baby Could Live to be 142 Years Old.”  Doesn’t that sound wonderful? So what’s the secret? It all depends on whom you ask, and the articles in that issue offer some tips for living well past one hundred. Of course, living that long poses interesting complications. As Laura Carstensen writes:    The challenge we face today is converting a world built quite literally by and for the young into a world that supports and engages populations that live to 100 and beyond.  [ Time,  69-70]  I’ve been taking a rather unscientific poll since the article came out, and I’m not hearing a lot of excitement about living that long. We may want to live long lives, but maybe not that long. 

Romans 8:1-11 I’ve been preaching from Paul’s letter to the Romans these past several weeks.  In Romans Paul contrasts two paths – the way of death and the way of life, the way of the flesh and the way of the Spirit.  That theme continues in Romans 8, where Paul begins with an important announcement: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  To live in union with Christ means being set free from the guilt we often carry with us in life.  That guilt can include the things we’ve done, and the things we’ve left undone. There’s another way of putting it – from now on, we don’t have to live with regrets.  No more – I wish I’d done that; or, I wish I hadn’t done that.  And we all have a treasure trove of regrets to let go.  In fact, we’re seeing this play out right now as LeBron James returns to Cleveland.  He has regrets about how he handled his move to Miami, and the owner, Dan Gilbert has regrets ab...

John 17:1-11 Family life changes from generation to generation.  We may prefer the way we grew up to the way these newfangled families do it today, but change is inevitable.  This is especially true of the roles we play in our families.  Things have changed dramatically since the 1950s – back when  Father Knew Best.    Back in the age of Beaver Cleaver, the father went to work, brought home the bacon, and the mother cooked it up.  And if you misbehaved, well, wait till your Father gets home.  Thankfully, Ward Cleaver was a very understanding father. But things began to change in the late 1960s, when Julia was a nurse and a single mother.  What can I say about today’s  Modern Famil y?  Depending on your perspective – things are better or they’re worse – but we can agree on one thing – they’re different!  And even the world of the 1950s wasn’t the same as the world of the Bible.   One thing remains constant ...

John 17:1-11 I’ve known a few preachers in my time who after they finished their sermon offered a rather lengthy prayer that was almost another sermon.  In fact it appeared as if the recipient of that prayer was the congregation rather than God.  That’s how I feel when I read John 17.  John begins by saying:   When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said: “Father the time has come. . . .”  (Jn. 17:1).   There’s a lot of stuff packed into this prayer, much more than we can digest in one sitting.  There is a word that is present in this prayer, however, that speaks to where we have been this past week.  Has the word eternity been on your heart and mind this week?  Last Sunday I shared some of my own feelings about Alice’s death and on Thursday we gathered to remember and celebrate her life.  Her death has caused many of us to think about our own mortality and perhaps about what comes after death.  St...