Words of Welcome

Matthew 28:1-10 Over time the cross has evolved from being a means of torture and execution to a fashionable piece of jewelry. Crosses can come in gold or silver, plain or bejewelled, and if you didn’t know better, you’d never believe that this cross that people wear around their necks or on their ears was once one of the most feared and despised forms of execution devised by humanity. Its message was so powerful that the Romans reserved the cross for rebels and troublemakers. It’s easy for us to forget the meaning of the cross since it no longer functions as a means of tortuous death, which is why it’s important to observe Good Friday before we celebrate Easter. Before we can appreciate the beauty of Easter, we must take in the ugliness of the cross upon which Jesus died. The cross upon which Jesus hung, reminds us of the ugliness is present in our world – war, segregation, prejudice, self-centeredness, anger, and hatred, to name but a few. As we contemplate the cross, we recognize...

1 John 3:16-24 What is love? We’ve been asking this question for centuries. And of course, love is a favorite sermon topic, so we preachers have had more than enough opportunities to offer our definitions. And yet, it seems as if this continues to be an appropriate topic to consider, because we still struggle with our definitions and with our practice of love. I know that for the broader world love is eternally connected to romance, but normally, when the Bible speaks of love, it has something else in mind. Indeed, love is the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus summed up the law of God in two commandments – love God and love neighbors. Every thing else is simply commentary on these two commandments. And if you read through our text this morning, I’d venture to say that you wound find that we keep the first by keeping the second. When it comes to the biblical idea of love, I can’t think of a better pop culture example than the closing scenes of the old Star Trek movie...