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...

  2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Today is Trinity Sunday. It may not be as exciting as Pentecost Sunday, but it’s a good time to stop and think about the God we serve and worship. Most Christian traditions affirm the idea that God is both one and yet three. This may sound like some kind of math problem, but thankfully, especially since I’m not a math person, this isn’t about math. It just means that, like our Jewish siblings, we believe that God is one. However, Christianity complicates things by suggesting that God is also three persons. So, we sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!” (Reginald Heber).     The doctrine of the Trinity that we celebrate this morning is only present in the New Testament implicitly. It took several centuries before early Christians nailed down a consensus view of God as Trinity. The Nicene Creed, which we will ...

    Acts 1:3-14 The season of Eastertide invites us to reflect on the ways Jesus revealed himself alive to his disciples. According to the Book of Acts, Jesus ended his time on earth after spending forty days with his followers, speaking about the kingdom of God. On the fortieth day, Jesus gathered one more time with his followers. Before he departed, he gave his followers final instructions.   The key verse in our reading this morning is found in verse eight, where Jesus gave the disciples their marching orders. He told them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This verse serves as an outline to the Book of Acts, because things start getting interesting on the day of Pentecost. It was on that day, as the believers gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, that the Holy Spirit descended on them, em...

  Luke 16:1-13 What qualities does a person need to be a good manager? Would you say that honesty is an important quality? If so, would you say the manager described in the parable we’ve heard this morning would qualify as a good hire? Not only did this manager squander his wealthy employer’s property, but once he realized he was going to be fired, he “shrewdly” made side deals with the people who were in debt to his employer in the hopes they would take him in once he was let go. Ultimately, when he was fired, his employer commended him for his shrewdness in making sure he had a way of supporting himself after his firing.   There is something rather strange about this parable. If you’re like me, you probably wonder why Jesus decided to tell this story. What was he trying to accomplish with it? There are no easy answers to these questions because even biblical scholars struggle to make sense of it.  While the wealthy employer commended the manager for his shrew...

  Colossians 3:1-14 Mark Twain famously said that “Clothes make the man.” Even in this more casual era, clothes still stand for something. There are times when we need to purchase a new set of clothes. It could be that our old clothes no longer fit, or we’re attending a big event that requires a clothing upgrade. After all, we don’t want to be underdressed! In his Colossian letter, Paul speaks of stripping off the old self and clothing ourselves with the new self. He directs this word to people who exchanged their old pagan ways for a new life in Christ through baptism. At least as early as the second century, baptisms took place after a lengthy period of instruction. Then on the day baptisms took place, the candidates would strip off their old clothes before entering the baptismal. When they came out the other side, they received a new set of clothes to symbolize their new life in Christ. This exchange of old clothes for a new set represents the change of lifestyle that ac...

  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...

  The Dance of the Golden Calf Exodus 32:1-14 When many of us were children, long road trips could be challenging. We can get impatient. From the back seat we can be heard asking our parents: “Are we there yet?” Such was the perspective of the people of Israel as they traveled across Sinai toward the Promised Land. They could be heard on many an occasion whining about their situation. Then, when Moses seemed to disappear after going up the mountain to visit with God, they got worried and decided to take things into their own hands. If Moses, who spoke for God, wasn’t around to lead them, maybe they needed new leaders and new gods.  Now, when God made a covenant with Israel, God gave the people a set of rules and regulations that defined God’s covenant expectations. We call these rules the Ten Commandments. This set of commandments begins with this proclamation:  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall...