Words of Welcome

John 20:19-31 I like St. Thomas. He’s a realist who isn’t afraid to ask questions. He’s an empiricist who embraces the principle of “seeing is believing.” So, when he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other disciples, he was skeptical. He wanted to see and touch Jesus for himself.   While his skepticism led to an unfortunate nickname of “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas didn’t ask for anything that the other disciples hadn’t already received. The others believed Jesus rose from the dead because he appeared to them. Remember that Jesus’ male disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene’s testimony until he appeared to them. So Thomas was in good company when he made his demands.    Modern folks also struggle to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection. As the eighteenth-century skeptic, David Hume reminds us, resurrection isn’t an everyday occurrence. Even if we embrace the biblical message of resurrection, most of us follow Hume’s skepticism when it come...

James 1:17-27 What better time to begin a series of sermons based on the Letter of James than Labor Day Weekend? The reason why I say this is that James is best known for declaring that “faith without works is dead,” and Labor Day is all about honoring those who work.  In case don’t know James, let me introduce you to him, because we’re going to spend time with his letter over the next six weeks. I have to begin with a caveat. You see, like many books of the Bible, we don’t know for sure the identity of the letter’s author. Here’s what we know for sure. In verse 1 of chapter 1, James introduces himself to us as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” So who is this James, who serves God and Jesus? After all, there are several people in the New Testament named James. There is James the brother of John, and James the Son of Alphaeus, along with a few others. The person who most likely fits the story is James, the Brother of Jesus, or at least someone who...

Mark 13:21-23 A little over a week ago Fred Phelps died.  If you don’t know who Fred Phelps is, he was the leader of a small fringe Baptist church from Topeka, Kansas.  Fred and his church, which is composed mostly of family members, are well known for picketing religious gatherings and funerals, especially military funerals.  They have a two-pronged message –  “God hates fags” and “God hates America.” I first encountered this group when we were living in Kansas.  It seemed like every time we drove to Topeka on a Saturday morning, they were just finishing up their protest march at the local shopping mall.  I’d never heard of them until I got to Kansas in 1995, but since then they’ve become an increasingly visible presence across the country.   They claim to represent God.  But do they?  Many claim to be prophets, but who really speaks for God?  How do you know who is speaking truth?  Does the message of hate proclaimed b...

Galatians 2:11-21 What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about going to church?  Behaving properly? Believing the right things?  Is it like being a member of a service club such as Kiwanis?  Or, is it a social club like a bridge group? Trying to answer that question is becoming increasingly difficult.  It’s easier to say what it’s not than say what it is.  But whatever being a Christian means, the way we answer the question is changing. For instance – there was a time in America when it was the respectable thing to belong to a church.  If you wanted to get promoted at work or run for office, you had to be a member of a church, and being the member of the right church was even better.  It was better to be an Episcopalian or Presbyterian than a Pentecostal – though it was better to be a Pentecostal than nothing at all.    Back then, all you had to do to grow a church was open the door.  But that day has l...

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Last week, in our reading from the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist told the crowd that he baptized with water, but another would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit and Fire.  When Luke moves to Jesus’ baptism, he leaves us with the impression that Jesus, upon the Spirit falls in the form of a dove, is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. In Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, Jesus gathers the disciples together and tells them to wait until the Spirit falls on them, because the Spirit will empower them to proclaim the good news of God’s realm to the ends of the earth.  Then, as story the moves to the day of Pentecost, the Spirit falls on the entire community and they begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus in languages they’d never learned, and as a result God was glorified and the Age of the Spirit had begun. But what does this Age of the Spirit look like and what does it mean for us?   In today’s readi...