Words of Welcome

  1 Peter 2:18-25 As you know, Pastor Dan decided to spend Eastertide working through 1 Peter in his sermons. There’s some really interesting stuff in 1 Peter, but unfortunately for me, he left me the most difficult passage to work through. Peter begins this passage by telling slaves to obey their masters even if that leads to suffering. He tells the slaves in the Christian community that if they suffer, they should make sure they’re suffering for doing what is right. If you suffer for doing what is right, you’ll receive God’s approval. I don’t know about you, but this passage makes me rather uncomfortable. Not only does Peter speak about suffering, but he seems to give approval to slavery. In fact, many proponents of slavery, especially here in the United States appealed to this and passages like it to defend slavery. Now, I could have avoided the discussion of slavery. After all, the creators of the Revised Common Lectionary chose to omit verse 18 and begin the reading in ver...

  William Blake, Job and His Family  Job 42:1-6, 10-17 We’ve explored a few passages from the second half of the book of Job. What we’ve heard so far is a bit unsettling. We’ve met a God who is willing to make people suffer just to prove a point. Although God uses a hired hand to do this, God is said to be responsible for this “evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). As we’ve seen, this doesn’t sit well with Job. He wants to know why he has suffered at the hand of God. After all, he is innocent and righteous before God. So why are bad things happening to a good person like Job? Although the Bible is a sacred text, it’s also a very complex and human book. At times it even argues with itself. So, many of us read Job as a response to the conventional wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs. The message of Proverbs is quite simple. If you do the right thing, good things should happen. If you do bad things, then you’ll reap what you sow. That message makes sense on ...

Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19 I had planned on preaching from 1 Peter during this Easter season, but I’ve been drawn to the Psalms during this pandemic. I would have enjoyed exploring some of the intricacies of 1 Peter, but the Psalms speak to where we are right now. They invite us to pray and even cry out in lament. They offer us opportunities to grieve and even complain. They also invite us to share words of thanksgiving even in difficult times. Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving that begins with a declaration of faith: “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.” This song of thanksgiving doesn’t come during a time of abundance. No, the Psalmist makes this declaration of faith even as the “snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” It’s at this point that the Psalmist called on the Lord and prayed, asking God to “save my life.” As we continue this season of uncertainty, when the snares o...

Mark 8:31-38 We’ve all faced the prospect of making life-altering decisions.  Where do I go to school?  What kind of job should I pursue?  Whom should I marry?  Should I get married? What about children?   Oh, and will I be a follower of Jesus?      We started our  Lenten journey last Sunday  with Mark’s brief introduction to the beginnings of Jesus’s ministry. We watched as Jesus was ordained at his baptism, received his orientation in the wilderness, and then returned to Galilee to start preaching the good news of God’s kingdom.  That story has moved along quite a bit in our reading today from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus has had some success as a preacher and as a healer. He’s gathered a group of disciples, healed the sick and the injured, fed the multitudes, and he has caught the attention of the people.  If Twitter existed back then, news of his exploits would be trending.   When we catch up with Jesus i...

1 Peter 2:19-25 The reading this morning probably could have begun with  verse 18:  Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.  You can understand why the creators of the lectionary omitted this verse. I doubt any of us approve of slavery, but back in the first century a sizable portion of the Roman population were slaves.  So it makes sense that Peter would write to Christians who’d been enslaved and advise them to keep a low profile and do what they were told. If they experienced suffering, then they should look to Jesus who also suffered.  Even though he suffered, he did so for the right reasons. Although none of us are slaves, slavery continues to exist even in Michigan.  We call it human trafficking, and its one of the issues that the  MCC  is working on.  We’re working to assist victims and bring perpetrators to justice. Because ...

Romans 5:1-5 What is peace? Is it a nice, quiet spot in a grassy meadow to take a nap? That’s called "peace and quiet?" It’s fleeting, but it’s welcome. There’s something called peace of mind, which happens when we have a clear conscience. Peace can be the absence of war, but that kind of peace is rare. Just as one war ends, it seems like another one starts. I doubt anyone in the room remembers the slogans, but World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before an even bigger war began. I’m for peace, in all its forms, but there’s a kind of peace that’s not determined by our circumstances, and that’s peace with God. It’s a peace that surpasses understanding. Peace with God Peace with God is a gift that’s received by faith in the one who makes us right with God. This is what justification means. And it’s Jesus who is the one who extends God’s grace to us so that we can experience peace with God. This grace is needed because too of...