Words of Welcome

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 “Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name.” We sang these words this morning as we began worship. “Lift High the Cross” is a powerful nineteenth century Anglican processional hymn. Apparently, it was inspired by Constantine’s vision that invited him to conquer his enemies under the banner of the cross. However, the version we sang is not as militaristic as some of the other hymns I grew up with. Maybe you remember singing on a regular basis: “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.” Or maybe you enjoyed singing: “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross; Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory His army shall He lead, Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.” These last two hymns are no longer in our hymnals, because they offer us more of Constantine than Jesus, even if we may remember them fond...

1 John 5:1-6 Perhaps you can remember watching those old Western movies, the kind that John Wayne appeared in back in the forties and the fifties, back before Clint Eastwood’s more complicated Westerns began to appear. In those movies of yesteryear, there were good guys and bad guys, and you always knew who was who. Sometimes, they even wore different colored hats – one white, one black – just so you didn’t miss the point. We call this dualism, and dualism lets us see everything in black and white, either/or terms. You’re either with us or against us, and if you’re against us then you must be evil. And if you’re evil, then I may have to destroy you. We like to see ourselves living on the right side of things, which means that our opponents must be evil. As a nation we’ve spoken of our enemies in terms of evil empires and an axis of evil. It seems to make sense to us, but maybe life isn’t so cut and dry. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln was right when he pointed out that both sides d...

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...

Isaiah 50:4-9a "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." That’s what you’re supposed to say when bullies pick on you and call you names. It would be nice, if names didn’t hurt, but from experience I can say – it’s not true. Names do hurt. Indeed, we’ve discovered that verbal abuse can be just as damaging to a child as physical abuse. James understood this to be true long before the psychologists caught on. He called the tongue a "restless evil, full of deadly poison." Indeed, the same tongue that we use to sing praises to God, we also use to curse those "who are made in the likeness of God." (James 3:1-12). Today we celebrate Palm Sunday, and as we wave our palm branches and triumphantly process into church the excitement begins to build. Yes, this is a time to shout out words of praise and give thanks for God’s gift of deliverance. Oh, if things would just stay like that, but if you know the story, you know that t...