Words of Welcome

Mark 10:2-16 We are broken people who live in a broken world. That’s not a message we like to hear, but it’s true. This message is revealed in the opening chapters of Genesis. While things start okay, things go downhill after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit. After their exile from the garden, one of their sons, Cain, kills his brother Abel because God prefers Abel’s gift over Cain’s. Things get so bad that God, in frustration, decides to send a flood and start over with Noah. But even then, things don’t get much better. That’s just the way things are. Noah and his descendants were just as broken as his ancestors. The problem of brokenness remains part of our reality to this day.   We see this brokenness revealed in our relationships as families, communities, nation, and the world. It’s like a virus that eats away at our inner being. Every aspect of human life seems to be vulnerable to this malignancy of the human spirit. This includes the most intimate of human rela...

Adam and Eve in the Garden - Creation - Songea Cathedral, Tanzania Genesis 2:18-24 The film, Cast Away , is a modern-day retelling of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe . In the film, a FedEx plane goes down over the South Pacific and Chuck Noland, who is a FedEx executive played by Tom Hanks, is the only survivor. After he survives the crash, Noland is determined to live long enough to get rescued. He survives his ordeal in part because he develops a friendship with a volleyball with a face he drew with his own blood. Since the ball was produced by the Wilson sporting goods company, he named the ball Wilson. This ball becomes Noland’s conversation partner and companion. The film came out in 2000 so I don’t think I need to worry about spoilers. You’ll be glad to know that the film ends on a happy note. Noland tried for months to get the attention of passing ships and planes, but no one came to rescue him. So Chuck built a raft, loaded all the packages he had saved from the wreckage of ...

Psalm 19 Today is World Communion Sunday, and in my theology of the Table, Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, encounters us in this meal. Psalm 19 speaks of other encounters with God, both in the silent voices of the heavens and in the words of Scripture. Together the heavens, Scripture, and the Table proclaim the glory of God. So, what word from God are you hearing in these voices?   The Psalmist declares that “the heavens are telling the glory of God.” Or as Michael Morgan’s version announces:  The heav’ns unfold your glory, Lord/ In every realm of space/ The outmost bounds of all that is/ Resound your wondrous grace [ The Psalter for Christian Worship , p. 29].  The Psalmist also declares that the “Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Or, in the words of Michael Morgan: “Your Word is sure and perfect still, a source of light and life.” The lectionary’s Old Testament reading for today comes from Exodus 20, which reveals the commandments of God, ...

Healing Hands James 5:13-20 Today is World Communion Sunday. While we may gather at the Table every Sunday, this particular Sunday reminds us that we part of a global fellowship of Christians. Our fellowship crosses ethnic and national boundaries, and with the rise of a nationalistic spirit across the globe, this is an important fact to remember. This morning we’re bringing to a close a series of sermons exploring the Letter of James, the Lord’s Brother. Although this was the designated reading for last Sunday, I wasn’t here to share it with you. I did preach on this text at Congregational Church of Birmingham, but I’m preaching on it this morning so we can bring this series of sermons to a proper conclusion. While this isn’t the designated text for today, I do believe it’s a fitting text for World Communion Sunday. That’s because it speaks of healing prayer, and our world is crying out for healing.  In the very first chapter of the letter, James speaks of a f...

Matthew 21:23-32 Aimee Semple McPherson was a famous Pentecostal evangelist during the first half of the 20th century. I love talking about her because she was a pioneer in so many ways. I might not agree with her theology or her politics, but I have always admired her persistence in answering a call to ministry when very few women were given permission to preach. Not only did she preach, but she launched a radio station in the early days of radio, a denomination, and a college. When the religious authorities questioned her right to preach, and demanded she show them her “credentials,” she simply responded that God had called her, the Spirit had empowered her, and she had no choice but to preach. If the religious authorities had a problem with her call, then they should take up their concerns with God.  After Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday to shouts of adoration from the crowd, he went to the Temple and began to teach and to heal. The religious leader...

Luke 14:15-24 Today is World Communion Sunday. It was established years ago as a reminder that God’s Table is a Table of unity, even though God’s church is fragmented. All across the globe Christians are gathering to share the Supper that Jesus established so that we might remember him and in doing so share his love with the world. Though this observance has Presbyterian origins, it began to spread across the globe after the Federal Council of Churches adopted it in the late 1930s. The person who made this happen was Jesse Bader, a Disciple mission leader and ecumenist. I found a quote from Jesse Bader that helps introduce what we’re doing today. Worldwide Communion Sunday begins on the other side of the International Date Line, so that the observance starts first on Sunday morning in the churches of the Tonga Islands, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and so on towards the West during the twenty-four hours of the day. This significant observance around the world on t...

Genesis 2:18-24 In the film Cast Awa y, which is a modern day retelling of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe , a FedEx plane goes down over the South Pacific.  The only survivor is a FedEx executive named Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks).  He tries to stay alive long enough to get rescued.  He survives, in part because he develops a friendship with a volley ball with a face drawn from us blood, and whom he calls  Wilson.  Wilson becomes his conversation partner and companion, and the message in this seems to be that it’s not good to be alone.  Now, after months of trying to get the attention of ships and planes, Chuck builds a raft, loads all the packages he had saved from the wreckage of the plane, and heads out to sea hoping that he can reach the shipping lanes so a passing ship can spot him.  Everything works out – sort of.  He does get rescued, but during the voyage a storm comes up and Wilson is lost at sea.  This loss devastates ...

John 6:41-51 Each Sunday Tim Morehouse mixes up some bread, which he hands to me at the end of the service so I can hand it off to a visitor.  It’s always hot bread, so with a little butter or without butter if that’s your choice,  one can make a meal of it on the drive home!  It’s offered as a sign of welcome and hospitality.      While bread is a useful sign of hospitality, it’s also a sign of something much deeper.  Bread is often referred to as the staff of life.  Along with water, bread is the foundation of human existence, which is perhaps what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he said:   “There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”  This physical hunger is so powerful that it must be tended to if we’re to be open to anything else in life. Remember how the people of Israel complained to Moses about the prospect of starving in the wilderness.  Slavery in Egypt...

1 Timothy 6:6-19 The Beatles said it best – “Money can’t buy me love.” That’s right – Say you don't need no diamond ring And I'll be satisfied Tell me that you want those kind of things that money just can't buy For I don't care too much for money For money can't buy me love Now, I realize that diamond rings are helpful when it comes to love. After all, I’ve bought a few in my time for the one I love, but no matter how costly these trinkets may maybe, they can’t buy lasting love. And, despite what the Pharaohs, who built great pyramids in Egypt, thought, you can’t take it with you either! No, their bodies remained a moldering in the grave, while grave robbers and archaeologists took all those goods. Sometimes we forget this fact of life, but even as we didn’t bring anything into the world, we can’t take anything out of it either. So, if “money can’t buy me love” or even happiness in the next life, can’t it at least buy me a little happiness in this life? I real...