Words of Welcome

Philippians 2:5-11 Athletes are easy targets for criticism. Prancing around and posing for the camera, acting like prima donnas as they do, the antics of contemporary athletes are often amusing. Football players strut across the field pointing their fingers at the camera, home run hitters stop to admire their handiwork, and basketball players try ever more entertaining high wire dunks, But sometimes these acts backfire, like when the ball falls short of the fence, making that would-be home run a very long single; or that power dunk that bounces off the rim and lands in the seats. Why do they do this? Well, it’s because the fans like it. So, should it surprise us that anyone whom we idolize, whether an actor, musician, politician, or athlete, may, on occasion, act as if they’re almost a deity? How do you stay humble if people idolize you? I mean, what if you rode into town and people started to proclaim you the Messiah? That’s what happened to Jesus the day he rode into Jerusalem on a ...

John 12:1-8 We don’t like to talk about death. That’s one reason why so many Americans don’t have wills. For some reason we think that if we plan for death then maybe were kind of expecting to die soon. And most of us would rather not die all that soon. So, I guess we just have a problem with death, even we who believe that death isn’t the last word. After telling us how Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, John says that Jesus later returned to the house of Lazarus, and his sisters Martha and Mary, for a visit. When Jesus arrived at the house, Martha was in the kitchen fixing the meal, and Mary, as usual, was nowhere to be found. Then while the guests enjoyed the meal Martha had fixed, Mary shows up with a flask of expensive perfume. Getting on her knees, she opens the bottle and pours the contents on Jesus’ feet, wiping the excess off with her hair. I’m thinking she’s doing this to say thank-you to Jesus for bringing her brother back to life. Now, it shouldn’t surprise you ...

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 I want to tell you a story about Elisabeth. She grew up in a Christian family, the granddaughter and niece of pastors, but during her teenage years she wandered into a spiritual wilderness. Now, her story isn’t that exciting. She didn't get addicted to drugs, engage in criminal activity, or even get arrested for her political activities. In fact, outwardly, she was the epitome of success. No, she went to college, got a good job, and climbed the corporate ladder. And yet, her journey away from God began in a familiar way. She met a young man in high school, fell in love, and in short order her beau displaced God. As their relationship deepened, her faith and her church got pushed further and further away from her heart. Instead, she focused on sports activities, parties, and school, and then on a successful career in the business world. But then her world began to crumble. After building her life around this young man for thirteen years, even following him from t...

Luke 13:1-9 I’m not a gardener. In fact, I have what they call a brown thumb. I wouldn’t know when to prune a bush or to fertilize the flowers. I water the lawn when I remember, but too often I forget. So, I can’t comment on Jesus’ parable of the fig tree from a gardener’s perspective. But, it’s the conversation that happens before the parable that catches my eye. It’s human nature to try to figure out why things happen to people. There’s got to be a reason, or, so we think. When Katrina hit, certain preachers, blamed the residents of the region for their moral laxity. The same thing happened on 9-11 – Our nation was reaping what it had sown. For some reason there’s a tendency to think that suffering is God’s punishment for our sins. That’s the message Job’s friends brought him when things went bad. When Jesus heard that Pilate massacred a group of Galileans worshiping peacefully in Jerusalem, he raised the question of why. Were they worse sinners any other Galileans? And, what about t...

Luke 4:1-13 We’re tempted to take shortcuts, especially when we feel pressured, vulnerable and weak. The LA Times recently ran a story about the prevalence and the acceptability of cheating among high school athletes. In fact, the survey suggests that coaches are encouraging their student-athletes to cheat and cut corners academically to gain the advantage. When we’re confronted with the possibility of sure success, it’s often easy to rationalize our choices. We say to ourselves, no one’s getting hurt and I’m just helping myself out. You see how easy it is? Luke tells the story of the day Jesus encountered the Tempter. He asks the question: Who is Jesus and what’s his calling? If he’s the Son of God, then what does that mean? The story picks up as Jesus is ending a forty-day fast in the desert, and the tempter puts the question to him – why not take a short cut and achieve your dreams? If only all our choices were easy ones – black and white, two equally powerful but strikingly differe...

Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36 I'm not a big mountain climber, but in my youth I climbed a few. Once I climbed Diamond Peak in Oregon. Standing more than 9000 feet above sea level, it wasn’t Everest, but it still wasn’t an easy hike for a thirteen-year-old Boy Scout. When I got to the top, I found a view that was breathtaking. I could see for miles in every direction, from the high plains of central Oregon in the east to the fertile Willamette Valley to the West. Looking north and south I could see the whole spine of the Cascade range punctuated by high peaks. Far below was Crescent Lake, the site of our Scout camp and off in the other direction was Odell Lake, both crystal clear and blue. There’s something truly awe inspiring about great mountains; they remind us of our own smallness and the grandeur of creation. When we stand on a mountain top, we also might find ourselves drawn into the presence of God. GOING TO THE MOUNTAIN From the earliest times we’ve gone to the mountains lo...

Proverbs 8:22-31 When you see the Grand Canyon, a Hawaiian sunset, or Crater Lake for the first time, I doubt that science questions will pop into your mind. You’ll probably say something like, "wow, isn’t that beautiful!" And then, after taking in the sights for a bit and likely taking a few pictures, you may finally stop to think about how these things of beauty came to be. The first reaction is aesthetic and even spiritual; the second is scientific. Science deals with the how and faith deals with the wow! Those two different reactions suggest that there’s more than one way to look at things. Neither one is right nor wrong, they’re just different. The scientific angle is extremely important, and it should be honored. But it doesn’t always tell the whole story. That’s where faith comes in. They’re not competitors, they’re complements. For centuries now people have been arguing about the relationship of religion and science. Some people believe they’re opposed to each other, ...