Words of Welcome

Matthew 6:7-13; Luke 4:1-15 We began this morning’s service with a procession of palms, singing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” thereby celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  According to the gospels, Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey as a large crowd hailed him as their king.  The authorities, as they watched this scene unfold, would have seen this as a rejection of Caesar’s rule.  Many others in the crowd might have wondered whether they were witnessing the inauguration of God’s reign in the world.  Yes, it would seem as if Jesus had the city in the palm of his hand.  It must have been tempting to hear the cries of the crowd.  If he chose this moment to launch a revolution, surely the people would have come out in force to overturn the system.  Yes, it must have been tempting, but Jesus understood that God’s kingdom would come into the world in a very different way.       The journey that led to ...

Matthew 6:7-15; Luke 6:37-42     As much as we like to say the words “don’t judge,” every one of us has served as judge and jury.  I think it must be human nature!   Maybe it’s the way some person dresses or the car they drive.  Driving a Toyota in Michigan might get you stares, while driving a Prius in Southern California will get you words of praise.   Yes, we love Jesus’s command:  “don’t judge, lest you be judged.”  But, we all find it difficult to remove the log that sits there in our own eyes, even as we try to pick out the speck in the eye of the other.      As we come to the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, having prayed that God would hallow God’s name, that God would reveal God’s reign, and having asked that God would provide us our daily bread, we come to the matter of forgiveness.  How should we hear this promise of forgiveness, which seems to be contingent on our willingness to forgive ...

Luke 11:1-4; Luke 12:22-34 We’ve come to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer.  In the previous two petitions we’ve asked God to make God’s name holy in our lives, and we’ve asked that God’s reign would be made known in our midst, even as we seek to know and do God’s will.  Having made these requests, which focus on God holiness and God’s reign on earth as well as in heaven, we make our first request of God.  And in this request, we focus on our most basic of needs – our daily bread.  Yes, food, water, shelter, these are the basics, and so it’s not surprising that this is where Jesus begins.         The idea that God is the provider of our daily bread goes back at least to the Exodus story, where the people of Israel find themselves wandering for forty years in the desert of Sinai.  Reading the story, you might think that the people expected a quick trip across the desert, and on into the promised land.  Yes, just a hop, ...

Matthew 6:7-13; Luke 13:18-21 We live in a modern democracy that enshrines the words:     We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Didn’t the nation’s founders throw off a king in order to gain this independence?   And yet, week after week, we pray that God’s kingdom would be revealed and that God’s will would be done, both in heaven and on earth.  How do we reconcile our prayers with our politics?     I suppose we reconcile these two very different perspectives, by spiritualizing the kingdom of God.  We live in a democracy here on earth – where we get to run our own lives – and when we get to heaven, well, then God gets to be in charge!   ...

Isaiah 6:1-8     Every Sunday we recite the prayer that Jesus is said to have taught his disciples.  It’s a prayer that many of us know by heart.  There is, of course, a debate as to whether this is a model for us to follow or a prayer to be said as is.  There are good arguments on both sides, but my sense is that this really isn’t an either/or situation.  Instead, we will be blessed both by using the prayer as a model and by using it as our own prayer to God.      John Calvin suggested that while the form has value, we shouldn’t feel so bound to the form that we’re unable to change a word or syllable.  The point is not the form but the meaning, but still the form has great beauty and meaning.  And so he writes:       Truly, no other can ever be found that equals this in perfection, much less surpasses it.  Here nothing is left out that ought to be thought of in the praises of God, nothing...

Psalm 51:1-17     A biology professor enters a faculty meeting, sits down, and then suddenly stands up and begins shooting.  By the end of the shooting spree, three lie dead and a number of others are critically wounded. Why?  Apparently, a faculty committee had denied a tenure appeal.  We wonder, sometimes, why such a  thing could happen, especially when the perpetrator is well educated.  Surely, I wouldn’t do such a thing?   Surely, I’m not capable of doing that which is evil?  And yet, this is the question we face as we come here tonight to have our foreheads smeared with ash.      Among the texts that we read this evening was one that focused in  on the question of guilt. While this text calls for repentance, it also offers hope of forgiveness and a new beginning in life.  That text is Psalm 51.  Traditionally, it’s supposed  to be David’s prayer of contrition, which he offers to God, a...

Job 38:1--11     The liturgical calendar may say that today is Transfiguration Sunday, and the social calendar might say that it’s Valentine’s Day, but I have another calendar that says that it’s  Evolution Sunday.  As you can see from the service, I decided to go with the latter calendar!  For the  fifth consecutive year churches and synagogues from  across the country will be focusing on the relationship between science and our confessions of faith.       Evolution Sunday and Weekend is observed on the weekend nearest Charles Darwin’s Birthday.   We  don’t do this because Darwin was a saint, or because  he had special spiritual knowledge that we need to pass on.  But, Darwin is important to our conversation, because he personifies the ongoing debate that has rocked our churches and society for decades if not centuries.  Although the debate started long before Darwin – just ask Galileo -- ...