Words of Welcome

John 6:58-69 Has a preacher ever said something that offended you so much that you never went back to that church?  I hope that none of you will take offense at what I say today, or if you do, I hope you’ll come back next week!   And what about Jesus, is there anything that he said that offends you?   I’d be surprised if you said no.  After all, Jesus did have a tendency to say things that got him into trouble.  Remember how his sermon back at his hometown synagogue went?  He was just coming off being baptized by John and had begun to gain a following.  But as they say – you can’t always go home.  On that evening, after Jesus read the text from Isaiah, he began to preach and before too long, the people were getting restless and just a bit angry with what he had to say.  So, instead of celebrating a triumphant homecoming, the hometown crowd tried to throw him a cliff.  Fortunately, Jesus escaped this fate and head...

John 6:24-35 We live in an entertainment age, where it’s often  difficult to tell what is real and what’s an illusion.  We can be mesmerized by glitz and glamor, and find ourselves listening intently as celebrities tell us what we should wear, eat, how we should vote and what we should believe.  In such an atmosphere, it shouldn’t surprise us that we sometimes mix entertainment with faith.  But, this isn’t new.  Anglican revivalist George Whitefield supposedly made  people weep simply by pronouncing the word “Mesopotamia.”   In the 19th century revivalists drew great crowds to hear them preach, while hundreds  gathered to hear Alexander Campbell debate his religious rivals on topics that ranged from socialism to baptism.  More recently Aimee Semple McPherson rivaled her Hollywood neighbors with her spectacles, while Robert Schuller’s grand productions – at least until the Crystal Cathedral fell into bankruptcy -- drew thousands. ...

Mark 6:14-29 It’s your birthday and you’re really hoping to get a special present.  It could be a new bike, a red wagon, a doll, a new Ford Fiesta.  You’ve left lots of hints, and you’re hoping that you’ll get your heart’s desire.  So, did you get what you wanted?   Or did you get something else?  And if you got what you wanted, is it what you hoped for?  Herod Antipas was the king in Galilee, which is where Jesus hailed from.  When his birthday approached, he decided to throw himself a party.  You can do that if you’re the king.  As Mel Brooks put it in History of the World, Part 1 :  “It’s good to be the king!”  So, Herod sent out to the invitations to all the movers and shakers from the neighborhood and invited them to a big banquet.  His wife, Herodias, who was also married to his brother, offered up her daughter whom tradition names Salome – as the entertainment.   You may know Salome’s name, be...

2 Corinthians 12:2-10 Do you remember the story of Androcles and the Lion?  It’s one of Aesop’s Fables that often appears in children’s books.  Remember how Androcles escaped slavery only to face a lion in the forest?  It’s as if he was jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  Thinking the lion would kill him, he begins to run away.  But as he does this he hears the lion moaning in pain.  So, he turns around and discovers that the lion has a thorn embedded in its paw.  What to do?  Does he remove the thorn and risk death, or does he turn his back on the suffering lion?  In spite of his fears, Androcles pulls the thorn out of the lion’s paw.  As for the lion, he joyfully licks the face of his savior, and from that moment on they become good friends.  Now, their friendship will get another test when both get captured and face each other in the arena.  When the lion refuses to kill Androcles, the emperor is so amazed th...

Lamentations 3:22-33 I don’t think I’ve ever preached from this book of poems called Lamentations that sits between Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke for God during the time of exile, offering both words of judgment and hope.  Although tradition suggests that Jeremiah is the author of these poems, that’s rather unlikely, but it’s clear that they were written during the exile.  They speak of that day when the people of Judah watched the Babylonians destroy the city of Jerusalem and  its Temple, and then carry off its king and the leading members of society into exile. These were trying times and so a book of Lamentations seems appropriate.   Although we may not use words like “lamentations” or “lament” very often in our daily speech, because they have a variety of meanings they can be useful words.   Lament can mean “I’m sorry.”  I’ve done my share of this kind of lamenting. It can also refer to mourning or gri...

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5 What is a friend?  In the age of Facebook, that’s not as easy to answer as it was before the advent of Social Media.  I have nearly a thousand Facebook friends, but truth be told I’m not quite sure who many of them are!  Still, I’ve found Facebook to be a wonderful way to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.   Of course, we’ve always known that there are different levels of friendship.  Some can last for a week at camp and others a lifetime.  Some are extremely close and others are more distant. But this need to make friends is a reminder of what God observes in the Garden – It’s not good for humans to be alone.       I know that Facebook or Twitter isn’t for everyone, but we all find ways of connecting and reconnecting with others. That’s the reason many go to reunions.  We like to keep rekindling old friendships.  But, it’s not enough to keep old friendships alive, we have continu...

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1   The Hubble telescope has brought into focus the vastness of the universe.  It allows us to see the universe in ways never before thought possible.  But, when it was first deployed they discovered a flaw in the lens that left this new view somewhat fuzzy.  But, NASA launched a shuttle that went out and repaired the telescope, and now we can see the wonders of the universe with a clarity never before possible.  What was fuzzy is now clear. But, you don’t have to go to the Hubble telescope to know the importance of bringing things into focus.  Every morning, when I wake up, I put on my glasses, because without them the world is a complete blur.  In an earlier age, I would have been, for all intents and purposes, blind.   In the Gospels, Jesus occasionally heals a person of blindness.  On one occasion, when he was Bethsaida, a man who was blind was brought to him.  Jesus spit on his eyes and th...