Words of Welcome

James 3:1-12 You’ve probably heard it said that “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” It’s the kind of thing people say to bullies, but whether we’ve been the victim or the perpetrator, I think we all know that names do hurt. The pain of words might be different from the pain caused by sticks and stones, but the damage is real. So we probably should be careful with what we say.  James understood this truth. In the very first chapter of his letter, James wrote that “if anyone appears to be ‘religious’ but cannot control his tongue, he deceives himself and we may be sure that his religion is useless” ( Jms. 1:26 JB Phillips). James writes this message about the power of the tongue right before he gives his definition of religion that is “pure and undefiled before God.” James takes up the subject of the tongue once again in chapter 3, where he suggests that the tongue is like a forest fire set by Hell itself. That does sound dangerous! James dire...

John 6:56-69 Has a preacher ever said something that offended you? Did you decide never to go back to that church? I expect we’ve all been there at least once in our lives. Since I’m the guest preacher this morning, I’ll do my best not to offend you. I don’t want to get Pastor Alex in trouble for inviting me here to preach this morning.  While I’ll do my best not to offend you, could Jesus say something that might offend you? Have you ever run into something that Jesus is recorded as saying that shocked you?  As we read the Gospels, it quickly becomes clear that Jesus had a tendency to step on toes and push people’s buttons. On one occasion, according to Luke, Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth. Since they had heard he was something of a preacher and healer, they invited him to say a few words in their synagogue. That didn’t go well. By the end of the service, the home folks tried to throw him off a cliff. Fortunately, Jesus escaped and headed off to a friendlier ven...

        You may know the old gospel song that goes like this: “Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please him in all that I do; yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free, this is the pathway of blessing for me.” This verse from that gospel hymn is a good basic definition of what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian is nothing more and nothing less than yielding allegiance to Jesus and doing all we can to please him. If we do this, then everything else falls into place.            Now, yielding allegiance to Jesus begins by calling him Lord. As Paul told the Corinthians, calling Jesus Lord requires the help of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). If we give full allegiance to Jesus then nothing else takes first place in our lives—not family, friends, nation, a political party, or a political leader. This is why I’ve come to believe that the Lord’s Prayer is our pledge of allegiance t...

  Psalm 23; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Mark 6 is a busy chapter that begins with Jesus’ rather disastrous return home to Nazareth. When he began to teach in the synagogue, he quickly discovered that you can’t go home again. That experience leads to his decision to send his twelve closest disciples out on a mission trip. That leads us to the story of John the Baptist’s execution by Herod after Herod’s rather infamous dinner party. It’s after John’s execution and the return of Jesus’ disciples from their mission trip that we pick up the story in this morning’s Gospel reading.  When Jesus’ disciples, whom Mark calls apostles, return from their mission, they tell Jesus all about what they had done. Although Mark doesn’t go into details here, if you read between the lines you can tell they’re excited about all the powerful things that happened along the way. It’s also clear that they are exhausted from this effort. So, Jesus invited them to join him on a retreat to a deserted place s...

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 “So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.” With those words, the children said good night to the partygoers in the Sound of Music. Today I join them in that refrain as I say goodbye to you as your pastor. When it comes to preaching your retirement sermon, what should you say? I could have gone with Moses’ final message in Deuteronomy, but Moses dies at the end and that didn’t seem right. I thought about using something from Revelation, so I could expound on the subject of eschatology. While that might work, it might take too long to get to the main point. So I turned to Paul’s closing words in his second letter to the Corinthian church. In these verses, Paul offers words of encouragement and blessing. This seems like a good way to close out a ministry.  Since Paul likes things to be done decently and in order, the first thing he does is tell the Corinthians to “put things in order.” That sounds like a good word for a season of transition. One reason...

Psalm 138 It’s taken thirteen years, but we’ve finally reached the river’s edge. But, we’re not quite ready to cross over to the other side. We still have some work to do before we’re ready to cross over. Some of us will go across the river sooner than others.  In the biblical story, God called Moses to lead the people to the river, but it was Joshua who took the people across the river. In a couple of weeks your interim minister, the Rev. Glen McIntyre, will assist you in preparing for that moment of crossing. These river crossings are more complicated than we like to think. There are a lot of logistical elements that need to be taken care of before you can successfully cross the river.  Our story will be a bit different from the biblical story. You see, in the biblical story Moses hands things off to Joshua, who will lead the people across the river, and then Moses heads off into the sunset never to be seen again. We’re going to rewrite the story a bit because I get to...

 John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15.  If you’ve been to a tourist destination like Orlando,  Vegas, or Niagra Falls, you probably encountered a museum that proclaimed that “truth is stranger than fiction.” You may have even paid the admission price to check out the claims. I’m talking about Ripley’s Believe or Not Museums. I can’t verify the claims since I’ve never ventured inside any of the museums but I’ve passed by them. Since I didn’t go in, I have to take their word that truth is stranger than fiction.   You don’t have to go to a Ripley’s museum to encounter strange “truths.” That’s because we are living in a “post-truth” world. What do I mean by post-truth? One online dictionary defines “post-truth” as “relating to or existing in an environment in which facts are viewed as irrelevant, or less important than personal beliefs and opinions, and emotional appeals are used to influence public opinion.” If we are living in a post-truth world, then it’s not surprising t...