Categories
Epistles

Christ Died for the Ungodly

12-Mar-23 Romans 5:6-11 Third Sunday in Lent In this passage, the Apostle Paul, freely, gladly, and without any apology at all, uses four rather uncomplimentary terms to describe what we were like before we gave our lives to Jesus Christ. They are not nice, they are not pleasant, and they are completely offensive. And there’s […]

Categories
Gospels

The Decision

05-Mar-23 Matthew 26:36-56 Second Sunday in Lent One of the great Baptist heresies, and there are many, is that we will not allow Jesus to be human. We give only lip service to his humanity. At Christmastime, we speak of the incarnation, and we talk about God in the flesh, but really, we don’t want […]

Categories
Gospels

Down From Up

19-Feb-23 Matthew 17:1-9 I wonder, sometimes, if we haven’t lost our sense of awe when we gather for worship on Sunday mornings. Worship is pretty serious business. We gather here, Sunday after Sunday, to intentionally put ourselves into the presence of the Living God. And when we do that, there ought to be a sense […]

Categories
Gospels

God Meant it for Good

12-Feb-23 Matthew 25:45-26:3 In the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, there is a line that has always fascinated me. Joseph has been sold in to slavery by his jealous brothers. They really intended to kill him. It was that important for them to get rid of him, and get him out of their […]

Categories
Gospels

The Power of Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13-16 05-Feb-23 I’ll bet we all know someone who is the salt of the earth. I meet these sorts of folks all the time. Its just that usually they’re already dead by the time I make their acquaintance. Perhaps you have to be dead before you can truly become the salt of the earth. […]

Categories
Prophets

From Shittim to Gilgal

29-Jan-23 Micah 6:1-8 It is a lot like being neglected by one’s lover, and wondering why. The lover has grown cold, standoffish, spurning one’s affections and advances. And it seems as though there is no reason at all for this cold, and unresponsive behavior. And then, the discovery, the awful discovery, that the lover has […]

Categories
Epistles

The Beginning of a Long Tradition

22-Jan-23 1 Corinthians 1:10-19 They weren’t paying much attention to the gospel. Instead, they’d gotten themselves wrapped up into a fight. I suppose we could say that this was the beginning of a very long and inglorious tradition. Churches have been fighting for over two thousand years, now, and in spite of what the Apostle […]

Categories
Epistles

God Is Faithful

15-Jan-23 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 There are days when my sincere desire is to end it all in the same way that the Apostle Paul had hoped to end it. He looked forward, with deep and eager anticipation, to our Lord’s return, and he believed, with all of his heart that he would witness that return […]

Categories
Gospels

Becoming a True Child of God

08-Jan-23 Matthew 3 Given the opportunity, most of us would say that John the Baptist has about as much to do with Christmas as does Santa Claus. Or, maybe we’d give good ole’ Santa a slight edge over John. They might both wear really strange clothes, but at least Santa’s are red. If Santa had […]

Categories
Gospels

Their Old Familiar Carols Play

01-Jan-23 Luke 2:8-20 “And in despair, I bowed my head, ‘there is no peace on earth’, I said, ‘for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”‘ And so goes the third verse of the Christmas Carol, “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.” The words to that […]