Sermons

Water and Spirit (Baptism Sunday) – 5/5/13 – Acts 16:5-16

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/5513-water-and-spirit.mp3

At the end of last year I received this book as a gift. It’s called Dark Water Dancing to a Breeze: A Literary Companion to Rivers and Lakes. It’s a collection of short essays and journal entries from some of the leading observers and enjoyers of nature over the last number of centuries. Names I recognized include John James Audubon, Charles Darwin, and Mark Twain. The writings range all the way from a reflection on the overpowering force of a flood, to a humorous inquiry as to how the heavily polluted Ganges in India still serves as the Great Purifier – that was Mark Twain’s piece. The editor opens the book by saying: “Whether we are conscious of it or not, water is omnipresent in our lives. This is literally true, since our bodies are 70 percent water and because, for practical as well as other reasons, most towns and cities and built beside water. With a bit of thought, we can section the course of our lives by the rivers or lakes we’ve lived or traveled on.” (p. 11)

The giver of this book was Caroline Lehman, a thoughtful gift from a thoughtful person. It was given...

“Consider it. Take counsel. And speak out.” – 4/28/13 – Judges 19

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/42813-consider-it-take-counsel-and-speak-out.mp3

Why in the world is this story in the Bible?

And why are we reading it in a worship service?

A man taking a concubine, angering her then trying to win her back, schmoozing with the girl’s father and regaining the girl, needing a place to stay and being given no hospitality, taken in by an old man who at first appears to be a god-send. A mob pounding on the door demanding a body to abuse, the old man now only concerned with protecting one of his guests, and himself. The girl being seized and thrown out to pacify the mob, which unleashes its brutality against her. And finally, a breaking apart of the abused body, each part sent out as a gruesome message to the different tribes of Israel.

Let me ask again: Why in the world is this story in the Bible? Of all the stories Israel could have told about its history, its identity, its coming to be as a people, why include this one? And dare we remember it and contemplate it in church?

Let me ask the question another way: What if this story wasn’t in the Bible? What if something like...

Unsnatchable – 4/21/13 – John 10:22-36

No audio available at this time

“Snatch” isn’t a word I use all that often. I’m not sure why, because now that I’ve thought about it a bit, it’s a pretty great word. It’s one of those words that sounds like what it means. It’s abrupt, snatch, over before you realize what just happened. But that S and N at the beginning sound like someone has been plotting for a while. Sneaky, like a snake. And then the atch. Once the premeditated sneaker reaches the desired object, things happen quick, Sssnnn-atch, grab, grasp, latch on and it’s gone. Too fast to catch. It just got snatched.

Snacks get snatched around our house by little, and big hands. We’re probably not the only house of sneaky snack snatchers. Our girls do need to work on covering their tracks with the plenty of incriminating evidence they leave behind, like ladders in the pantry, opened wrappers on the table, and chocolate on the face. True story, during Lent Lily said that she was going to give up sneaking. It was a vow not well kept, but Lent is all about forgiveness.

Snatch is a word that Jesus uses twice in this passage in...

Easter Appendix – 4/14/13 – John 21

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/41413-easter-appendix.mp3

“After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples.” John 21:1

For all intents and purposes, Easter is over. Not only is it not Easter anymore, it’s not even the Sunday after Easter, when the glow from the early morning encounter of the empty tomb is still lingering. Easter break is over and kids are back to school. Adults are back to work. The Easter egg that Grandpa hid especially well and then forgot where it was when total eggs found didn’t quite add up to total eggs hidden, is out of sight and out of mind. Maybe someone will find it in July if it starts to smell bad enough in the summer heat.

But the church does a tricky thing to us, declaring the entire time between Easter morning and Pentecost Sunday, May 19, to be included in the season of Easter. All seven weeks of it. Resurrection will not go away easily.

The passage from John 21 appears to be something of an appendix to John’s telling of the gospel. Jesus has been crucified, is risen, appears to Mary, then the male disciples as they huddle behind locked doors. Then he appears again to...

Blessed are the… – Easter – 3/31/13 – Luke 24:1-12

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/33113-blessed-are-the.mp3

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

I recently came across a short quote that goes like this:

“If we wish to quench our thirst, we must lay aside books which explain thirst and take a drink.” (Jean Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence)

For this Easter morning we could modify this slightly and say, If we wish to know resurrection, we must lay aside books which explain resurrection, and experience it for our ourselves.

But this puts us in a bit of a difficult situation. Our Bible, the book of books, is the central witness we have for the resurrection. This year we hear from Luke’s account of the events on Easter morning. On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women come to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. But they find the stone rolled away, with no body. Instead, they encounter two men in dazzling clothes who say to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” This is what it says in the good book, but this is hardly an explanation for resurrection. It’s more the...

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