Today we begin our Lenten sermon series “We Would See Jesus,” which will take us into the Gospel of John and into some stories of the different ways that people encounter Jesus. The season of Lent has traditionally been the forty days (not counting the Sundays) leading up to Easter, and is a time of …
This morning's news of a devastating earthquake in Japan leaves us all reeling from the suddenness and tragedy of a high magnitude disaster. Hundreds have lost their lives and hundreds more are missing. The resulting tsunami has affected many others on the Pacific Rim as well, bringing waves of tragedy to many places. When things …
In the Old Testament, ashes represented repentance – a realization that we are nothing apart from God but dust and ash. On Ash Wednesday we recognize our own mortality with the sobering phrases, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – from dust we came, to dust we shall return.” It seems so simple, so symbolic. …
Monuments of Ash – A Meditation for Ash Wednesday Continue Reading »
We wrap up our sermon series “Ordering Your Private World” today with perhaps the most important of the five principles we’ve been exploring. The other four: examining our motivation, taking control of our time, and renewing our minds and developing spiritual strength all are the real results of engaging the fifth discipline: Sabbath rest and …
Sabbath: “Where Earthly Things Assume Their True Size” Continue Reading »
We've been looking in this sermon series at how we might better order our private world. We've looked first at motivation–being called vs. being driven, then at the use of time. Last week we explored how we might develop and renew our minds to think differently and think theologically. This week, we look at how …
A couple of weeks ago, I invited members of the congregation to share with me some of the stories of their encounters with God in unexpected moments. Sandy Ice submitted the beautiful picture of a sunset, and Michelle Fariss sent me this story: Because my family has always spent a lot of time out in …
We've been working through this series on "Ordering Your Private World" by talking about five major areas of the inner life. We've talked about our motivation–the difference between being called and being driven. Last week we talked about the use of time–how we can recapture time and look for those God-moments in the midst of …
If you’ve ever been to Washington, D.C. and ridden the Metro, you’ll know that the entrance to a Metro station is often a place where street performers hang out, playing an instrument or doing some kind of performance art for spare change. Usually, the quality of performance isn’t that great, though sometimes it’s ok. When …
The story is told of a a nineteenth century explorer who had hired a group of African villagers to provide support for an expedition into an uncharted part of the continent. On the first three days of the trek, the expedition had achieved an unexpected rate of speed, which put them ahead of schedule. The …
Today we continue our series on the questions that thinking people ask about the Bible and the Christian faith. One of the other great questions over which I’ve often had discussion with people – both in the church and outside the church – is the issue of God’s nature and personhood, which we call the …
Questions: How do you explain the Trinity? Continue Reading »
Matthew 25:31-46 Well, today is one many of you have been waiting for—the most asked question we received for this series on “Questions Thinking People Ask About the Bible and Christian Faith.” What do you think about hell? I get that, in some ways. When I was a kid, particularly when I was a …
Today we begin a new series on “Questions Thinking People Ask About the Bible and Christian Faith.” I chose that title carefully, because over the next four weeks we’re going to be examining questions – questions that often beget more questions – questions that don’t very often yield the definitive answers that we’d like. But …
Questions: Do the Bible and Science Agree? Continue Reading »
(Note: This sermon is adapted from one I wrote for the September-October 2008 issue of Homiletics. To subscribe, go to homileticsonline.com) Well, here we are – January 2. Yesterday was New Year’s Day. Time to start remembering to write “2011” on your checks. Did you celebrate yesterday? At our house, New Year’s Day means eating …
One of the courses I just finished up for my doctoral program was focused on “Advanced Church Leadership,” which involved reading a whole stack of books on the topic of what it means to be a leader, successful leadership strategies, managing change, the life of the leader, etc. We read a lot of books written …
Lorenzo Cortez Vargas is a shepherd. He spends his days and nights driving some 2,000 sheep across miles of vast, empty, rolling high plains in Wyoming and Colorado. He’s a long way from his home in Chile, having come to America under a temporary migrant-worker program that allows companies to hire foreign workers if no …