The texts this week led me in a different direction than I think I have ever gone for this Liturgical week. The most “obvious” directions to go are usually following/obeying the Law (Psalm 1), how the apostles worked with the Holy Spirit to replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15-17, 21-26), eternal life (1 John 5:9-13), or…
Commands are funny things. We give them all the time, to electronic devices, pets, and our automobiles but we don’t like getting them very much. Commands have a heavy connotation of coercion. We are seldom commanded to do something we want to do anyway. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is filled with commands and…
I didn’t realize it until after I came up with it but the sermon title could reasonably be considered an attack on purity culture. It isn’t. Not to say I don’t have some things to say about purity culture and its essential misogyny and fundamental destructive orientation but if I ever preach a sermon about…