Sermons
Work is biblical
I like work. I like to work.* I realize that not everyone feels the same way and that’s okay but there are a couple of observations I’d like to make about work. First, work is not a necessary evil because work is not evil. Some work is evil, some is foolish, some is dangerous, etc. but work per se is not evil. I go to some pains to work this…
Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday isn’t the easiest of Sundays for me . . . and lots of other folks too of course. It isn’t that it triggers my combat related PTSD, I don’t have combat related PTSD, rather it triggers a wave of emotions. Emotions like regret and sadness but also gratitude and joy. I think it is the mixed bag that makes it even less easy. But, just because something isn’t…
What kind of a call?
This Sunday we looked at calling and the kind of people that Jesus calls. As it turns out there are at least two kinds of calls. The first is the initial call that God extends to people. This is the one that some of us experienced when we were so young we barely remember it. Others had a more dramatic, or at least more easily remembered, and later in life…
Payback is . . . not what you think
Ah, payback. “Payback,” or perhaps “karma,” is something we all have experience with. There is even a reasonably familiar saying or proverb that uses a particular vulgarity that prevents me from quoting it here but I’m sure you can fill it in: Payback is a [*****]. But is it always so? As I reflected on two of the Lectionary passages for this Sunday, Joel 2:23-32 and Luke 18:9-14, I was…
Some things only seem easy
Faith. One of those words that we all know the meaning of perfectly well but find very difficult to define. In today’s Lectionary readings we have several references to faith: “the righteous live by their faith” Habakkuk 2:4, “I am reminded of your sincere faith” 2 Timothy 1:5, “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!’” Luke 17:5 (all references from the NRSV). So what brings all of these…
An age old question
Okay, this might not be a real “age old question” but it is a question that is asked frequently and has been for a long time, namely, is contentment “settling”? That three word question is the sermon title for these sermons and it springs from our Epistle lesson for today, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, feel free to click the link to read the whole passage. There is something in many of…
Sometimes you just have to
Prayer is one of the aspects of the Christian life that most of us are pretty sure we understand. I hasten to add that we don’t think we understand all of it by any means. We are still baffled why God answers some prayers in the way we expect and want and doesn’t answer others. We might struggle with finding time pray or think we could pray better but all…
Don’t beat yourself up
Okay, the post title is good advice more or less anytime. There is something about most of the humans I have ever met that makes it easier for them (and me, who am I trying to kid) to look at all of their many faults and decide that on the basis of said faults they can’t do . . . well many things. Some of these things are quite cut…
How to deal with confusion
That’s a pretty substantial goal, telling anyone how to deal with confusion, so maybe I better lay out some of the parameters. I am not promising to help you deal with every area of confusion you might be facing in your life. What I am promising, or at least hoping, is to help you deal with that sense of confusion you may encounter when you are reading Scripture. This is…
Why would we do those things?
This Sunday we are looking at another list, sort of. The group of things in question are in Hebrews and the (anonymous) author of Hebrews doesn’t present lists quite the same way St. Paul does. I was musing in one of the sermons today that I think Paul would have liked power point and slides of lists and such things. In Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 we have a number of things…