We don’t make calves . . . do we?

Date: October 9, 2011

Liturgical Sunday: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

RCL Scripture: Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Exodus 32:1-14; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon Title: We don’t make calves . . . do we??

Knox Presbyterian [audio:https://wordsfromthemiddle.ca/wp-content/uploads/111009_-_knox.mp3|titles=We don’t make calves . . . do we?]

St. Mark’s Presbyterian [audio:https://wordsfromthemiddle.ca/wp-content/uploads/111009_-_St_Marks.mp3|titles=We don’t make calves . . . do we?]

It has been quite some time, at least so it feels to me, since I preached from the Old Testament. There are all kinds of preachers who don’t preach from the Old Testament and I must say, I do understand why. It is hard to preach from the Old Testament. The divide between us and the people of the Old Testament can be virtually uncrossable. We have no meaningful experience with all of these: a theocratic government, animal sacrifice, an unbelievably agrarian society, kings and much, much more.

However, the great thing about the people of the Old Testament is that they were people; people just like us. This Sunday’s sermons are all about the all-too human tendency to turn those things that we authentically appreciate . . . into an idol.

I am very interested in any sort of feedback from either of these sermons. I think I actually managed to work with the Exodus passage and Thanksgiving Sunday . . . let me know if I did.

With tremendous thankfulness,

Barry

PS If your particular avenue of access to these sermons forces you to listen to them using the built-in audio player and you would prefer a different option, please click here to download the sermons as MP3 files.