Matthew 4:12-23 Last weekend I watched a film with members of our session – a documentary about churches. There was one conversation that struck me as funny. One of the pastors interviewed described what his congregation was like whenever he suggested something new. He said if it wasn’t really different from what they were used to, they were usually willing to give it a try. And if it was different, well, then they would usually be willing to call a committee together to study it further, for a period of time. He seemed to think that was pretty good. This was not a Presbyterian church, but it could have been, because Presbyterians are also fond of forming committees. We rely on committees to make decisions and get work done. Committees are a very “churchy” thing. Church people love committees. Presbyterians, in particular, love committees. In fact, I have heard that […]
Continue readingAuthor: Maggie Gillespie
Behold the Lamb
Isaiah 49:1-7 John 1:29-42 There is a new film on Netflix called The Two Popes. It’s a dramatization about the relationship between the Popes Benedict and Francis. Pope Benedict, who was elected after Pope John Paul died, and Pope Francis, who was elected after Benedict resigned. Or retired. Or quit. I’m not sure what to call it. It was something that has no precedent in modern history. Popes don’t usually resign – they die. The film portrays how during the conclave when Benedict was elected, the cardinals were not initially all of one mind. Many wanted Francis instead. But Benedict eventually received the required number of votes and so that was it. Francis (although he wasn’t called Francis at that time. He was Jorge) went home to Argentina and continued serving as a cardinal. Some years later, Francis, or Jorge, sent a letter to the Pope asking for permission to […]
Continue readingThe Way to Love and Happiness
Matthew 3:13-17 I was in my office one morning at the church I served as pastor when a couple of members walked in to see me. They had a dilemma they wanted me to resolve. Their granddaughter was getting married. She and her fiancé had a one-year-old son. The family wanted the child to be baptized. They also wanted her fiancé to be baptized. The baby was easy, it would be done like any other ordinary baptism, in church during worship. The fiancé, however, was more of a problem. He was willing, basically because it was important to the family he was marrying into. But he was a big, tough guy, and felt it would be embarrassing to stand in front of the congregation and submit to having me splash him with water. So the family thought they could solve the problem by holding a private baptism for him. Just […]
Continue readingWhy Are They Here?
Matthew 2:1-12 I don’t know if you ever think about why the books of the Bible are ordered the way they are. But I can tell you one reason Matthew is first in the New Testament. Matthew is first because– of all the gospels – it most clearly and directly links the story of Jesus with the prophets of the Old Testament. Matthew is constantly saying things like, “as it was written by the prophets,” and “this was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet.” Matthew connects all the dots. He tells us what we need to know. Yet, as pedantic as Matthew is sometimes, he is also full of surprises at other times. Take the genealogy in Chapter 1. To which you might say, “No thanks, I’m good. You can keep it.” Nobody reads the genealogies in the Bible. They’re boring. Nobody cares about all those names. […]
Continue readingHow Will We Meet Him?
Matthew 2:13-23 Let me tell you a story. It’s from a book called A Single Light, by Maia Wojciechowska. The story takes place in Spain, but it could be anywhere. There was a small village that had once been important but no longer was; it had once been prosperous but no longer was. A young man in this village went off to the city to find his fortune. He didn’t find a fortune, but he did find a wife – Maria, whom he loved very much – and he brought her home to the village. Soon she was pregnant, a joyful thing, and gave birth to a child – a girl. Maria loved her child and thought her perfect. She would say, “Look how she never cries! Only angels never cry. My child must be an angel.” Within a few months everyone in the village knew what Maria couldn’t see – that the child was deaf and mute. She would […]
Continue readingIncarnation (A Christmas Eve message)
John 1:1-14 If you are familiar with the C.S. Lewis story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, you know it is a winter story – a magical story. It is the kind of story we can hear better at Christmas time. We are, somehow, more ready to open our hearts and minds to the miraculous at this time of year. The story is about four children who go through a magical wardrobe into another world, the land of Narnia, a place where it is always winter but never Christmas. This is the first story C.S. Lewis wrote in his series about Narnia, but it is not actually the beginning of the story – the whole story. There is another book Lewis wrote sometime later that gives the back story to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s called The Magician’s Nephew. The lion called Aslan first appears in The Magician’s Nephew. He […]
Continue readingAppearances
Isaiah 7:10-16 ; Matthew 1:18-25 It is good that we have a Sunday in Advent devoted to remembering Joseph. Joseph, the man who is the father – yet is not the father – of Jesus; Joseph, who doesn’t even get a mention in two of the four gospels; Joseph – the man who raised the Son of God. How he must have struggled with emotion in those early days. When he learns that the young woman he has chosen for his wife is somehow pregnant. And he knows it wasn’t him. How he must have fought down all kinds of feelings while he struggled to determine how he would respond to this news. He knew, of course, that the law would support him if he chose to have her publicly exposed and condemned as an adulterous woman. Because even though they were not yet married, they were betrothed to one another, something that was as […]
Continue readingStill Waiting
Isaiah35:1-10 Matthew11:2-11 Food trucks have been around for a very long time, but in recent years they have really gone upscale, with dishes rivaling fine restaurants. In some cities there are areas set up where food trucks congregate, around some picnic tables, making an outdoor food court on a gravel patch. People flock to them. They were popular in Dayton, Ohio when we lived there. We encountered some food truck connoisseurs loved to talk about their favorites, and one of these at the time was a certain hot dog truck. Zombie Dogs. At food festivals you might see hundreds of people lined up for this one. People would wait two hours in line for a Zombie Dog. And then they would rave about how good they were. They were “amazing” or “to die for.” Best hot dogs ever. However, it is my opinion that if someone has waited in line two hours […]
Continue readingDoing A New Thing
Matthew 3:1-12 Some years ago I was in my office at the university where I served as campus minister – and a student named Brad came in. He told me he was working with a congregation in a nearby town, called ebc – that’s all lowercase letters. Previously, they had been known as Emmanuel Bible Chapel, but the new name, ebc, was a part of their rebranding effort. He told me ebc is much more “user friendly” than their old name. Brad explained to me that he was a marketing major and was working with the church to help them grow and achieve their goal to become a multi-campus church. This is how it would work. The church establishes satellite congregations they call campuses where they have a local worship team, which is primarily responsible for music and also prayer. The head pastor is at the flagship campus where he preaches every Sunday to an in-house congregation. But his sermons are also […]
Continue readingIn the Waiting
Matthew 24:36-44 Jesus is coming. Are you ready? And as I ask this question, you might be thinking of all your lists. Shopping lists, baking lists, card lists. You might be thinking of your calendar dates– concert dates, dinner dates, party dates, arranging flights or picking up folks at the airport dates. You might be squirming in your pew as you realize just how not-ready you are. I sometimes feel like I need to apologize to the church for Advent. While our heads are full of Christmas, the church is saying, let’s talk about something else, because it’s not Christmas yet. This is jarring. Because everywhere else you look, Christmas is in full swing. On TV, on the radio, in the stores, everywhere you go. The culture is at least a month ahead of us on the calendar. It all comes so early and lasts so long, we feel […]
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