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A Season of Peace, Week 3: The Risk of Knowing Jesus

James 3:13-4:3,7-8a Mark 9:30-37 I read a newspaper story about a young man named Oliver who had a secret he was so embarrassed about, so humiliated by, that he went to great lengths for many years to keep it hidden. The secret was that he could not read. When he was in first grade he was suspended for a week, and when he returned to school he felt utterly lost, way behind. His home life was difficult, and school was hard, and he said nobody ever talked to him about why school even mattered. Oliver continued to struggle and never caught up. Still, he was promoted from one grade to the next, year after year, until he graduated high school – and still did not know how to read. He went out into the world, looking for a job that wouldn’t require reading skills. He couldn’t read a restaurant menu […]

A Season of Peace Week 2: A Time to Speak

James 3:1-12 Mark 8:27-38 I used to have a friend, Jim. He was a kind and big-hearted man with a great sense of humor, but he also knew how to lay down the law. He liked to say, “I prefer peace over justice any day of the week.” Particularly in reference to his three children when they were bickering about something. Jim was going to get his peace, which for him meant quiet, if those kids knew what was good for them. We began our study group last Wednesday, talking about Five Risks Presbyterians Must Take for Peace. I asked the group what they thought of when they hear someone say they just want to keep the peace. And they said it means they just want people to be quiet. This is also what the phrase, “Hold your peace” means: Just don’t say anything. The letter of James has a lot […]

A Season of Peace, Week 1: All Who Stand in Need

Mark 7:24-37 We depend to a great extent on the work of biblical historians to help us understand the scriptures better – to get a sense of the context, the best interpretation of language, and the authenticity of the many ancient manuscripts that are available. And I learned something this week that I have to share with you, something that these historians use in their work: the criterion of embarrassment. The criterion of embarrassment says this: if a story in the bible is something that is, potentially, kind of embarrassing, then it’s probably true. Some of the stories in the Bible might not have happened quite the way they are written. But if they are embarrassing, then they probably did happen like that. Because why would they make up something that might make Jesus, his followers, or the church, look foolish? By that standard, I think the story of Jesus […]

Letters of Love, Part 1: Belonging

Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 Last weekend we celebrated the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. and I think about how his work changed the world in which we live. His sermons and other writing have left a lasting impact on our nation’s values and, even when it seems like we are moving backwards, we have his words to steer us toward a vision for a more just and loving world. He wrote one of his most impactful works while he sat in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, arrested for taking part in nonviolent protests. The story is often told that he wrote it on toilet paper because that was all he had available. But as good as that sounds, it isn’t true. He began writing on scraps of paper and, eventually someone gave him a writing pad. He wrote in response to a letter […]

From Before Time

Genesis 1:1-5 Mark 1:4-11 I want to tell you a story about a young woman named Lauren. She was born and raised in North Carolina, the daughter of a Southern Baptist woman and a Jewish man, although neither of her parents was particularly religious. They agreed, though, that they would raise their children Jewish. And so, Lauren grew up attending Hebrew school in the Reformed Jewish tradition. Lauren, somehow, became very religious. She developed a strong affinity for the practices of orthodoxy. This created an interesting quandary for her. Although Lauren had been raised a Jew, the Orthodox community did not acknowledge her as a Jew because she was not born of a Jewish mother. So Lauren decided to convert. This involved a period of religious education, followed by an examination by three rabbis. Then the final step was the mikvah, which is a ritual bath – a kind of […]

Christmas Eve: Light

Climb into the wayback machine with me for a few minutes. All the way back to Christmas, 1980. It was a special Christmas for my family because we knew that it would be my grandmother’s last. And everyone wanted to give her something special. We all wanted to make her wishes come true. It was an extravagant Christmas that year. She got all the things she had dreamed of. There was a plush velour rose-colored blanket. To be precise, the color was mauve, which was a very big color in the eighties. Mauve velour was all the rage. It would have been perfect if it could have been a mauve-colored velour electric blanket, but I think the heating elements would have melted that old velour material, so it wasn’t a choice. Then there was an exquisitely beautiful doll. Yes, this might seem a bit childish. But you need to understand […]

Advent 4: Love

Luke 1:26-38 Probably the Bible verse known by the most people is John 3:16. Most of you can say it on cue: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that those who believe in him may not perish but may have eternal life. The verse isn’t a part of our Advent or Christmas readings, but it is in the background of all of it. For God so loved the world. It is in the background of the story we hear this morning about King David. Sitting in his palace, feeling quite full of himself – he has, after all, defeated all his enemies. I imagine David’s approval ratings were sky high. And so now, with satisfaction, he looks around and says, “It’s a darn shame, isn’t it? I have this nice house and poor old God has to live in a tent. I’m going […]

Advent 2: Peace

Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8 You know what I love about Mark? It is that he goes straight to business. The remarkable thing about Mark is that he is in a hurry – he has this urgency about getting the good news to us. Listen, he says. Pay attention. Here it is. Here is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Listen up, people, I’ll only say it once. Which is not exactly true. He does repeat himself – a lot, but that’s okay. It’s how you give emphasis to something you know is important: you say it twice. Like Isaiah saying, “Comfort, comfort my people; speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” Comfort. All caps, underlined and highlighted, comfort. Here is the beginning of the good news, Mark says to us. It’s like what Isaiah said hundreds of years ago: Clear a path. Make the way straight. […]

Advent 1: Being Present with Hope

Mark 13: 24-37 Every year I begin the season of Advent feeling the urge to apologize about the scriptures. This text from Mark. It’s not very cheery, is it? But there it is, with its words of dread; one calamity after another. The sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will fall from the sky. It’s like a horror movie. And we can treat it that way if we want to. My son Joe spent some time in Mississippi when he was a young man and attended a church where the pastor preached in the fire and brimstone tradition. Every Sunday he stood in the pulpit breathing threats and terror against the disciples in the pews. Every week he would end with, “come back next week and I’ll tell you more about how it’s all going to end.” And Joe kept going back. He didn’t […]

Entrusted

Matthew 25:31-46 We have arrived at the final parable. The end of Matthew 25, which is a hard chapter to hear. We have suffered through the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, where we struggled to understand what it is to be a person who waits, someone who expects Jesus to come. We tolerated the parable of the talents, where we were encouraged to use our resources well, creatively, courageously, even zealously. To understand that this is the kind of waiting and expecting that is appropriate for lovers of Jesus. And so today we have the parable of the sheep and the goats. The culmination of Chapter 25. The judgment of the nations. The Son of Man has, at last, arrived. And, as much as people have waited and expected and prepared, lo and behold, they are surprised. Surprised at the way he chooses to sort them – the […]

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