Mark 10:13-16 Patience is a virtue, without doubt. But in these verses, we have the evidence that even Jesus could lose his patience. As I have said before, we sometimes forget that he was fully human. And humans sometimes run out of patience. The evidence here is in the word indignant. Jesus was indignant. He’s in the middle of teaching, and he looks over to his leadership team and sees them standing in front of the little children blocking their way to the Lord. They seem to think they are the bouncers at the door of Jesus’ club. And he’s like, What part of “whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me” did you not understand? What part of “if you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and […]
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Coming Home to You, Part 1: Who We Are
James 3:13-4:3,7-8 Mark 9:30-37 In all the preparations for returning to our sanctuary for worship, I have had St. Augustine of Hippo on my mind. I’ll tell you why. Augustine was born in 354 in a Roman province that is now part of Algeria, in Africa. Important for us to know: Augustine was an African. His mother, Monica, was a Christian. Augustine was raised as a Christian, but like a lot of kids, he didn’t seem to be terribly serious about it. He was a smart, and probably cocky, little guy. He ran around with a rowdy bunch and got into plenty of trouble. In his teens, he became enthralled with philosophy and embraced a religion called Manicheism, which was very popular at the time. Just about killed his mom, but she never gave up on him. He was willful and wayward and at 17 began a relationship with a young […]
Continue readingDo You Know Jesus?
Mark 8:27-38 Do you know what Jesus looks like? Would you recognize him if you saw him pushing a cart at the Food Lion or walking down Division Street? Do you know Jesus? I think I would recognize him – you know, from the pictures. If he hasn’t changed his hair, that is, his beautiful long wavy hair. And if he still wears those long flowing robes, definitely I would recognize him. If he hasn’t changed his style too much, I would know him. But even if he has I would know his blue eyes, his beautiful smooth skin. You all have seen the pictures, too, right? You know. Our Jesus is beautiful. The Warner Sallman painting, The Head of Christ, is the one. When Americans imagine the face of Jesus we are most likely to envision this face. A serene looking man gazing off into the distance, serious but not stern. More than 500 million copies of this painting have been sold […]
Continue readingGod’s Preferences
Mark 7:24-37 When our kids were little, Kim used to say to them, “Oh, you’re my favorite 8-year-old boy!” or “You’re my favorite 13-year-old daughter.” It would always surprise them, but then they would laugh. He wanted each one to know that they were his favorites. Each one of them. Kids spend a fair amount of time thinking about favorites. It’s a big word in a child’s vocabulary: favorite ice cream, favorite color, favorite animal, and so on. And they think, too, about whether their parents have a favorite child. In fact, even when we grow up, we still might think about who was our parents’ favorite child. Whether or not parents have a favorite among their children, or grandchildren, almost all parents do favor their own children over others. To us that seems not only normal but quite appropriate. We might judge harshly any parent who does not seem […]
Continue readingCome Away
Song of Solomon 2:8-13 James1:17-27 I read a wonderful little story this past week, about something that has happened in the past and might possibly still be happening today. The story goes that when a Navy man served on board a submarine, his wife, if he had a wife, was permitted to send him messages – but only short messages. They were limited to eight words. That’s pretty short. And they were censored, if needed. You can just forget about privacy. But the Navy wives had a secret: The Song of Solomon. They would send messages like SOS 1:2, which counted as only one word. The husband knew that this meant Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse 2, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine!” These wives were sending coded messages and some of them were pretty steamy. So, that’s one […]
Continue readingThe Hard Stuff
John 6:56-69 We Presbyterians like to think of ourselves as intellectual Christians. We place a high value on our doctrine, often making reference to what Calvin had to say about this or that. We insist that our pastors be well-educated because we enjoy a good challenging sermon. In fact, the common criticism that you hear of Presbyterians is that we love the Lord our God with our whole mind – and we stop there. Never mind the heart, soul, and body. Hence our nickname, the “frozen chosen.” And perhaps because of the way we embrace the intellectual things, we often find ourselves in an uncomfortable position with the scriptures. For instance, what in the world do we do with these words Jesus said in this chapter of John? Would you like my honest opinion? At the risk of offending you, I will say I think we sometimes are a little […]
Continue readingQUEST, Part 4: RETURNING HOME
Psalm 36:5-9 John 15:1-17 I have heard that if you want to really get the feel of a place you need to stay there at least three weeks. One or two weeks feels like a vacation away from your real life, but sometime during that third week your perspective shifts. You begin to feel like a resident, a local. When I was in college I spent a month in Oxford, England and that happened to me. I came home from that month away and looked at everything with new vision. I became a tourist in my hometown. An obnoxious tourist, actually. I was critical of everything, I rolled my eyes at the naivete of my loved ones. I was 19 and insufferable. I have grown up since then, but still, when I return home from a journey there is always a sense of seeing things differently. I spent three weeks […]
Continue readingQUEST, Part 3: REFLECTION
Isaiah 65:17-25 Revelations 21: 22-26 I often hear people complain about the Old Testament. They say that it is full of nothing but violence and ugliness. I just want to point out this beautiful passage from Isaiah is part of the Old Testament. People, including me, also say that the book of Revelation is chock full of awful stuff. But then you have this exquisite passage from chapter 21. It is true, in the Old Testament and in Revelation, and perhaps even in the gospels, we wade through a lot of hard stuff, awful stuff – and then we get to this place of breathtaking beauty. Kind of like life, at times. There is a lot of awful and painful stuff in the world, stuff that is hard to look at. Yet, if we remain present, we may get to hope. These two passages we read today are preceded by […]
Continue readingQUEST, Part 2: THE ENCOUNTER
John 4: 7-40 Many years ago, my mother-in-law was active in the American Baptist Church Global Mission Board. This gave her opportunities to travel. At one point she was offered a chance to go to Burma, which we now know as Myanmar. She was so excited about it, and I couldn’t help wondering why. What on earth was in Burma that she cared about? Well, actually, I should have known at the time. The reason she wanted to go there, or anywhere, was because there would be new encounters. Conversations to be had, people to meet, places to see, things to learn. This is the kind of person Claire is. Every stranger is a potential friend. How you approach the encounter makes all the difference. Burma was a very unlikely place for Claire to travel, but a journey to an unlikely place can hold surprising gifts. This is the case […]
Continue readingQUEST, Part 1: Leaving Home
Exodus 13: 17-21 Ann Tyler wrote a book called The Accidental Tourist. It is a story about a man who has made a successful career of writing travel books for people who hate travel. His audience is primarily businessmen, for whom travel is a necessary evil in their lives. The books presume that the reader hates leaving the comforts of home just as much as the author does. So he fills the pages with tips on where to find Kentucky Fried Chicken in Stockholm, Taco Bell in Mexico City, and other absurdities. He writes travel guides that let travelers pretend they never left home. The character, Macon Leary, is quirky and endearing, sort of typical for Ann Tyler’s stories. To say that he is set in his routines is an understatement. He is a man of systems, which he has devised to guard against anything unfamiliar happening to him. He […]
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