A sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on Sunday, August 18, 2019.
Last week, while on vacation, we spent some time at Wallis Sands State Beach in New Hampshire. According to the life guards, the water was a whopping 57 degrees when we first arrived, getting as warm as about 63 degrees. Sandra and I didn’t spend much time in the water. We could hardly get Micah out!
For the most part, he just spent time dodging the waves – jumping up just as it arrived in order to be carried back by it or sometimes diving under the wave just before it arrived. He had a ball!
Waves can be fun or waves can be damaging depending on the size of the ripple and how one can respond to it.
What waves do our lives of faith make, though? That is part of my focus for this sermon. So, in preparation, I hope you’ll take some time to read the Scriptures for it: Psalm 82 and Matthew 7:24-27.
Listen to it here:
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Here are Scriptures that inspired this sermon:
Psalm 82
1God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you;
7nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.”
8Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you! (NRSV)
Matthew 7:24-27
24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” (NRSV)
