Alpha-Omega

The Ripple Effect – A Sermon

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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:

Right-mouse-click here to download audio.

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)

Father _____ Had Many Kids – A Sermon

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This is a Fathers’ Day Sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on June 16, 2019.

Well, it’s Fathers’ Day weekend!

If we are honest, this day probably strikes us all a little differently. For some of us this will be very meaningful; for others of us, we’re ambivalent about it; for some of us it is a painful day.

No matter how we feel about the day, what does fatherhood mean to us? What are our thoughts about our father figures? What authority do we give them, and how do we grant them that power? What does childhood mean, and what does it look like?

Even with these questions, I’m sure our answers will be quite diverse. So, listen to this sermon to spend some time thinking of fatherhood and childhood in relation to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:11-17 and what Jesus says in Matthew 18:1-5.

Listen to the sermon here:

Right-mouse-click here to download audio.

This sermon was inspired by Scriptures such as:

1 Corinthians 4:11-17
11To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

14I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.

17For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. (NRSV)

Matthew 18:1-5
1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (NRSV)

Destinations

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As they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus [whom they did not recognize] walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. . . .

Luke 24:28-33a (NRSV)

We made it!

Throughout Lent, we were journeying toward this destination – Easter! Doesn’t it feel good to have finally arrived? We can now get back to all those things we gave up for Lent. Thank God!

I think the two disciples of Jesus in the passage from Luke above are dealing with destinations, too. It seems they were expecting a destination in which Jesus was a kick-butt-take-names kind of Messiah who would kick out the Romans and restore the Jewish monarchy of David. But that was not the destination they saw; what they saw was a dead end. So, as we often do when things don’t go our way, they packed up their things and went home.

On the way, they met a stranger who, in response to their disappointment, talked to them about the Bible, warming their hearts. But as they reached their destination, they did what they must have seen many times before as disciples: inviting in a total stranger to break and share bread with together. Suddenly they saw Jesus in the stranger who disappeared, and their destination changed. They no longer saw a dead end, but they also weren’t given a destination. Rather, they were given a new beginning on their journey of faith.

This is my favorite Easter story. The Scriptures, as explained to these disciples along the road, warmed their hearts, but it was the act of living their faith – the way of life Jesus had taught them – in which Jesus was revealed. Biblical scholar, John Dominic Crossan, has said that Jesus started a franchise. He wasn’t a sole proprietor who did it all himself. Jesus setup a system where we work together to do the very same things he did. He says as much when he invites any would-be followers to take up their cross daily to follow him (Luke 9:23). He shows it when he sends the disciples out in pairs to do the same work he’s been doing (see Luke 9:1-6 and 10:1-20).

So, even though we have “arrived” at Easter, I hope we don’t approach it as a destination but a new beginning. I’ve come to believe that the Christian life is about new beginnings each day. Each day, there’s a cross, which must be taken up, but we don’t take it up alone. We do it with one another, and the Holy Spirit empowers us through Christ’s example. So may you be inspired to leave the dead ends and false hopes behind for the new way of life that only God can provide.

Ebb & Flow

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They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11 (CEB)

As a child, I loved Christmastime. After Thanksgiving, I would break out my Elvis Christmas albums and play them almost non-stop. That’s even what we listened to when we decorated the Christmas tree – something that I loved to stare at as the multi-colored lights flashed, almost like dancing as each string blinked at a different speed. Mom would gradually wrap presents that would slowly grow in number under the tree, and I loved to shake and feel the boxes, trying to figure out what was inside. Oh, and Mom would make various kinds of Christmas treats, my favorite being her chocolate, coconut bon-bons (until I was diagnosed with a chocolate allergy). It was the most wonderful time of the year. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have woken up to a white Christmas (it did happen one year).

As I aged, though, my love for the season ebbed and flowed – mostly ebbed. In fact, my last “special Christmas” was my second year of college and the year the plant Dad worked at closed. We were instructed to only give gifts that were handmade or came from a garage sale. We got some really interesting and thoughtful gifts that year, believe it or not. Looking back, though, most of the “ebbing” had to do with, “it just didn’t feel the same.”

Through the years, my love of the season waned even more, though, and it was more than just a lack of feeling. It had become, “What’s the point?” Yet, I could not come up with a reason as to why, exactly, I felt that way.

Then, during Advent of 2011, I led a discussion group of Mike Slaughter’s
Christmas Is Not Your Birthday. That little book completely changed the way we celebrate Christmas.

I realized why I was asking, “What’s the point?” when it came to Christmas. I was tired of the societal pressure to get everybody gifts – gifts that they may or may not want or need. I was frustrated with having to return gifts that were duplicates or that didn’t fit or that I didn’t really want to begin with. I realized, as the title of the book indicates, Christmas is not my birthday or even my loved ones’ birthdays. It’s Jesus’ birthday, and I wasn’t giving gifts to Jesus or to the least of these but to people who already had enough. In Jesus, God had done a new thing, but I had been buying into the ages old commercialization of anything, in this instance, Christmas.

So, that year, Sandra and I made a change. We started giving gifts in each other’s names to organizations that inspire us, but we only give each other a few things that fit in stockings. Micah doesn’t get as extravagant a Christmas as he might have gotten had that book not turned our understanding of Christmas upside down, but that’s all he knows.

And now, Christmas has meaning again. I wouldn’t say it’s my most wonderful time of the year, but it has meaning, even if it doesn’t feel the same as when I was a little boy.

Where Are You Staying? – A Sermon

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A sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on November 11, 2018.  It was part of a series for a stewardship campaign called “Spending Ourselves.”

We are people of time and place. To a great extent, these can control our lives – in bad ways and good ways. In a world in which we so often focus on the bad, I invite you to focus on the good.

What are the times of your life that you find to be life-giving? Hopefully this is not just a time in the past that you reminisce about but something recurring. Why are those times life-giving? What makes them nourishing?

Let’s think about place. Is there a place that you can go where you find peace, hope, empowerment? How can place provide that? What is it about your special place that inspires you?

To all of these questions, we will find differences, and that is okay, but time and place are important parts of the Church. How can our special times and places inform our understanding of Church, and how can our special times and places support the Church?

These are questions I hope you’ll bring to this sermon as we consider together our blessings and holy currencies of time and place in our current sermon series, Spending Ourselves. I hope you’ll take the time to read over the Scriptures for this sermon before listening so you can bring your own insights into these passages.

Right-mouse-click here to download the audio.

This sermon was inspired by Scriptures such as:

1 John 4:16-19
16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. (NRSV)

John 1:38-39
38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ 39He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. (NRSV)

Shine Out – A Sermon

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This was a sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church for Confirmation Sunday on June 3, 2018.

Before this sermon, we honored four young people who have participated in Confirmation this Spring.

Did you take Confirmation classes as a young person? I did. In all honesty, I don’t remember any content. I remember going to eat at McDonald’s during a one-day “seminar” held at our church. A few weeks later, we went on a retreat to Lake Texoma with kids from a couple of other churches, but I really only remember the sleeping accommodations. The closest thing to content that I remember was watching on an old-fashioned film projector this claymation video produced in the early 80s about the history of the UMC in America. Even then, I didn’t remember content. I just remember that we watched a claymation video.

I hope that our confirmands will remember more than this video (though I still make them watch all 4 minutes of it)! But in watching it again (and again), I’m both amazed at the many great things United Methodists have done throughout our history, but as the video explicitly reminds us, there is still work to be done – on many fronts.

Using the Scriptures below for inspiration, I hope this sermon helps us think through our role in bringing the light of hope to a world in need.

Listen to the sermon here:

Right-mouse-click this link to download the audio.

This sermon was inspired by Scriptures such as:

2 Corinthians 4:5-11
5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. (NRSV)

Matthew 5:14-16
14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (NRSV)