Sermons from October 2017
Leaning into the Tape
It seems almost cruel, doesn’t it? Moses had tolerated a rebellious group of people for 40 years, and now he doesn’t even get to enter the Promised Land. As you may remember, he had earlier blatantly disobeyed God and struck the rock instead of speaking to it, but still . . . Here–in this last chapter of the Pentateuch–Moses gets a glimpse of Canaan, and then he dies and is buried in an unknown place. The focus, as always, is…
Show Me the Coin
There’s a lot of talk these days about the relationship between Christians and government. This isn’t a new kind of tension, because apparently Jesus’ peers had similar discussions. In this short text, Jesus doesn’t solve all of the difficulties, of course—Paul would later reflect on this this theme more in Romans 13—but he speaks to some of the tensions in his world: he didn’t side with the Zealots, who wanted to rebel against the government, and neither did he side…
Be Careful That You Do Not Forget
Going through hard times tests your faith–where is God? Does he care? Why isn’t he doing something? But we probably don’t talk as much as we should about the opposite problem: the dangers of prosperity. In our text for tomorrow, God warns Israel as they prepare to enter Canaan. He knows they’ll be tempted to forget who is responsible for giving them the land. He knows that many of them will turn away from him and worship false gods, giving…
