Sermons from 2017 (Page 2)
Gratitude and Grace
The nine healed lepers probably had several reasons to keep them from turning around and thanking Jesus. They needed to see the priest, who would officially pronounce them clean and admit them back into the community. And they had families they hadn’t seen in months, maybe years. Who would blame them for wanting to hug their wives and kids as soon as possible? But Luke focuses our attention on the one who thought to turn back. Consistent with his emphasis…
Is Your Lamp Burning?
In some fundamentalist-type religious groups, you hear about the second coming all the time, usually pointing to something going on in the world today as a sure sign that “Jesus is coming soon!” so you’d better “Repent or perish!” But in others (probably most), you hear little, maybe because talk of judgment and Jesus’ second coming is usually associated with the kind of church mentioned above, and most of us don’t want to be connected to that. But, truth be…
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…