Sermon November 1 "The Kingdom, The Church, and The Reformation"

What a wonderful Sunday yesterday! Reformation Sunday was celebrated in a single worship service with the welcoming of 17 new members. Providing music for our worship was our children’s choir, choir, organist, pianist, guitarist, bass player, drummer, praise team leaders, and a bag piper. All who lead us in contemporary worship songs and hymns as we celebrated not only our Reformation history but the continual work of reformation that Christ is doing in his church. Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda indeed!

My sermon text came from Matthew’s gospel, 13:31-35. Here Jesus speaks of the inbreaking kingdom of God using the image of a mustard seed planted in a field and a small amount of yeast mixed in with some dough. Jesus began his preaching ministry by proclaiming that God’s kingdom was at hand. Throngs of people gathered to discover what that meant.

And here Jesus tells them that if they are not careful they might miss it. Jesus doesn’t point to the cedars of Lebanon and say “the kingdom of God is like that!” He doesn’t point to a power wielding empire and say “the kingdom of God is like that!” He points to a seed that grows into a garden bush. He points to a lump of dough that is bigger in the morning.

The irony of the kingdom is at play in this parable. “God’s kingdom is here!” Jesus cried. God in flesh was standing right in front of them announcing “I’m here!” Where? They were looking for something a little more robust than a homeless teacher. The work of God’s kingdom swirls around us. God is present and he is at work building his kingdom right where you are right now. But we miss it. All we see are shrubs and leaven bread.

The sermon yesterday was a call to pay attention, to get involved in the day to day newness of God’s kingdom work. It rages around us looking like dirty stables and empty mangers, fishermen and folk tales, bushes and bread. We want to see God rip open the sky and prove himself to the world! All the while his kingdom work continues faithfully on while we wait around for the good stuff. Anybody up for a mustard sandwich?

Pastor Scott

P.S. I mentioned in my sermon (one of those unplanned insertions) that yeast was a bacteria. 9 year old Amelia was puzzled by this statement- knowing that yeast is actually a fungus. Oops! Thanks for the catch Amelia.

Sermon October 18- 2 Corinthians 5:14-12

This sermon was fueled by a lot of reflection on my time in Egypt. While there, I looked at this part of the Muslim world through the window of my own life and experience. It was a different world than one had ever experienced.

This sermon was a call to reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Only in him can we have the assurance of our salvation. Righteousness is a gift of grace through faith in Jesus. That’s it.

I offered a very simple understanding of Islam- one gathered more from observation than study. And I paralleled the practice of Islam to the dutiful religiosity of cultural Christianity practiced in so much of our great nation.

This sermon in a word was an invitation. Click here to listen.
Pastor Scott

Sermon September 27 "Exceeding the World"

(Sorry this post is so late. I woke up on Sunday, September 27th with the flu. I was in bed all week trying to rest and recover for my trip to Egypt... and then I was in Egypt. Better late than never I hope).

This sermon was preached on the verses that conclude this particular section of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48). Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven...

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is all about holy living; living as children of God. And that is what he points out here. Why do we love enemies and pray for persecutors? So that we can act like what we are- children of God. Jesus began this section by saying that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets- not to abolish them. And what were the law and the prophets but the guidelines and resounding clarion call to holy living.

Loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors fly in the face of our natural inclinations. But part of our sanctification is about having those natural inclinations transformed by God's grace in our lives through Christ. That is why Jesus concludes this section by saying "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." What is at stake in not loving enemies and praying for persecutors is our living as children of our Father.

But how do we do that? I Corinthians 13:4-7 describes what love looks like. And it has nothing to do with how we feel and everything to do with how we choose to act. Loving enemies doesn't mean feeling fondness for people who hate us, but rather responding to them in patience, kindness, humility, trust, and hope.

If we choose not to live this way toward our enemies then we are not living as a holy people- we are not living as children of God. We are not reflecting God’s love toward us.

How happy am I that God dose not treat me by the standards I used to treat Sal Dana (my childhood nemesis and neighborhood bully)? How can we live that way? How can we muster up the ability to be patient and kind, to not give into our pride and envy, how can we protect, trust, hope, and persevere through maltreatment from the Sal Danas of this world?

We go to the cross. We reconfront God’s love for us on display. We hear Jesus cry out again and again, “father forgive them for they know not what they do.” And we realize that he is saying that about us!

I concluded the sermon by reading Romans 12:9-21 in which the apostle Paul provides the exclamation point to Jesus' teaching here.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon September 20 “The Left Cheek and the Second Mile”

This text in Matthew 5:38-42 is about as straight forward as you can get. Turn the other cheek, give more than what is being demanded of you, and volunteer the second mile. Early in the week I kept asking myself, “When does this not apply?” I kept searching for the areas in which self preservation and dignity trumped turning, giving, and walking.

As part of my study on this text I read an article that argued with Jesus’ philosophy espoused here that was the basis for Martin Luther King Jr.’s approach to the Civil Right Movement. He wrote, “The Sermon on the Mount could work- if everyone would observe its precepts at once. Where MLK is in philosophical error, one suspects, is the naïveté of applying the Sermon on the Mount in a world that is as corrupt and already evil as our own...”

It was on reading that I stopped asking the question, “When does this not apply?” You see, this man pointed out Dr. King’s “philosophical error” on the basis of the fact that it cost Dr. King his life. He turned the other cheek and was assassinated. What this man failed to see was that one, the Civil Rights Movement under King’s leadership worked. And that two, the gospel never demanded anything less than our whole lives; that discipleship is patent self denial that involves losing life that we might find it.

The burden isn’t in straining to discover when this doesn’t apply but in giving away our lives in a way that makes it apply. This involves two things.

First, the left cheek and the second mile involve resting secure in our identity as children of God. We defend ourselves against abuses and mistreatment to prove that we have value. The value that we have as human beings is intrinsic. But resting secure in who I am as God’s own adopted son trumps any dignity I can establish by demanding respect through the act of not allowing myself to be shamed by another human being. Roman’s 8:14-18 is all the security we need in order to be relieved of the burden of demanding respect.

Second, the left cheek and second mile involve trusting God to provide for us. We defend ourselves against abuses and mistreatment because ultimately we don’t trust God to care for us. When has God proven himself untrustworthy?

A life that turns the left cheek and walks the second mile is a life that proclaims the gospel. It’s a life lived in the security of who God says we are. It’s a life lived in the resounding faith of our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days!

Pastor Scott

P.S. After I preached I fielded many questions along the lines of self defense and protecting one’s family. The second part of the greatest commandment is to love others as you love yourself. The left cheek and the second mile don’t involve ceasing to value life by allowing oneself to be brutalized.

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Sermon September 13 Let Your “Yes” be “Yes”

This Sermon was based on Matthew 5:33-37 where Jesus encourages people not to make oaths. The Pentatuchal provisions for oaths (Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, and Deuteronomy 23:22) have a pretty clear meaning: keep your word. It is to this spirit of that letter that Jesus speaks. Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no”, “no”.

I addressed this very plain meaning of the text by looking at our first scripture reading concerning Ananias and Sapphira. The issue with them wasn’t that they didn’t give 100% of the proceeds from the sale of their property to the church in Jerusalem; it was that they said they gave 100% when in fact they had given less. They told a lie so that they wouldn’t look bad as compared to a guy like Barnabas who had given the full proceeds from a similar transaction to the apostles.

There is a clear admonition here to live in the light. Don’t hide in the shadows of falsehood or half-truths. If we live in the light of the truth then there will be no need to promise, vow, make oaths, or swear to what we are saying. That is the plain meaning of this text.

The greater focus of this sermon was to encourage us to live in our “yes” to Christ. What does it mean that we have said “yes” to him? I highlighted three things that this meant.

1. A “yes” to Jesus is a “no” to the world.
When Christ calls one to follow him it requires a patent denial of self. If any one would become Jesus’ disciple they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow.

2. A “yes” to Jesus is a “yes” to his church and a “no” to isolation.
In our post-modern culture of individualism and independence we place a premium on the experience and idea of the individual. We relish the uniqueness of our own experience and the validity it has to define a private truth. The Christian version of that sounds this way, “I believe in Jesus. I’m just not into the whole church/ organized religion thing.”

That’s hogwash. The church is the body of Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. And we cannot live in the “yes” of Christ’s call on our lives while at the same time rejecting the community through which we experience him. Jesus has called us as individuals to become a part of the whole. To be faithful in our discipleship is to be faithfully committed to the church. And yes, that means a local community of believers; a particular church. And yes, that means identifying in real ways with the church universal.

3. A “yes” to Jesus is an acknowledgement of his “yes” to you.
We must understand that our commitment to Christ is not based on how well we can hold onto him but rather the assurance of knowing that we love because he first loved us; we follow because he first called us; we know because we were fully known.

I invited those who had never said “yes” to Jesus to not wait another minute. I also invited those who were not living their “yes” to renounce the world, embrace the church, and rest easy in Christ’s “yes” to them.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon September 6 "An Adulterous World"

Sunday’s message was not an easy one. Jesus talked about adultery (Matthew 5:27-32) from the perspective of both lust and divorce; two things that are prominent in our culture.

This is a difficult topic to speak frankly about in a diverse generational context. To speak on sexuality knowing that there will people from six to ninety-six years of age was a bit daunting. I decided to frame the sermon around the narrative of David and Bathsheba. Speaking about this episode would allow people to draw their own connections to the story.

Lust was first. I spoke primarily to the gentlemen here. Our culture is saturated with lust based thinking. Lust is encouraged because it is safe. “Hey guys look but don’t touch and you’re ok. Objectify women and view them through the lens of your imagination. There is nothing wrong with a sexual mental picture.” That is the better part of the message our culture sends out about sexuality. Whether they are telling us buy a hamburger or a certain kind of deodorant, the message is clear: Lust all you want. We’ll make more.

Jesus says, “No!” Lust is the adultery of the heart. It is an egregious offense against God and humanity. It is a violation of the seventh commandment. That’s what David’s problem was. His adultery began on his rooftop long before Bathsheba was commanded to come to his bed chamber. And what we discover in David is that sexual sin is almost always a problem of geography first. He was on the rooftop when he should have been with his men in battle.

Whether our adultery is fantasized or physical it always involves a place. It begins with what John Ortberg refers to as “The Look.” We need to avoid the look! Jesus says it is better to pluck out your eye and cut off your hand then for your whole self to be thrown into hell. We need to go to great length to avoid the places of our lust. Know your rooftop and don’t go up there. Turn off the TV. Turn off the computer. Look away from the treadmill. Don’t stare at the billboard. Our culture will barrage us. We need to fight the look.

From this Jesus moves to divorce. In many Jewish circles the permissiveness of divorce was as prevalent in Jesus’ day as it is in ours. Jesus ties divorce to adultery in such a way to elevate the sanctity of marriage. Human sexuality goes beyond the procreative and the enjoyable (of which both were intended). It was also always intended to serve as a metaphor for our relationship with God. Divorce diminishes and destroys the metaphor. Jesus does not say that there is not valid reason for divorce. He is simply asserting that the physical and emotional components of our sexuality are not removed from the spiritual part of who we are. They are connected.

The good news for us in this world of adultery also comes from David and Bathsheba. David’s lust and abuse resulted in spiritual, physical, and emotional damage. Sexual sin, like no other, always does. But we discover in this story that a broken and repentant David is able to comfort an abused and hurting Bathsheba. And it is the product of this reconciled and redeemed relationship that God blesses to become the greatest king in Israel’s history- Jedediah, which means “beloved of God.” We know him as Solomon.

God can redeem people lost in sexual sin and he can heal the hurt that results from divorce and adultery. That is the story of the cross. That is the hope of the gospel.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon August, 30 “The Letter and the Spirit”

On Sunday we had a single worship service as I began a new sermons series in the Sermon on the Mount. For the next 5 weeks we will look at Matthew 5:17-48. In this section of Jesus’ sermon he provides a deep look beneath the letter of the Mosaic Law right into the spirit behind it. Five times in this section of the sermon Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…” For these five weeks we will look at how Jesus shines his light on his law.

In verses 21-25 Jesus illumines the sixth commandment “You shall not commit murder.” Jesus says that way before the physical act of murder is committed the human heart has already transgressed the law of love. Anger and abusive language put one in danger of the fires of hell long before they manifest themselves in murder.

Pharisees and teachers of the law had tried to excuse themselves by relaxing the standards of the law and honoring only the letter. Jesus does not allow that kind of justification. So what is the hope? Who can stand secure when the spirit of the law demands utter holiness and purity?

Jesus began this section of his sermon by saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” It is Christ alone who honors the letter and the spirit of the Law of God. It is Jesus who alone stands innocent in a world of people who have fallen short of God’s glory. In Christ we see that the product of our anger and insults did indeed result in murder. It is in the cross that we face both our guilt and hope. He fulfilled the law and the prophets for us. It is there that he accomplished what we could not. Faith in the crucified and risen Christ alone is our hope of salvation from the fires of hell.

We closed our service with a statement of faith taken from Romans 3:21-25.
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Pastor Scott

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