The Power of Love – Unity
Philippians 2:1-13 September 27, 2020 Matthew 21:23-32 I want you to picture Lucy van Pelt and her little brother, Linus, from the comic strip Peanuts. Lucy and Linus are having a “disagreement,” but it comes to a sudden halt when Lucy gives a simple demonstration of UNITY. She says, “See these fingers? By themselves, they are nothing special, but when they combine into a single unit, they become a force that is TERRIBLE TO BEHOLD!!” Admittedly, it’s not a very positive example of unity,…
The Power of Love – Generosity
The Power of Love: Generosity 16th Pentecost Philippians 1:21-30 September 20, 2020 Matthew 20:1-16 Think for a minute about what a generator does. It takes some kind of power, like a gas engine or a windmill or a water-powered turbine, and converts that power into electricity. A generator. I thought about generators when I was studying Developmental Psychology in seminary, where we learned about the concept of “generativity.” Erik Erikson, the psychologist who developed the term “Identity Crisis”, coined the word “Generativity” to describe a stage…
The Power of Love – Forgiveness
15th Pentecost The Power of Love: Forgiveness Romans 14:1-12 Sept. 13, 2020 Matthew 18:21-35 Part of what it means to be HUMAN is to be vulnerable—to live with the possibility of being hurt by other people. I don’t need to ask if you have ever been hurt, because our vulnerability means that, occasionally, WE WILL BE HURT. It’s part of the human condition. And the antidote to that hurt is simple (and, at the same time, often very…
The Power of Love – Speaking the Truth
The Power of Love: Speaking the Truth 14th Pentecost Romans 13:8-14 September 6, 2020 Matthew 18:15-20 You all know what a scalpel is, right? It’s a small, very sharp cutting tool that is used by surgeons all around the world. In the hands of a skilled surgeon, a scalpel can be the instrument of healing and hope. But, in the wrong hands, a scalpel can be an instrument of destruction and mayhem! Did you know that our words also carry this dual possibility? When we…
The Joy of Labor
The Joy of Labor 13th Pentecost Psalm 105:1-6 August 30, 2020 Romans 12:9-21 Most of you know the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and how they disobeyed God and basically got kicked out of the Garden. Eve was told that her punishment would be that her pains in childbirth were going to be increased, and Adam was now going to have to earn his food with hard labor. His punishment is described like this: “Cursed is…
Sent to Foreigners – A Slave Prince
Sent to Foreigners: A Slave/Prince 12th Pentecost Exodus 1:8-2:10 Romans 12:1-8 When the kids were little, we used to watch a Disney movie called “The Sword in the Stone.” Based on a novel by T. H. White called The Once and Future King, the story follows the life of a 12-year-old orphan known as Wart. Wart stumbles into a relationship with the magician, Merlin, who becomes his tutor. Now, England had fallen into a dark time because the king had died without…
Sent to Foreigners – Joseph’s Brothers
August 16, 2020 Sent to Foreigners: Joseph’s Brothers 11th Pentecost Genesis 5:1-15 August 16, 2020 Matthew 15:21-28 My letters went to Curlew by accident. I had moved from Seattle to Spokane to study counseling at Whitworth. The secretary at my former church made a typographical error when publishing my new address in the church newsletter, and the ZIP Code was that of Curlew, WA, rather than northern Spokane. As a result, the first several letters I received from folks in Seattle…
Sent to Foreigners – Joseph
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Last week, I talked about our Family of Faith—a family that stretches back for thousands of years. We have lots of characters in our family, some embarrassing events, and a number of miraculous events—but our Scriptures are full of this family history! Today, I want to talk about an early event in the life of our family, one that shows how to put the FUN in dysFUNctional! And I want to explore how God can use EVEN…
Empowered Despite Grief
Empowered Despite Grief 9th Pentecost Psalm 17:1-7, 15 Matthew 14:13-21 Friends, you and I are one chapter in a l-o-n-g story—the story of God’s work in this world. There have been some pretty embarrassing chapters about our spiritual ancestors—painfully recorded in Scripture. And there have been some funny moments—like when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, and asked him to call him out of the boat and walk on water as well. When he suddenly realized that he was walking on water, he started…
A Belle Melange
A Belle Mélange Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 16:13-19 In the 2001 movie, Tortilla Soup, Hector Elizondo plays the part of a retired chef—retired because he has somehow lost his sense of taste (and, with it, his self-confidence). But his old partner calls him with an emergency—they are catering a fancy dinner and one of the junior chefs has messed up the dessert. They need his help to rescue the dinner! He arrives on the scene, sees what they have to work with,…
Wisdom is Vindicated by Deeds
Wisdom Is Vindicated by Deeds 5th Pentecost Romans 7:15-25a Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 I am a big fan of Snoopy, the cute little beagle from Peanuts! When everyone else is going frantic with worry, Snoopy always seems to have a steady compass and an aptitude for JOY! In one of his more philosophical moods, Snoopy was contemplating the question of whether it is more important to BE or to DO. Some people emphasize how crucial it is to BE, while others focus on what…
Choose Your Master
Choose Your Master 4th Pentecost Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Back in the 70’s, there was a mini-series on TV that almost everyone in the country tuned into. It was about a young man, Kunta Kintay, who was captured by slavers and brought to America and sold to a plantation owner. The series chronicled the life of Kunta and his descendants (like “Chicken George”) and how the story of his life was passed down through the generations to Alex Haley, the…