Sermons on Life of Christ (Page 9)

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Blessed are we…

Photo by Xavier Coiffic @unsplash.com Blessed are we who come in the name of the Lord! Blessed are we who have a King whose idea of a triumphant entry into His Kingdom is on the foal of a donkey. Blessed are we who have a King who allows Himself to be condemned for our sins. Blessed are we who have the Good News of the Light and Life of the Resurrection which the darkness of the cross could not subdue.…

Intimacy with Jesus

Photo by Isaac Taylor on Pexels.com John 12:1-8 This mornings’ gospel reading poses a false dichotomy – should we give money to the poor or give it to God? That’s like saying should I love my neighbor or God and the answer is Yes – both! There is actually no distinction between the two but my relationship with God as God and neighbor as human neighbor are quite different. But this reading raises many other questions which are more perplexing…

God always welcomes us

Luke 13:31-35 Today’s Gospel is a rather odd passage. Some commentators have suggested that it’s two separate sayings of Jesus put together to make one. I don’t know if that’s true, but it certainly comes at a time when the pressure is on Jesus. He is making his way toward Jerusalem when he’s told that Herod is out to get him. You will remember that after Herod the Great died, the country was divided between his sons. Herod Antipas ruled…

Shining like the sun

Photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a] I don’t know about you, but that reading from 2 Corinthians makes me uneasy. It makes me uneasy because it sounds so anti-Semitic, and humans being humans, I imagine that the idea that Jewish hearts are hardened and their understanding veiled has been used against Jewish people through the centuries. Some commentators think that Paul was simply mistaken in his interpretation of Moses’ veil and as a result disappeared down a…

Turning the Other Cheek

Genesis 45:3-11, 15 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50 Luke 6:27-38 Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42 Many of you probably remember the day you got your first driver’s license-I know I do. I remember the feeling of being empowered to be independently behind the wheel without the need to have a licensed passenger in the vehicle with me, as was the case when I only possessed what they called in those days-a Learner’s Permit. Little did I know the learning was really just about to…

Blessed are the Poor

Photo by Alvin Decena from Pexels Luke 6:17-26 Just before this morning’s gospel opens, Jesus spent a night praying in the mountains alone, and then calling his disciples to him, specially designating 12 of them as apostles. Afterward, as we heard, “Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear…

Gracious Words

Photo by Ales Krivec @ unsplash.com Jeremiah 1:4-10 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30 Psalm 71:1-6 I’m in the middle of a rather dense book called “Jesus in the Drama of Salvation” by Raymund Schwager. It was written in German, and the English translation is not always clear to me, so I have to keep rereading paragraphs and it’s a slow process. Also it’s a lot to take in. The author is focusing on a question that bothers me and I…

The Intersection of Cosmic and Mundane

John 1:1-18 My sister is an excellent preacher. Although we are different in many ways, we also both tend towards procrastination and dislike housework. We joke that if one of us is cleaning, it is a sure sign that we have a sermon to write. So it will not surprise you that at my allotted sermon preparation time yesterday I found myself cleaning a car mat which had suffered from a particularly sticky holiday food event. As I worked, I…