Romans 4:5

A sermon for Christ the King Sunday

Today marks the end of the season of Pentecost in the Christian calendar. We’re usually not conscious of the fact that the season of Pentecost is divided into four parts. The first part is about the greening, the awakening of nature, the second about seeding, the third part about growth, and the fourth part of the Pentecost season is about harvest. The same is true for the hymns. They, too, are about the harvest.

What will be the yield and the quality of the harvest? When will the end come? We know that people are calculating the time of the end. There was a time when some people misused the Mayan calendar to figure out the time of the end. And more recently New Age spiritualists have said that because of the alignment of the planets, we know the end is coming, and you had better get ready. We kind of smile and tolerate these prophets of the end times.

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Hebrews 9:27-28

A sermon for a Sunday toward the end of the Pentecost Season

At this season of the church year we look at “the last things.” What happens at the end? This means we proclaim Christ as the Almighty, but we also consider judgment and hell and the final sorting out of everything.

Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed for all to die and then comes judgment. We know, however, that judgment and hell aren’t taken very seriously in the modern world.

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1 Tmothy 2:5

A sermon for All Saints Sunday

Fifty years ago Protestants didn’t celebrate All Saints Sunday. Now this Sunday has been transformed into a time of psychological comfort for those who have lost someone in the last year.

This festival raises three questions. First, who are the saints? Second, when they are no longer here, what is their situation? Third, can we communicate with them?

Behind such questions lies the big question: How do we decide such questions? How do you get there? Within the Christian church the real question has always been: What is salvation?

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A sermon for Reformation Sunday

The festival of the Reformation is often not celebrated today because it was long ago and things have changed. It took place in a university and involved complicated and abstract thinking. Now things are different. We are no longer fighting with the Catholics, and the important thing is to look to the future, work ahead, and not be focused on the past. But the “one thing needful” (Luke 10:42) has been lost.

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A sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

John 8:36

Halloween is coming soon. If you go to Germany, there is no trick-or-treating. If you go to France, there’s no trick-or-treating. If you go to Italy, Russia, China, India, or Egypt, there’s no trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is just something we Americans do. It has spread to Canada and is beginning to get a foothold in England and Hong Kong.

After Christmas, the Superbowl and Halloween are the most expensive holidays in our country. Why is Halloween so popular? It’s fun. The costumes, candy, decorations. Yet there are other things that are fun, too. Other sports, theater, music, festivals of all kinds.

What is it about Halloween that makes it such a big event? It has to do with the fun of being a little wicked, to dress and act as a scoundrel, to flirt with danger and to play with death. There are haunted houses, ghosts in graveyards, and witches on broomsticks.

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