John 14:1-6
A sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Hope is a flimsy word. We say: “I hope so…” and we mean: “Well, who knows?” We say: “hopefully” and mean “probably not.”
You recall the story of Pandora’s box: When she opened that box, all the evils of the world flew out but there was one thing left: Hope. The question was: Was that good or evil?
What is the basis for our hope, since the word itself can be so flimsy?
Acts 7:55-60
A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Several weeks ago we looked the problem of being a second generation disciple. We learned that we’re all second generation Christians. We are tempted to think if we had only been there and had a visual, hands-on experience, then we would believe. But that wasn’t true for them or us. Even for them there was no private miracle because it is always by faith in him.
We have often looked at the history of the church and realized we can’t stand on the claim that “history proves” Christianity is right. The history of the church does not do that. It doesn’t work for the history of our lives, too, when we face what life has really been.
We offer three different sermons for Shepherd Sunday:
Luke 24:35
A sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter
What do we talk about when we get together?
The weather, for sure. And gas prices and grocery prices. We talk about unusual accidents or happenings around town and in the wider world. We avoid politics and religion, except when we are among like-minded friends. For the most part we talk about things that are important to us, that affect us.
When we have particularly good news to share, we are like that woman in the parable in Luke 15, who, when she found the coin she had lost, called together her friends and neighbors and said (15:9): “Rejoice with me for I had found the coin which I had lost!”
1 Peter 1:17-23
A sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter
Last week we looked at Doubting Thomas and learned that everyone is a second generation disciple. There is no advantage to anyone who was there who saw him, touched him, and heard him because this was all God’s choosing and electing, giving them faith, not a super miracle or super proof. Rather, we are all those to whom God gives faith, and we are called to be witnesses and not philosophers who have some kind of proof.