A Sermon for the Season of Pentecost

If we could travel back in time to 1912 and imagine ourselves sitting around a table talking about current events and the future, we would find there was a lot then to look forward to. The future looked promising.

Of course, there had been a war in 1870 between Germany and France. Germany took over the Alsace-Lorraine territory from France. That was already forty years back. In 1905 the Japanese had destroyed the Russian Navy at Vladivostok. But that, too, was far away and didn’t seem to affect us. In 1910 there was a World Mission Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, where they said: “We’re going to bring the Gospel to all the people of the world in this generation.”

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Romans 8:28-30

(This text, Romans 8:28-30, is not in the current lectionary, but it’s a great text. A sermon on Romans 8:31-39 coming next week.)

A sermon for the Season of Pentecost

In the middle of the Nineteenth Century, about 1850, when the British had control of most of India, there was a problem of something called Sati. It was customary that when a husband died, they cremated the body, and the widow was expected to jump into the funeral pyre. Sometimes they had to push her, but this was expected. This was against the law under British rule, but the leader of the Hindu community came to the Governor General of India and said: “This is our custom, and you have to allow us our custom.” The Governor General replied: “Yes, I understand that this is your custom, but our custom is that when somebody does that, we hang him.”

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A Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 8:26-27

You may have heard of the Templeton Foundation. It was started by John Templeton, who was famous in the world of finance for being a contrarian investor. He was also a faithful Presbyterian layman. He gave a lot of money to Princeton Seminary. The unfortunate thing is that he thought he knew enough about religion to write books and set up a Foundation, giving a prize every year for religion that was larger than a Nobel Prize. His Foundation once funded a multi-year study on prayer. Does it work? Is it effective? They had a control group that was not prayed for and a group that was. It was a totally mistaken project for several reasons. First, sometimes the answer to prayer is “No.” Second, how could you be sure that in the control group that was not prayed for someone didn’t sneak in prayers anyway from loved ones or friends? They couldn’t know for sure. Was the prayer the right prayer? Of course, a lot of people get well anyway. After two to three years the results of the study was that it was inconclusive.

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Romans 8:1-10

A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

In Romans 8:1-10 we have the whole of the Christian faith. It’s at least two-thirds of the Christian faith, or the heart of the Christian faith. The first verse 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” To put it in our language: “There is therefore no death sentence for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or: Death is dead. That’s the whole ball game.

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Romans 7:15-25a

A sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

In this season of Pentecost we have been looking at the Book of Romans with the counterfoil of the Gospel of Matthew. Paul writes in Romans 3-6 that we are free from sin and death. That comes out most directly in 6:5 in that remarkable verse: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” That is repeated in Romans 6:8 and 11. Having gone that far, we ask: “In that case, am I secure forever? Nothing can happen? I don’t sin anymore”? It says in 1 John 3:6, and 9 that the Christian never sins: “No one who abides in Him sins” (1 John 3:6). And “No one born of God sins” (1 John 3:9). We may think we have eternal security. After all, there it is in the Bible

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