Today is Mother’s Day. We honor mothers. . . .

We honor mothers because we’re concerned about the Christian family. We’re concerned about the nuclear family. Children need mothers and fathers. No matter how much it is said in the culture that any arrangement will do, all that matters is that there is love, we say: No, just as every child has a mother and a father, children need mothers and fathers. Family matters.

That’s not to say all families are healthy and good. Or even that all mothers are good. Some mothers can be smothering and overbearing. Some mothers neglect their children.

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A sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Twenty-Third Psalm is among the top five passages of the Bible that most people know. And the question is: Why? There is something about it that speaks to us. The first four verses are a dramatic parable about the shepherd and the sheep and how the Lord is the shepherd who cares for us.

Then there’s a separate picture in the last two verses: “Thou preparest a table before me . . . and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Another little parable. It’s dramatic. In the Bible there are many places where the Lord is the Great Shepherd: Ezekiel 34, John 10, a couple of places in Jeremiah, and 1 Peter 2:25: “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” There is something about this which says: This is what we need. This is what we want to remember.

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A sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

What do we talk about when we get together? We talk about the weather. We talk about prices, gas prices, food prices. We talk about what’s happening around us. Who has moved? We talk about unusual accidents. Have you heard? Did you know? 

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John 20:19-31

A sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter.

“Doubting Thomas.” Doubting Thomas is not the way it’s put in the text. He’s called Thomas the Twin. We call him “Doubting Thomas” because we like him. He’s the one who had the courage to say: “Unless I can actually touch the wounds, how can I know?” We all see that as common sense.

Thomas, doubting Thomas, is a great favorite. The text, however, doesn’t say that he actually did doubt. Just for the sake of discussion, assume that he did. Then he says in a confession: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). There was for him this reality. Miraculous. He was actually able to see, to hear, and to touch.

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Easter Sunday

The weekend edition of most newspapers features obituaries. That edition is usually available late Saturday night. If there were such a thing in Jesus’ day, imagine what the Saturday night edition of Jesus’ obituary might have said. Perhaps something like this:

“Jesus, Son of Joseph, died, crucified. He had come into conflict with the Jewish and Roman authorities. Known as a carpenter and wandering preacher and healer, there were those who said he said would redeem Israel. He was preceded in death by his father, Joseph. Survivors include his mother, Mary, and several brothers and sisters. He was buried immediately because he was crucified just before the Sabbath, the high Holy Day of Passover. Visitation at the tomb is provided by Joseph of Arimathea, beginning Sunday morning.”

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