John 15:2-27; 16:4b-15
A Sermon for Pentecost Sunday
Some years ago, a missionary to New Guinea returned to his home congregation in the US and said to his pastor that the big challenge on the mission field was the problem of spirituality.
That missionary’s question goes to the heart of Pentecost Sunday. In order to get at this question of “spirit” and spirituality, it is helpful to go back to the Reformation itself.
Acts 1: 1-11; Luke 24:44-53
A Sermon for the Festival of the Ascension
On this Sunday which is closest to the Festival of the Ascension (May 9), there is something that is important for us to be aware of and that is that Jesus is present in a different way.
Let’s go back and see it from the point of view of those apostles. Remember first of all that there was that enormous defeat because the one that they followed was crucified, and they all fled. Of all things, there was a victory; he arose from the dead!
John 15:9-17
A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
We begin today with forgeries, fallacies, and fakes. They have all been used to attack the Gospel from the First Century until now. We’ll take up two examples from this century, The Da Vinci Code and the “Gospel of Judas.”
The Da Vinci Code is a mystery thriller written by Dan Brown (2004), based on the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, had a child, and their bloodline continued through history. The book became a massive bestseller and was translated into forty-four languages and made into a hit movie. As of 2009 over 80 million copies of the book had been sold. To be sure, the book was panned by many as second-rate. One British reviewer called it a “load of codswallop,” that is, a heap of hokum and nonsense.
John 15:1-8
A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Every time we gather together, we are really dealing with one thing: Who is God, and how does he work? It’s particularly appropriate today as we look at the fifteenth chapter of John.
As we look at the general way this God question is talked about, most of the time people say God is that X in the sky, that great unknown, like in algebra, or imaginary logic, the infinite one who is beyond everything. We can’t really know, but we all have our ideas. But beyond that, as people say: “There must be more,” and for that we use our imaginations.
Acts 4:5-12
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
In this account from the Book of Acts, chapter 4, the lectionary committee has really just given us the middle of a whole sequence, so I want to tell you what goes before and after. Before is that they, the Twelve, were standing there in Jerusalem. They had replaced Judas. Along came a crippled and he was healed. Everyone was excited. They knew Jesus had healed, but here it was continuing. What the authorities did was throw the apostles in prison because it had excited and disturbed the people. Then we have the verses for today. Peter stands us and says: “There is no other name under heaven by which we shall be saved.”