Galatians 5:1

A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost

This coming Friday is the Fourth of July, the celebration of our country’s independence on July 4, 1776. The spirit of the American Revolution is captured well in the motto of New Hampshire: Live free or die.
It’s a useful coincidence that one of our texts today is about freedom, Christian freedom. It’s Galatians 5:1: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

What “freedom” means in each case is different, but together they provide our focus for today.

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Galatians 3:23-29

A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Pentecost

This Galatians text is a great text because of what it says about the law as our “custodian.” “. . . Before faith came, we were confined under the law . . . the law was our custodian until Christ came . . . But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian . . . .”

The word “custodian” today is commonly understood as another word for “janitor.” But, of course, that’s not the kind of custodian that Paul is talking about.

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I Corinthians 8:6; John 16:12-15

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday based on the Athanasian Creed

Today is Trinity Sunday, that one Sunday each year when we focus on the fact that God is one and three in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What do we make of this?

Some have said that the Trinity is like water: it can be like steam, water, ice.

Or, the Trinity is like a triangle which has three corners but it’s one.

Or it can be like Augustine, the great early church father said: The Trinity is like the one who loves, the one who is loved, and the loving.

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A sermon based on John 14-16.

On this festival Sunday we use passages from the Gospel of John chapters 14-16 because they deal most extensively with the Holy Spirit (also called the Paraclete, the Counselor, the Advocate).
What is the Holy Spirit about? We know that there are competing claims about where Holy Spirit is and how the Holy Spirit works.

At the First Vatican Council in 1870, Roman Catholic bishops voted to confirm (promulgated the dogma) that when the Pope declares (using the words: “I declare”) something on faith and morals for the universal church, his decision is infallible because the Holy Spirit is believed to guard the Pope when he is doing that.

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John 17:20-26

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

The text for today is the famous text for Christian unity: “That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that may also be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).

Probably a million or more sermons are being preached on this text today. What are pastors saying about it? Many probably are saying the church is one, and therefore, the oneness needs to be made visible, and the oneness is to be found in the majority, therefore we need to be with the majority wherever they are said to be.

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