Crafting a weekly sermon is not an easy task. After all, how does one reconcile the needs of a congregation with the prescriptions and theological insights of a biblical text? Sadly, we pastors often miss the mark. No matter how articulate, informed or scholarly a pastor may be people often leave Sunday service with more questions than answers. Perhaps that is not something to be avoided from the pulpit. The days of religious certainty left many people struggling to confront and deal with their lived experiences with only platitudes and preachments as their guide. Real, authentic faith is going to raise many questions about God, about Jesus and about life. The pastor’s task is to value those questions and to help people understand questions as pathways to a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. When Jesus walked among us, He thrived on questions. In parables, and in intimate conversations with His disciples, Jesus encouraged questions. We need to do the same in the church today. We serve a God who welcomes any action, including questions, that opens one's heart to a deeper and fuller acceptance of God’s grace. Now, that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom Isaiah 61: 1-2 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn Let’ s be honest. Pastors rarely talk about questions. We seem, regrettably, to prefer fixed answers. However, that is not what people need today. People have questions about God, about faith, and about a world bent on self-destruction. Questions have been part of the Divine -human conversation since the beginning of time. Some forty percent of the Psalms are questions raised to God. Jesus’ disciples consistently questioned this itinerate preacher who taught, healed and offered forgiveness with God’s authority. The intricately woven parables are, in truth, questions to be pondered. Unfortunately, we often confuse questions with doubts and doubts with the total denial of God. Questions raised in faith are true doorways to a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God gifted each of us with minds and bodies that are to create, inquire, ponder, and continue the work of God’s good creation. Now, that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom Psalm 44:23-26 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love. Have you ever wondered why the Gospel of John refers to the miracles of Jesus as signs? Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak to the actual physical action of a miracle. A blind man healed. Lazarus called from the tomb. Evil spirits cast out. Yet, in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ actions point to a reality far greater than turning water into wine or speaking to the Samaritan women. Jesus is the revelation, the incarnation of God’s grace. An intersection of heaven and earth that witnesses the truth of God’s good creation. One can certainly read the stories of Jesus’ miracles as wondrous feats that defy nature and logic. Or, one can discover within those miraculous events, portraits of God’s grace at work in our world and on our human journey. Now, that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom
2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. New Year’s Eve 2022 seemed markedly understated. Amid the fireworks, ball droppings and other annual markers of time marching on, there was a muted enthusiasm. An unspoken but deeply felt sense that the new year might not offer a significantly better quality of life. Our normal sense of anticipation that historically accompanies the dawn of a new year this year became a feeling of uncertainty and doubt. Unfortunately, we Christians often forget or choose to forget one particularly important truth of our faith. Jesus Christ walked in ,experienced, and was executed by a world of uncertainty and doubt. The very same world we live in today. We also fail to stand at the empty tomb and awaken to the fact that the world of doubt and uncertainty was defeated. There are two undeniable realities in the earthly ministry of Christ Jesus. We serve a God who has experienced the fullness of human life. And we serve a God who does not abandon us even in those moments when we turn away. Those two realities offer a sense of hope and peace that no circumstance can still. Now, that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom
But now, this is what the Lord says-- he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze... |
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