This morning’s parable from the gospel of Luke is one of the toughest pieces of scripture in the whole Bible. Preachers all over the country groan when this passage comes up in our three year cycle of readings. It is hard to figure out just what on earth Jesus is talking about. We have the…
Kenotic Words
worship, sermons, lectionary
God Loves Sinners
I am a person who does not get lost. Never in my life can I remember a time when I didn’t know where I was or how I was going to get where I needed to go next. I have always been a very spatial person, and so if you give me a map, I…
The Gift of Joy
How many of you are happy all the time? Every waking minute of your lives? C’mon now… raise your hands! No one? No one at all? How many of you are joyful? How many of you have the joy of the Lord in your heart every day? Maybe a few? This morning – we have…
Hebrews Part 6: Discipline
My nephew has recently picked up a bad habit. Lying. Whether it’s just a phase he is going through or if developmentally he has just realized that he can make up stories and try to get away with things… it hasn’t been working. His parents see right through his lies. They catch him all the…
Hebrews Part 5: The Cloud of Witnesses
We have spent the last few weeks wading through some pretty heavy stuff in the Letter to the Hebrews. Like the author makes clear – this isn’t easy material… we dove into the meat, the heart of the substance. For those of you who have missed our explorations, in the last four weeks we have…
Hebrews Part 4: Jesus the Priest?
I. Introduction A. Talking about who Jesus is – Christology and Atonement B. [SLIDE] Already the book of Hebrews has told us some things about who Jesus is. He was with God before the foundations of the earth. He is the Son of God. And for a time, he was made a little lower than…
what we owe God…
I’ve been thinking a lot about atonement theories as we journey through the book of Hebrews in worship. Anselm’s understanding of atonement says that we owe an infinite debt to God because we have marred God’s honor. Christ comes and pays that infiinite debt for us. All fine and dandy. Thank you Jesus. But in…
Hebrews Part 3: Milk First, Meat Later
Milk First, Meat Later [SLIDE] As we continue in the book of Hebrews today, we come crashing into the heart of the letter’s Christology. Christology? That’s a pretty big word, you might be thinking. If we break it apart, we find first Christ, and then ology – Christology is what we understand about Jesus Christ.…