the church geek

Lately, I’ve been giving Lori a bit of a hard time since the last Harry Potter book came out a few weeks ago. For those of you who don’t know, my wife has devoured every last one of these books.

While she was looking forward to the release of the seventh book, she was also dreading it, because the timing wasn’t on her side. She was scheduled to preach the day after the book was released.

As I’ve shared before, Lori is one of those ministers who usually waits until Saturday to start their sermons and then stays up late into the night to get it done. On Saturday morning, she ran a few errands and since she couldn’t wait, she also went to Barnes & Noble to get a copy of the book.

As you can imagine - even though she had a sermon to write - she couldn’t keep herself from cracking the book open. At first she just read the first couple of chapters but then – apparently unable to live without knowing who JK Rowling killed off - she skipped right to the end!

Now, given the circumstances, you might think skipping to the end of a book is a rare practice for my wife, but it’s not! In fact, I often find her skipping to the end of whatever book she happens to have in her hand. And of course I tease her mercilessly for this wrong and abhorrent practice.

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The text for this sermon on forgiveness is Matthew 18:21-35.

I bet most of you remember this tragic news story from last year. But this story was a bit different. In the end it turned out to be one of the most profoundly inspiring stories of the year.

The story unfolded just a little less than a year ago in the month of October. It happened in the Pennsylvania town of Nickle Mines, which is a home to a colony of Amish folks.

On that tragic day, an outsider by the name of Charles Roberts - who lived near the Amish Community - stormed into a one-room school house full of Amish girls and barricaded himself inside.

By the end of the day, 10 children had been shot and 5 of them were laid to rest. After shooting himself, the killer lay dead as well.

Interviews with the girls who survived indicated that one of the girls who lost her life, Marian Fisher, offered herself as the first one to be killed in the hopes that Roberts would spare the rest.

Now, as amazing as that little part of the story is, the most amazing part was that not long after the shootings ABC news ran a report that said: Amish “say” they extend forgiveness to the killer and his family.

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I don’t know if any of you noticed, but the Pope caused quite a stir recently. A few weeks ago he approved a statement declaring that the Catholic Church could not grant the title of “church” to protestant faith communities.

This statement created a significant buzz of activity and a lot of protest not only in the protestant world, but in the catholic world as well.

As a response, officials in our denomination sent an open letter to all its churches, questioning the Vatican’s statement. The letter raised concern about the potential damage the statement could have on ecumenical dialogue, or talks about what different churches can or cannot agree on together.

A statement like this from the Catholic Church is really nothing new. The church may have loosened its stance a bit in the 1960s, but they have always declared themselves to be the true church.

I think this leads us to a question I hear all the time when it comes to the Apostle’s Creed: Why do we say we believe in the “holy catholic church?”

When you look at the creed, you’ll notice that the word “catholic” does not have a big or capital “C.” It has a small “c.” The size of that letter is actually quite important because it means we’re not talking about the word “Catholic” as a proper noun nor are we referring to the “Roman Catholic Church.”

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Derek Redmond was determined. He had to finish the race. Period.

Derek was a young British runner, who had sky rocketed to fame by shattering his country’s 400-meter record at age 19. But then an Achilles tendon injury forced him to withdraw from the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. To get it all repaired he underwent five separate surgeries.

When the Summer Olympics arrived in Barcelona in 1992, Derek absolutely ached for a medal. On the day of the 400-meter race, 65,000 fans stream into the stadium, hoping to witness one of sports’ most thrilling events.

High in the stands is Derek’s father – Jim - a faithful witness to every one of his son’s world competitions. According to ESPN, Jim is wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Have you hugged your foot today?”

The race begins and Derek breaks through the pack seizing the lead. “Keep it up” his father Jim says to himself. Heading down the backstretch, only 175 meters from the finish line, Derek looks like a shoo-in to win this semifinal heat and to qualify for the finals.

But then Derek hears a pop. He pulls up lame, looking as if he has been shot. His leg quivering, Derek begins to hop on the other leg, and then he slows down and falls to the track. Medical personnel run toward him as he sprawls on the ground, holding his right hamstring.

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This sermon looks at the phrase of the creed that says “From there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” I decided to not focus on the resurrection, because while it is pivotal we just came through the Easter Season and I spent a good deal of the time dealing with the resurrection and its implications over many of those Sundays. The texts for this sermon were: Psalm 98: 4-9 & 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15

I seriously thought about starting off my sermon with a short video clip. After all we have the technology to do it. We have a computer, a projector, and a video screen.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I thought I didn’t want to give much if any air time to this particular video. Nor did I want - in anyway – to dignify its message or give it that much credence. So, instead, I decided to leave it up to you.

When you go home this afternoon, if you decide you want to see it for yourself, you can go to Google and type in the words “God Hates the World.” Yes, you heard me right; “God Hates the World.” I will warn you though this is something you might not want your young children to see.

The video is modeled after the super-group, rock anthem song some of you may remember from the mid 80’s called “We Are The World.” But, the message of this new video is much, much different from that one.

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I didn’t have an official title for this sermon, but I will now call it “To the End.” It explores the affirmation of the creed “He descended into hell, and on the third day rose again,” and deals specifically with the topic of Hell. The sermon texts were 1 Peter 3:17-22 & 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Polls in America on religious beliefs often reveal rather interesting results.

Using the same methods it uses to forecast election results with good success Harris Interactive conducted a survey of 2,201 US adults in 2003. The poll yielded these results:

• 84% of Americans believe in the survival of the soul after death.

• 82% believe in Heaven while a smaller percentage, 69%, believe in Hell.

• Folks who believe in life after death are quite optimistic about the location of their eternal rest, Only 1% believe they will end up in hell.

• So, I guess that means for the one or two people who are actually there, hell will seem like an awfully quiet and lonely place.

In my close to two years as a minister, I think I’ve had more questions directed to me about the idea of Hell – about who is there and who isn’t - then I’ve had about any other question or subject of our faith.

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This sermon looks at the affirmation of the Creed that Jesus was both human and divine. It focuses on the phrases in the creed that say: “I believe in Jesus Christ…who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.”

When I mentioned to my wife that I planned on doing a sermon series on the Apostle’s Creed, the first question she asked was, “What are you going to say when you get to the Virgin birth?” I replied, “I don’t know I hadn’t thought that far ahead!”

What I think she was getting at was that of all the statements in the Apostle’s Creed, the one that seems to be the tallest lightening rod for controversy and that generates the most scholarly argument – at least in the protestant world - is the statement about Jesus being “born of the Virgin Mary.”

Affirmation of the virgin birth has been a lightning rod issue in the history of our own denomination. In the 1920s a group in one of our predecessor denominations wanted to require ministers to subscribe to a set of five fundamentals of faith, one of those was the virgin birth.

The church fought for a decade about whether or not to require ministers to subscribe to the five fundamentals. After years of heated debate, the issue was eventually shelved, and those who wanted the five fundamentals to become church law left and formed their own denomination.

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This is the third sermon in a summer sermon series on the Apostle’s Creed. It deals with the phrase “I believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.” Here are links to Sermons #1 and #2.

The year is 304 AD. The last great persecution of the early Christian Church is in full swing. In a few short years Emperor Constantine would ascend to power making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the mean time, the Emperor Diocletian orders all Christians - under the pain of death - to give up their holy scriptures to be burned in flames of fire. The persecution proceeds with fierce intensity throughout Northern Africa and it spreads throughout the Empire.

Some Christians under pressure consent and give in. They betray their faith as well as their Lord. In later years, when Christianity becomes the established religion of the Empire the fate of these who betrayed the church becomes a great source of controversy.

Many other Christians withstand their ground and swear their allegiance to Jesus as Lord even though the Emperor claims to be the only who can be worshipped and the power of the Roman Empire is absolute.

In this time of persecution, Thelica is one of many Christians captured in a raid on a house where church services are held. First he is severely tortured and then he is brought before a judge who urges him saying, “You are to obey the decrees of the emperors and the caeasers.”

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There’s a group of scientists sitting around a table. They’re trying to decide which one of them is going to go tell God they don’t need him anymore. One brave soul volunteers to do the dirty job. He finds God and says, “God, you know, a bunch of us have been thinking and I’ve come to tell you: We really don’t need you anymore. I mean, we’ve been coming up with great theories and ideas. We’ve cloned sheep. We’re on the verge of cloning humans. So as you can see, we really don’t need you.”

God nods his head understandingly and says “I see. Well, no hard feelings really. But before you go, how about a little contest?” The scientist says, “Sure. What kind of contest?” God replies, “A man-making contest.” Quite sure and full of himself the scientist says: “Sure! That’ll be no problem.” Bending down, he picks up a handful of dirt and says, “Okay, God, I’m ready!” God shakes his head and responds “No, no, no … You go get your own dirt.”

I bet for most of us here this morning affirming that God is the maker of heaven and earth is a bit of a no brainer. As people of faith, we look at the world around us. We see its wonder, its beauty, its majesty. Most of us can’t help but think and attribute it to the work of the Maker. And as people of faith most of us would go even further, saying God didn’t just create the world and then leave it to its own devices. God didn’t just wind things up, walk away, and let the clock go on ticking on its own.

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The Christian faith is full of lots of tensions.

In a recent issue of the Christian Century was an article called “Marked: Christians and Tattoos.” Did you know that tattoos are really quite popular with a younger generation of Christians?

On the front cover was a picture of a man’s arm with the Latin words “Simul iustus et peccator” emblazoned across it. That phrase comes from the reformer Martin Luther. It means simultaneously a saint and a sinner. Luther understood that even as Christians we have the capacity to do both great and terrible things.

Another tension is between faith and works. The mantra of the reformation was saved by faith alone. At the same time the book of James reminds us that faith without works is dead. I would never want to say that we are saved by works, but there is an important place for works in our life of faith.

Yet another tension is that God is unreachable and transcendent, so far over and beyond us that we can never reach him. And at the same time God is immanent or so present and very close to us that he is in everything that surrounds us.

Now, as humans we tend towards resolving these tensions by stressing the one side we prefer over the other side we don’t care for. We tend to minimize, discount, or ignore what the Bible might have to say about the other side of the coin.

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