the church geek

This sermon was preached on Oct 12, 2008. The sermon text was Matthew 22:1-14

I don’t know about you, but I’ve really been enjoying the comic strip Baby Blue this past week.

In a panel from early this week, Zoe and Hammie, asked their mom if she would come outside and play with them. The kids were so surprised when she said yes, that Hammie asked his sister, “Do you think she remembers how?”

Reflecting on Hammie’s question, the Mom said to herself, “Maybe I should cut back on the housework for a while.”

I think that’s a pretty good commentary on how many of us live our lives.

After all, deep down we know that one of the most important things is spending good quality time with our kids. We know we should take time out to play with them and work on building quality relationships. We want them to know we are always there for them and that we will be present to them when they need us.

We all know that. And yet, like Wanda in Baby Blues, we get caught up in the busy-ness of life. We let other things demand our time and attention. We allow our jobs, all those household tasks and chores, and the things we think we need to get done get in the way of what’s really important.

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This sermon was preached on Oct 5, 2008. The sermon text was Exodus 16:1-15

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of worrying over the past several weeks. And, I am embarrassed to say that one of the biggest causes of concern for me has been baseball…

My team, the Milwaukee Brewers, took me on quite a roller coaster ride over the last couple of weeks of the season. I think I lost most of the rest of what remains of my hair, last week as the Brewers fought for their first playoff spot since 1982.

The post-season hasn’t helped much. With two horrible outings in Philadelphia under their belt, the brew crew finally won a game last night to keep their chances alive and to force a Game #4. (which begins at 12:05 today so you can count on a short sermon…)

Now I want you to be honest, how many of you had a late night last night watching your Cubs? Well, I know that what I’ve gone through is nothing compared to what you Cub fans have been through this last week.

This year, they looked really good, like nothing was gonna get in their way. But now one of their best seasons ever has totally gone up in flames, in what was a total collapse in the post-season.

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This sermon was preached on Sept 28, 2008. The text was Matthew 21: 23-32

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus told lots of different stories and parables. As a kid who grew up in the church, the parable from today’s text is probably the one that stuck in my mind the most.

Back then, I may have heard the story something like this:

A dad with two sons went to the one of them and said, “Would you please go out and mow the lawn today?” The son responded, “Yeah right, dad, I ain’t got time to do that today, my friends and I are planning to go out later.”

Later in the day, the son changed his mind and went out and mowed the lawn.

The dad went to his other son and said the same thing. The son responded, “Sure Dad, I’ll go out and mow the lawn, as soon as I get done playing this game of Grand Theft Auto.”

The day came and went but he never went out to mow the lawn.

Well, come to think of it, we didn’t have a PS2 or 3 back then. So it was probably Asteroids or PacMan, on an old Atari set, that was distraction. But you get the point.

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Here are a few links for your enjoyment:

1.) Where is your trust?

2.) What would you preach if the economy were to truly collapse?

3.) Some thoughts on becoming missional.

4.) I’ve marked these to listen to later, but I like the idea: Testimonies on “How I can be a part of what God is doing.”

5.) Here is your photo for the week.

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This sermon was preached on September 21st, 2008. The sermon text was Matt. 20:1-16.

So far, this season of presidential campaigning has been quite fascinating to watch. And I’m willing to bet that its only going to get more interesting as things get revved up for election day in early November.

There has been a lot of intrigue, especially given the roles of two totally and completely different female political candidates.

First we saw Hillary Clinton lose her bid to become the first ever female nominee for President. And now, little known, Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been thrust into the national spotlight as McCain’s nominee for Vice President.

These two female candidates have focused the spotlight on the role that sexism can still play in our country. In her first speech to America following her selection, Palin urged voters to help her shatter the glass ceiling that Hillary cracked.

Since Palin’s selection, Obama has increasingly talked about equality between the sexes as well. In a speech given in Ohio, he said when he is president, he will fight to support equal pay for equal work.

The National Organization for Women, has been on this crusade for a long time. According to their figures, full-time, year-round female workers are paid on average about 77% of what men are paid. For African American women the figure is 71% and for Latinas it’s 58%.

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Recently I wrote a review of the book Countdown to Sunday by Chris Erdman. He provides a helpful exegetical process for pastors ‘on the run’ which I have employed to some effect over the past three weeks.

Honestly his book is the most helpful thing I’ve come across in a long time about the task of preaching. I was particularly ‘convicted’ by the following, which comes from his chapter called Illustration:

I began to realize that people loved the stories I told, the illustrations that populated my well-crafted sermons, but showed little evidence they were growing in their love for the Story. They were increasingly dependent on my words, but not on the Word.

As I read this, I find that it’s somewhat akin to what we tend to do with our children; you know the bribe that gets them to listen to what we have to say or to do what we want them to do. For instance you might give them a piece of candy if they memorize a bible verse or you give them a treat if they behave during the children’s sermon.

Such bribes communicate that there is little value in what you want them to do. The value is in the treat they get. Sermon illustrations are a little bit like that candy bribe. They cheapen the value of the biblical text. The better the illustration, the less the value is on the actual text.

Erdman goes on to argue that the best sermon illustration is a congregation that begins to live out the Story; valuing the Word for what it is and seeking to emulate the sort of church the Word calls it to be.

For my part, it is so easy to get caught in the trap of searching for just the right sermon illustration and letting that search guide the sermon preparation. I have often approached the exegetical process the wrong way…looking for an illustration to illuminate the text rather than letting the text guide me into a reflection about how it calls us as the church to illustrate, or live it out.

Sometimes you can’t help but approach things that way, especially if you think you are too busy to do good exegetical work or if you make it a habit to read preaching journals and homiletical guides on the text before you actually sit down to pray and ask, “What does this Word have to say to us today?”

Over the past three weeks I have given up searching for sermon illustrations. I have not plucked a story from a source and said, “I think this might fit here.” Instead I have simply tried to attend to the text and to how other Biblical texts might inform the primary text. I have asked the question, “How are we to live as a result of this text?” If an illustration or two comes to mind, that gives folks an entry point into the text, then great. If not, I simply preach what I have.

And I think, or at least feel, that my preaching the last three weeks has been much better off for it. Now we’ll see if the congregation eventually catches on and comes to grow in their love for the Story.

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This sermon was preached on September 7, 2008. The text was Matthew 18:15-22

The past two weeks have been kind of hard for me. I felt an awful lot like a rubbernecker driving past an accident on the highway. I know I wasn’t supposed to slow down to look, but I did it anyway. I just couldn’t help it.

Now, in case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, the traffic accident I have in mind was the television coverage of the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions.

No matter which party you might be for or against, it seems to me that neither side can stake much claim to any moral high ground. Especially when you consider the ways they have behaved toward each other over the past two weeks.

Come to think of it, if I’m really honest with myself I can’t claim much moral high ground either. My thoughts have been less than pure towards the party and ticket I hope doesn’t find its way to the White House.

What’s particularly disturbing to me is just how polarized we are as a nation and how mean we are towards one another.

Now, maybe it’s always been that way. I don’t know. But it seems like the right and left are throwing jabs at one another. Calling each other names. Questioning each other’s motives, their character, and their ability to lead.

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This sermon was preached on August 31, 2008. The text was Matthew 16:21-27.

In the scripture passage we read last week, Jesus and his disciples were in the city of Ceaserea Phillip, a place of strategic significance to the Roman Empire and its interests in the land of Palestine. The city also had held connections to pagan mythology and to the worship of the Canaanite fertility god, Baal.

In that place Jesus asked his disciples. “Who do you say that I am?” It was Peter of all the disciples who dared to step up and say to Jesus “You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.”

It was a daring thing for Peter to say. Within the shadow of the Roman Empire Peter said that Jesus was King and Caesar was not. And, in that place of pagan worship, Peter said that Jesus was Son of the Living God, worthy of worship in contrast to the pagan gods surrounding them.

This proclamation of faith brought praise from Jesus. Listen to what Jesus tells Peter,

Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

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This sermon was preached on August 24, 2008. The text was Matthew 16:13-20.

If you ever take a trip to New York City, somewhere on the street, you might run into Rev. Billy and his “Church of Stop Shopping.” Rev. Billy and his troupe are ministers of a gospel of love and anti-consumerism. They preach a radical message about what it means to be a neighbor in a global economy.

The “Rev Billy” was born in 1996 when Bill Talen – a playwright, performer, and producer - moved from San Francisco to New York City and began his street-corner show, preaching right in front of the new Disney Store located on Times Square.

The Rev Billy, acts and speaks like the worst of all Tele-evangelists. In fact, he’s even got the big poofy, slicked backed hair do…proof again of why I could never become a TV preacher.

The Rev. Billy takes his message right to the center of his battle against materialism. In his first performance he stood right in front of the Disney store denouncing the various commercial excesses promoted by the chain-store.

The Rev. Billy didn’t stop there. He began to take his revival show right into the middle of the Disney Store. Eventually he did same in other stores, entering a local Starbucks, with a choir of supporters, who helped him stage “shopping interventions” and perform an “exorcism” on the cash register.

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I have written here in the past about how over the first couple years of my ministry I switched from primarily being a lectionary preacher to being a sermon series preacher. I made the switch primarily because I was feeling as if there was more energy and creativity when I preached a sermon series as opposed to preaching from the lectionary.

That was true for quite some time, but now I think that perhaps I am swinging in the other direction.

I’ve been finding that with the sermon series, I don’t stick very close to the text. In fact the text becomes somewhat ancillary to the sermon. With the types of topical sermon series I’ve done as of late, the starting point for the sermon is often “What do I want to say this Sunday?” not “What does the text have to say to us this Sunday?”

Perhaps I’m just hungry for some good scripture study and honest wrestling with the text. I realize that there are lots of other ways I could do that, like a sermon series on a particular book, or preaching on a set of stories based on a particular character in the bible, but for now I think I’ll go back to the lectionary and see how that sits with me for a while.

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This is the fifth sermon in a six part sermon series on discipleship. I preached this on July 20th. The text was Acts 13: 1-5

People always seem a little bit surprised when they get in our car and discover that we have not just one but several Johnny Cash CDs. They are even more surprised when they find out that Johnny is one of my all time favorite musical artists.

Now some of you here might be able to think back to Johnny’s early stuff. Classics like Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line, and Men in Black. While that old stuff is great, where Johnny really excels is in the recordings he made in the last couple of years of his life.

I’m not kidding when I say that these are some of the best albums of any recording artist out there. In his old age, Johnny found a way of connecting to the reality of life, belting out some of the most emotional and spiritual recordings out there.

One of my favorite songs is on Johnny’s album called American III. It’s called Nobody and instead of trying to sing it to and doing a really bad impression of Johnny Cash, I’m gonna play a bit of it here for you: (Click here for the song.)

Lori will tell you that I always break a smile and sing along, every time I hear that one line:

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This is the fourth sermon in my six part sermon series on discipleship. I preached this on July 13th. The text was 2 Timothy 1: 1-7; 2: 1-7

I started my sermon by showing this video:

I love that video. The expression on that kid’s face at the end is priceless.

Now, I bet that most of you don’t really come to church thinking that it’s really all about “you” Or at least I hope most of you don’t do that….

But in a very real way, your average run of the mill church is really just a “meChurch.” If you take a good hard look at them, you’ll begin to notice that just about everything these churches do is focused solely on it’s members.

Their programs, worship services, and ministries are all designed to keep their members happy. But, that’s not really the way it’s supposed to be.

The famous preacher, Tony Campollo, tells the story of a visitor who tours a factory. The factory is humming along. There’s a lot of activity and all the workers are very busy. It looks like things are really efficient and the work is getting done.

The visitor is greatly impressed, but once the tour is over, the visitor says to his tour guide, “Hey, wait a minute, you never showed me the shipping department.”

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This is the second sermon in a six part sermon series on discipleship questions. The text was: Ephesians 3: 7-21. This sermon was preached on June 8th.

Since coming on the stage in the mid-1960’s as the boy-struck, barefoot surfer girl in the TV series called Gidget, Sally Field, has been one of America’s favorite and most endearing actresses.

Over the years, Field won two academy awards, the first one in 1979 which she won for her work as a union organizer in the movie Norma Rae. The second one came in 1985 for her starring role in the film, Places of the Heart.

You might remember her acceptance speech for that second Academy award. It’s one of the most memorable of all time. On stage to accept the award she said:

I haven’t had an orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!

Over the years the last phrase of that speech has taken on a life of its own. In its misquoted form, “You like me, you really like me!” has become the subject of comedy skits. Even, Sally Field poked fun at herself in a commercial with that memorable line.

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This the first sermon is a six part sermon series on discipleship questions. The text for this sermon was: Matthew 7: 21-29. I’m a little slow in posting it, this was preached on June 1st.

As you probably know by now, I like to read the comic strips in the Gazette. One that has quickly become my favorite is called Frazz. It follows the story of a fitness freak who is a twenty-something janitor at a local elementary school.

This week one of the young students at the school was searching for a four leaf clover, hoping to find a little luck. Well, on Friday, she finally found her lucky four leaf clover. So, she decided to show it to Mrs. Olsen, her teacher who is a bit of a curmudgeon.

As you might expect, Mrs. Olsen responds to the student’s excitement and enthusiasm over her discovery by dousing water on it. Mrs. Olsen says, “Bah, I don’t believe in luck. I believe in work.”

In the next frame, the young student and Frazz are talking about this incident and the student says to Frazz, “Apparently buying 30 lotto tickets a week is “work.”

I love it. That young student has connected the dots between what her teacher says she believes and what her teacher actually does.

She knows that Mrs. Olsen buys lottery tickets, perhaps in the hopes of being freed from her job. And while Mrs. Olsen says she believes in work, by her behavior the student can see that she really believes or hopes in luck.

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This is the third sermon in a series of 6 questions on discipleship. The texts for this sermon were: Acts 4: 32-37; 9: 26-30; 11: 19-26.

As I was preparing my sermon this week, I discovered that June 28th marked the beginning of the “Year of Saint Paul.”

Starting this last week, the Roman Catholic Church is taking an entire year to celebrate one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament. They chose this year of all years because it’s as close as anyone can guess to the 2000th anniversary of Paul’s Birthday.

The Apostle Paul probably deserves an entire year of celebration, because when it comes to prominent figures in the New Testament, he is usually the first one who comes to mind. After all, many of the great books of the New Testament, like Romans and Galatians, were written by him. He also plays a big part of the story in the book of Acts.

In fact, a few years ago, I read an article in some magazine like Time or Newsweek that featured a list of history’s most influential people. I remember the article, because I was surprised to see that the Apostle Paul made that list while Jesus Christ did not.

The article defended its choice of Paul over Jesus saying that without Paul’s influence, the church as we know it would probably not exist today. Without the Apostle Paul, its quite possible that no one today would even know who Jesus Christ was.

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