Religion — Page 4

November 9, 2014 ~ All Talents-Today & Tomorrow, the Body of Christ from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on November 09, 2014.

1 Corinthians 12: 4-13, 27
and Luke 12:13-34
(Click above link for the Scripture texts upon which this sermon is based)

Editorial note: I’m working on correcting spacing issues. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Macklemore is a rapper.

And he’s either the greatest thing since sliced bread
or he’s a knockoff who gets too much credit.

Take your pick, but I like him.

Macklemore helped me this week, as I’ve tried to piece together
all of my thinking about with this text.

On the one hand, I’ve been sitting with this parable of the man seeking his inheritance
the one who comes to Jesus to have Jesus adjudicate a family squabble.
Not a crazy request, not if you’re in the Rabbinical tradition
and you know Moses and other religious leaders of Israel
settled this sort of thing all the time, or at least from time to time.

Teacher, Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.

Not really all that crazy a request: Apply the laws, the rules, and lets move on, Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t want anything to do with it.
“Friend, who set me as a judge or arbitrator over you?
Take Care! Be on guard against all kinds of greed.
One’s Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions….”

And then Jesus goes off on one of his parable tangents….
Rich man, a farmer, too much stuff
–Tears down already existing storage to build more…
prudent capital investment, so he can keep it all
–Rests comfortably, thinking all that stuff is going to give him security
even though this very night…
A classic Jesus parable.
Things stored up for ourselves; Things stored up for God.

So there was that.
Been with me all week, as I processed election results
and made my mortgage payment
and got groceries. All week.
Every time I got out my wallet or my checkbook.

Then on Friday my daughters and I went to a middle school play.

We drove to Liberty and saw our friend Simon
play the Dogcatcher and a servant
for their production of Annie, Jr.

It was great fun. Annie was played by a 6th grader who could sing in tune.
Sandy the dog wasn’t a dog, but a kid who crawled.
Sandy even had a line or two in a song. Made my daughters laugh and laugh.

It was great.
[Read more…]

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on September 14, 2014.

Romans 14:1-12
and Exodus 14:19-31
(Click above link for the Scripture texts upon which this sermon is based)

Ed. note: as mentioned in the sermon copy, the majority of this sermon is from a draft of Marci Glass‘s sermon “Speed of Trust,” for Southminster Presbyterian Church of Boise, preached on September 14, 2014. Grateful for Marci’s willingness to share her ideas with me and, in this instance, to allow me to adopt and adapt her words for my context. All good credit, of course, belongs to her.

Ancient Stories.

We’ve examined so many of them, it seems,

during this rather quick dash through Genesis and Exodus

that we began way back in June:

Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael,

framing our story as one of trust in God

even when we see bears all around us…

Then Isaac, being bound and then set free

and the promise of a family, a future…

The birth of the twins Esau and Jacob

and Jacob’s conniving, sneaky efforts

to secure both a birthright and a blessing…

Jacob and God wrestling at Penuel, where

Jacob is renamed Israel

the one who wrestles with God, and lives!

Jacob and his eleven boys,

including Joseph, sold to Egypt

master of the harvest, of dreams,

of redemption…

And now once in Egypt, this story of the forming

of not just a family but of a people, a nation

by the God who hears the cries

of the oppressed and alienated.

Maybe its fitting to conclude our focus

on these ancient stories right here,

with Moses and Aaron and the people

on the verge of the wilderness, their future before them

at the Red Sea.

Now, I had been reading and pondering this story all week

how Moses warned Pharaoh: let my people go

and he didn’t, and so God ratchets up the pressure

and in a divine tête-à-tête with the King of Egypt

God forces Pharaoh to send the Hebrew people away

and away they go, 600,000 of them, the menfolk at least

and many more women and children

and cattle and dogs and cats and all the rest

so many more than a million people and their stuff

middle of the night, they’re off.

And Pharaoh is stubborn. Man, is he stubborn.

Because even after ALL of the plagues, all the humiliation

he can’t let them go. He just can’t.

He’s going to make them pay, and so he goes after them

with all his chariots and his things of war.

And so we are here, in something of a final confrontation

since the Passover wasn’t enough. Apparently.

I was pondering this story

when my friend and fellow pastor Marci Glass

sent me her reflections on it

and I think she has just the right words for us today,

an important thing for us to think about

as we transition away from these stories:[i] [Read more…]

Sermon: All Talents–Today and Tomorrow, The Body of Christ

Sermon: Ancient Stories–Who Leads Us, Even Through Scary Places