Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I was reading the Lectionary passages for this week (Lent 5B). The Gospel reading is John 12:20-33. Jesus is approached by some Greek seekers. Jesus speaks of his impending death, according the writer/editor. But the theme that develops in that conversation led me to the thought of the death in the pericope. A glorious death is something that we don't talk about as having happened to real people. We hear it in poetry. We read of it in literature. We watch it in movies. When we confront death in the lives of human beings, flesh and blood we may know or who are known by those we know, we don't speak of death as glorious. It can be tragic or sudden. We may feel that it was expected or understandable. It can be peaceful or horrible. But we never talk about a glorious death for people. Even people of faith experience a death that is less that glorified. John 12:24: "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies..." John 12:32: "when I am lifted up from the...

I am sitting here working through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. It is the foundation for my sermon Sunday. I am cruising along doing some work in Greek (yes, I still have a little functionality in the language). I am working down through some alternate translations to squeak out subtle meaning that is lost in the rote recitation we sometimes fall into. There is some interesting things for study and preaching. The one thing that is stopping me to write this is one little word: epiousios. The familiar phrase is "give us this day our daily bread". Every word in that phrase is common and easily understood except for epiousios - daily. All my life I have visualized and understood this phrase to mean that God is providential to the level of taking care of our daily needs. And it is a refreshing thought to know that our creating God is also compassionate toward our insignificant needs of daily providing. That is the kind of God we have. The word, though, is strange. It app...

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to participate in a meditation on the opening verses of the Gospel According to John. The lectio divina is a Christian meditative practice that is quite ancient. The process of meditation involves a focus on a portion of Scripture. The invitation to focus on the 4th Gospel was timely: I was beginning a sermon series on that book that next Sunday. The preparation for the series had already taken me over the opening verses. And the verses are so familiar, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God," "the Word took flesh and tabernacled among us...". As I confessed in the opening sermon of that series, I am sometimes guilty of skimming over the familiar. But the invitation to meditate on those so familiar words, to slow down and truly let them soak into my mind, heart, and spirit, brought me to a moment where a clear thought floated to the surface. John 1:3 - All things came into being through him...

Here is the sermon outline for September 28th, 2014 sermon. Family Religion: Identifying the Head Ephesians 3:14-19; 5:21-29 Household Religion If our faith leads us to believe that we are part of God’s family as the church, then our families should reflect our faith Our families should seek to preserve unity among its members through working together toward a single purpose, having attitudes that result in peace , tending to one another with our words The next part of Paul’s “family rules” speaks to households Ephesians 5:21-24 & 33b speak to wives in relation to their husbands Ephesians 5:25-33a speak to husbands in relation to their wives Ephesians 6:1-3 speak to children in relation to their parents Ephesians 6:4 speak to fathers in relation to their children Ephesians 6:5-8 speak to servants/slaves in relation to their master Ephesians 6:9 speak to masters in relation to their servants/slaves Paul is explicitly speaking to the rules of househ...

The Bible has been used to justify or condemn many argued point. And rightly so. When believers are confronted with a situation that the revealed word of God has spoken to, there is a need to speak boldly to that issue. Sometimes, though, we encounter a situation or an issue that isn't clearly justifiable or condemned. Alcohol and drinking alcohol seems to be one such issue. Before I attempt to lay out a Biblical argument regarding alcohol, I want to deal with some myths that I have heard related to the subject. Myth #1. Water wasn't healthy enough to drink so wine was drunk regularly. Wine was a common drink at meals and there was a thriving wine industry in Israel. But you also have to taken into account that wells and cisterns were common for water. There are many accounts of wells in the Bible itself. Isaac's wife was selected when she drew up water to give someone a drink. Jesus even talks to a woman at a well about drinking the water there. Also keep in min...

I. Construction of the 7 letters A. Command: write “to the angelos …” 1. Pronounced angelos; means messenger 2. Could represent a heavenly counterpart to the church – Hebrews 8:4-5 3. Could represent a human intermediary a) A messenger who would bring messages to the church b) The bishop of the church – episkopos – 1 Timothy 3:1-7 4. Could represent a prevailing spirit within the church 5. Could represent a guardian angel B. Christ’s description – “the one who…” 1. Each description is directly linked to Jesus Christ 2. Each description is linked to an element of the description in the introduction 3. Each introduction is directly related to the current state of the church being addressed 4. “thus sa...