Romans 1:16-17 – “Yes, We Can!” – May 19, 2019

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It’s hard to know where to begin with Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, better known as Romans. On one hand, it is his most sophisticated articulation of his theology, written late in his ministry after refining his message with years of active missionary work. It also probably influenced the Protestant Reformation more than any other single book of the Bible with its emphasis on salvation by faith alone.

On the other hand, Romans can be a daunting read as Paul takes a deep dive into human sinfulness and the nuances of faith with somewhat esoteric arguments based on assumptions we might not have. Further, anyone who has been a victim of anti-gay teaching and preaching in the church may know that just a bit further on in this same first chapter of Romans, we find a passage that has been and is still used repeatedly to bludgeon, shame, and exclude LGBTQ people. And though we can accurately state that Paul did not have a modern understanding of sexual orientation or knowledge of same-gender romantic relationships that were based on love, it is also probably fair to say that even if he had that knowledge, he would have come to the same conclusions as he did. In fact, that particular passage from Romans 1 is one of the passages that led me in my own journey to conclude there are some things in the Bible that do not reflect God’s will for us today, but instead reflect the biases and prejudices of the flawed, sinful people God used to write the Bible. And though the line between the author’s prejudice and God’s will is not always clear, we as modern people of faith have the responsibility to try to figure out which is which.

Matthew 17:1-8 – “Transfiguration and Thin Places” – March 3, 2019

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There is an expression attributed to ancient Celtic culture that has become fairly popular in the spiritual/faith circles of our day. The expression is “thin places.” The saying goes that heaven and earth are always only three feet apart, but in thin places, they are even closer. Thin places are physical places or even moments in time when the veil between the material and spiritual is pulled away or becomes transparent. Thin places can be ancient holy sites or particularly moving experiences of nature, or profound events in life such as the birth of a child or the death of a loved one. In all such times and places, we might think that God is coming closer to us, or the barrier that seems to exists between the Heaven and Earth crumbles. But, I wonder if that is really what is happening in those thin places.

Sermon – “Bringing Our Present Into God’s Future” – January 28, 2019

In the first Back to Future movie Marty McFly uses a time machine created from a Delorean to travel from 1985 to 1955 which is before he was born and just before the time his parents met. But, somehow back in 1955 Marty interferes with his parents’ first meeting and therefore jeopardizes his own existence. Then he has to go through all kinds of adventures to get his parents to meet, fall in love, and thereby save himself from existential obliteration in the future which in the movie is the present and in the present which in the movie is the past. In the first sequel Bif, the villain goes back in time to give his younger self, a sports almanac that allows younger Bif to become incredibly wealthy betting on sports which causes the future to become dystopian since Bif is a total jerk. Now Marty has to go back in time to keep old Bif from giving young Bif the almanac and thereby saving the future.

Mark 1:14-20 – Fishing for people? Really? – January 25, 2015

The word “evangelism” comes from the Greek word “evangelion” which means “good news”. In our passage this morning the message of Jesus is summarized as “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” The Greek word translated as good news is “evangelion”. In older translations of the Bible that same word is translated as “gospel”. “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the gospel” Evangelion is also where we get the word “evangelical” referring to a type of Christianity that emphasizes the importance of converting non-Christians to become Christians. There can be all kinds of evangelicals: evangelical Lutherans, evangelical Methodists, evangelical Catholics, evangelical Baptists and even evangelical Presbyterians. Anybody who thinks it is really important to convert people to Christianity is evangelical.

We can see in our passage this morning that this emphasis goes all the way back to the very early church that portrayed Jesus telling his followers “I will make you fish for people”. That is a pretty evangelical idea. Fishing for people. Going out and getting them and pulling them in.

Growing up on the East Coast of Florida, I spent a lot of time fishing. Mostly fishing from docks and bridges in the Banana River Lagoon which is a brackish inland water way between the mainland and the East Coast beaches.