September 5, 2021
Jesus puts his spit in the man’s eyes! (Mark 8:22-26)
What kind of God is this, one who gets down and dirty to heal? Precisely the God we need and the God we meet in Jesus. A reflection on dirty hands, vulnerability and healing.
Photo is from: http://www.danielhechtblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Mud-hands-fixed.jpg
August 29, 2021
It is easy to be angry with what happens in the world. But it is also easy to get sucked in, because there are people who profit from our anger: Anger, Inc. How then should a Christian respond to the brokenness and sin in our world? Pastor Rob looks at the letter of James, who presents us with another alternative to what Anger, Inc. is selling; namely, the way of Jesus Christ.
The image is from a Capital One page on anger.
August 1, 2021
Life is moving along. Crazy event happens. Everything changes. Eventually a new norm is reached. But what about that in between time? After the disruption but before the “new normal”? You know, the kind of time we are living in now?!
The Bible describes this kind of time as a time in the wilderness. As we consider times of wilderness in the Bible, there is much we can learn about how God is at work in our lives in times of wilderness.
The picture is called Manna in the Wildernesss by Sieger Köder. For more on manna, check out the sermon. For more on the artist, you can click here.
July 25, 2021
Before Jesus feeds the 5,000 (John 6:1-14), his disciples tell him that there is not enough. It is a rather silly scene, telling Jesus there is not enough. However, in our life as well, we often are forced to confess to Jesus: I am not enough.
What if this is how it is supposed to be though — that we are not enough? Pastor Rob unpacks the lie of self-sufficiency. Instead of seeking our own sufficiency, we rejoice that Christ is enough.
And instead of trying to be enough, we bring to the table what we have — our loaves and our fish. Christ does the multiplication work to produce an abundant harvest.
The picture is of loaves and fish made by the Senior Shepherds group at St. Paul.
Also, the second half of the sermon has slightly different sound. This had to due with a failure of batteries…they, alas, lacked enough juice.
July 18, 2021
The disciples report back to Jesus all the good that have done (Mark 6:30). This is a bit strange — what if coming to church was about declaring all the good we have done?
This doesn’t feel quite right, not simply because of modesty, but because we each acknowledge that we are like sheep without a shepherd, in need of Christ’s compassion (Mark 6:34)
A reflection on how we are both saints and sinners, capable of good works but also in need of God’s unfailing grace.
Note: The sermon includes two separate readings from Mark’s Gospel, typically excluded from the sermon audio files. But they are necessary to make sense of the message.
The intended Gospel reading for today is gruesome: The beheading of John during King Herod’s birthday feast. Pastor Rob contrasts this with the feeding of the 5,000. In the end, both stories are needed to reveal Mark’s point: the true power in this world is not with kings; the true power is God’s love that overcomes the human heart.
The picture is from: https://www.thebostonpilot.com/opinion/article.asp?ID=183135, ultimately from Wikipedia Commons. I would love to know who painted this.
July 4, 2021
Unfortunately, God does not work through magic fairies. If this were the case, we would be absolved of moral responsibility. Instead, God has called us into relationships of mutual cooperation and interdependence. Reflecting on Jesus visit to his hometown and sending of the disciples in Mark 6, Pastor Rob reflects on the various interdependent relationships: Us and God; Us and each other; Us and the stranger.
Pastor Rob closes with a reflection on how we might be blessed as a nation to consider July 4 Interdependence Day, not Independence Day.
