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Love That Scales
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them…” Matthew 6:9 During a meeting last month, one of my friends quoted President Obama, “The biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit.” None of us disagreed or questioned him. After all, with every horrifying situation in the world how could anyone doubt what we need is more empathy? What is the first question asked of victims of disasters like hurricanes and fires, losing a child, or escaping a mass shooting in a school? “How did you feel?” The reporter is working hard to get to the human side of…
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Mark 11: The Triumphal Entry
This morning we are going to look at all four of the accounts of the Triumphal Entry and the three accounts of Jesus clearing the Temple. I say three because the Gospel of John does not include that in his account – only the Triumphal Entry. First, look at the way each one describes the way Jesus is met when he enters the city. In Mark and Matthew, the crowds of those who followed him go before him laying down their garments, palm leaves and even branches from trees. In Luke it is a little different in that it is a multitude of disciples – not just crowds. They are…
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Eat And Rejoice
Our church has several of the ATM-like machines for donations and offerings very discreetly placed in high traffic areas. There are no lighted signs flashing an update in giving like we have in Texas announcing the latest lottery payout. In fact, years ago when surveys revealed visitors and members alike were intimidated by taking collections during the service, many congregations eliminated the practice completely. It was just another instance of micro-aggression making it necessary to keep worship a safe space. While I don’t have up to date accounts for what percentage of the church’s giving comes through these kiosks, I do know there was a time when they were…
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Mark 8: Peter’s Confession
Peter’s declaration of Jesus as Messiah in Mark 8 is our lesson this morning but I want us to look at it from the perspective of Peter’s vision in Joppa in Acts 10. The revelation is similar because it forces Peter to change in spite of everything he has been taught up to this point. It forces him to question his deepest beliefs about God. It is not only a revelation but an earthquake. When President Obama renewed diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba he said, “the United States will not be imprisoned by the past.” As I remembered and thought about the lesson this morning, I realized there is…
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Herod’s Banquet in Mark 6
Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, hears about the miracles done by Jesus and his disciples. While he is the son of a great and greatly bad man, he is only a shadow of his father. The Scottish preacher Andrew MacLaren described him this way: “This Herod was a son of the grim old tiger who slew the infants of Bethlehem. He was a true cub of a bad litter, with his father’s ferocity, but without his force. He was sensual, cruel, and infirm of purpose.” That describes him perfectly. His father was one of the most powerful kings of the Roman Empire – called King of the…
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1 Peter 1:1-12
The purpose of trials is to produce genuine faith – not just testing. It is refining – to remove everything that looks like faith but isn’t. I was on the board of Christianity Today for eleven years and have read the board notes from the earliest years. It has always been an unrelenting process of solving problems and overcoming obstacles. Circulation challenges, finances, personnel, board issues. It is a history of constant trials – not relief from them. There is a purpose to trials. God accomplishes through trials what cannot be done through success or easy times. As you know, I like Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning.” Not because…
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Healing of the Paralytic in Mark 2
We are partial to short phrases that help us make decisions. “Do the right thing” is popular at the moment. Google coined, “Don’t do evil.” I grew up with, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” All of those sound good until you find yourself in a situation that is not resolved so easily. You’ve heard me say before that for a couple of reasons I have questions about the phrase, “What Would Jesus Do?” First, he had abilities to do things we do not. He could walk on water, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, raise the dead and, as in this passage, heal…
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Mark 1:1-20
As you know from last week, one of my favorite stories of redemption and late bloomers is that of Mark. Unlike John and Matthew he was not a disciple or an apostle. Unlike Luke, he was not a Gentile observer of the early Church and he did not travel, except briefly, with Paul. He was the young man who ran away naked from Gethsemane, deserted Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey, was mentored by Peter in Rome and then martyred in Egypt. Most scholars believe that the gospel was written from Rome where his main source was Peter and Mark was, in a sense, taking dictation. You get…
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The Babylonian Exile
We know there were three invasions of Israel over a period of two hundred years. The first was by the Assyrians who carried off the ten Northern tribes. We know very little of what happened to them. They just disappear from history. The second is Babylonia’s first invasion and defeat of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar carries off 10,000 of the upper class leadership of Jerusalem as well as the military commanders, the craftsmen, artists and educated – the best of the Jewish society. Among these are Ezekiel and Daniel. He left the poorest. It is those left behind to whom Jeremiah is speaking in Jerusalem and who eventually move to Egypt where…
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Jeremiah 42
One of the hallmarks and non-negotiables of American democracy is the orderly transition of power and when that is threatened it jeopardizes the foundations of our entire society. It is the same for any society and when a people cannot trust in their government to do that then there is chaos and violence. It is not only true now but it was true in the time of Jeremiah – even though Israel was far from a democracy. In most cases the power of the king passed from father to son until the nation was in its last days. That is where we are now. No longer is the throne passed…