JESUS AND GTD

JESUS AND GTD

A Sermon for Passion Sunday, Year C

I. INTRODUCTION: Today is the day when we come face to face with one of our curious and horrendous human tendencies: Our ability to completely turn our back on those who care for us the most when they don't meet our expectations. Did you notice what happened in the readings today? In the span of one week the crowd in Jerusalem went from welcoming Jesus as a King to spitting on Him as a criminal. The whole crowd. In one week the disciples went from being willing to die for Jesus to being unwilling to admit they even knew Him.

I want you to notice that [PAUSE].

They expected Jesus to be one thing, and He turned out to be another. They expected Jesus to be the Warrior Messiah who was going to destroy the Roman Army, kill all the infidels, and set up God's Kingdom on Earth, where all nations would grovel before the Jews and pay tribute money. What they got was a Jesus who came to usher in a Kingdom of Love, where ALL people- Jew AND Gentile- would Love God above all and Love each other as themselves.

The crowd expected power, and they got peace. They expected victory, and they got humility. The expected hate, and they got Love [PAUSE]. So, they turned on him and got rid of him.

And, like pretty much every story in the Bible, the important thing is not just that it happened then. But it happens now too. Because that crowd was not just them, then. It is us now. The only major difference in how we turn our backs on Jesus is that while their rejection was hot-blooded and violent, our rejection is often cold and bland. We simply don't care: about Jesus then, or about God now. We have better things to do. And we only think about God when it suits us… When we NEED something!

Living in Romans 7 | Longing for Romans 8

I was a jerk the other day. I sinned against God and my neighbor. And I am under a lot of stress with ministry, seminary, family, lack of sleep, and a half dozen other things. So, when I was talking to a friend today, he said it sounded like I was not taking responsibility for what I did. Instead, I was blaming what I did on the stuff going on around me. And he was right. I was focusing way too much on what was going on around me, and not what was going on in me.

We all do stupid things when we get stressed to medicate ourselves so we don't have to think about the things that worry us. The Bible calls these stupid things sin. Recovery groups call it addiction. Family therapists call it dysfunction. And the doctor calls it sickness. I am not sure that any of these terms fully capture the reality of what is wrong with us, deep down inside, that causes us to make dumb decisions that hurt others and ourselves and our God.

Needle Pricks, Crocodile Tears, and Divine Providence

I think I learned something about God this morning.  At 9am it was time to take my daughter to the doctor for her 15 month checkup.  My wife is a teacher with a very structured daily schedule, and since I am a youth minister with a completely variable schedule, I usually get to take our daughter to the doctor.  I do not like going to the doctor.  I hate getting my blood drawn, and I hate shots. But I have found out that there is one thing I dislike more than getting a needle stuck into me.  It is getting a needle stuck into my daughter.

A REALIST View of Salvation

A REALIST View of Salvation

For the past 400 years, the debate in Protestant Soteriology (the study of salvation) has focused almost entirely on two alternatives: Calvinism and Arminianism. The outline of this debate has been centered around the five cardinal points of Calvinist Soteriology summed up in the acronym T.U.L.I.P. The debate has been basically an affirmation of the five points of the TULIP on one side, and a denial of these points on the other. For at least 400 years (or more, since essentially the same debate was going on in the Catholic Church long before the Reformation) no new information has been added, nor have any radically new perspectives been looked at (with the possible exception of Karl Barth). The debate has mainly centered around one side twisting the other side's "proof texts" to fit their own agendas. The basics of this debate are summed up below:

If God is so good, why is life so horrible?

If God is supposed to be so good, how come life is so horrible???

The world can be a scary, awful, painful, miserable ball of suffering sometimes. Horrible things happen for no rhyme or reason, leaving people, families, and even whole nations destroyed. Terrorists slam hijacked planes full of moms and dads and kids into office buildings while screaming "God is great"! Thousands more moms and dads and children and sisters and brothers die as those buildings collapse, along with hundreds of brave men and women who were trying to save them. They were just doing their job. They were trying to do good in the world. And their lives are snuffed out.

Young Patrick dies in a car crash on the way home for the holidays. He was not doing anything wrong, other than going a little over the speed limit. He had just gotten his life right with God, and now he is suddenly dead. Now, his parents and sister have been given a Christmas gift they will never be able to get out of their heads or their hearts. Did he deserve this? Did they?