Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015.  It is a part of Trinity’s Lenten Theme for 2015, “The Parables of Lent”

Receive Love
Luke 15:1-7
(Other Readings Appointed: Zechariah 9:9-12; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 15:1-47)

This Lent, both through our Parish Family Devotions and our Midweek Lenten Worship and Study, we have taken several of our Lord Jesus’ Parables as our traveling partners during our spiritual journey through this time of Lent.  And today, as we reach the climax of this Season with our entrance into the holiest week of the Christian Year, we continue to look at these stories which Jesus told to teach those who heard Him during the days of His public ministry so that they might come to know more about the coming kingdom of God—a kingdom which is revealed through the events of this Holy Week in Calvary’s cross and in Easter’s empty tomb.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep which we meditate on today in our celebration of this Sunday of the Passion is a part of the “Lost Stories” of Luke, chapter 15.  These are stories about the kingdom of God being all about “lost things”—lost sheep, lost coins, and lost sons.  In each of these Parables, Jesus stresses the great, strong, and powerful love of God for the lost and of their importance to Him.  And in many ways, these parables find their fulfillment in what our Lord Jesus accomplishes for us and for the whole world during this week we call Holy as He brings to fruition the words He spoke about Himself: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

As we remember the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus today and through this Holy Week, we see the great love of our God for the whole world displayed in all of its fullness.  It is a vivid and graphic display, filled with tears, sweat, and blood splashed all over the place.  Even for all of its gruesome gore and violence which make us want to turn and look away, we still cannot make ourselves not look at what is happening to Jesus in His Passion.  And why?  Because here, in the suffering and cross of Jesus, we behold the great beauty of God’s love for us.

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Sermon for Lent 5

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 22, 2015.

Are You Sure About This?
Mark 10:32-45
(Other Readings Appointed: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:1-10)

Even if you weren’t too sure about naming all twelve of Jesus’ Disciples, many who have read the Gospels can be pretty certain that they could at least name three: Peter, James, and John.  The reason for this is that these three names are often mentioned together at some of the momentous moments in Jesus’ ministry.  These three men can perhaps be seen as Jesus’ “inner circle”—His closest confidantes and advisors, and quite possibly, His support system when times got tough.

As we listened to today’s Gospel, we hear two of these three close followers of Jesus named.  Peter doesn’t play a part in this particular event, yet, if you had a sense of “de ja vu”, you probably had an idea that we’ve heard something like this before.  A few Sundays ago, we heard Jesus announce His Passion and declare what His work as the Messiah was to be fulfilled through.  At that moment, it was Peter who pulled Jesus aside, rebuked Him for saying such things, and it was Peter who ended up being rebuked because he just didn’t get the point about why it was that Jesus came and how all of these things had to be.

And now we come to today’s event.  Jesus again predicts His Passion to His Disciples for a third time.  He repeats these facts again to the Twelve to impress upon them the certainty that they will happen and to teach them all that this is what it means to be the Messiah and that it is through these things—rejection, cross, death, and finally resurrection—that the Messiah will be revealed to all.

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Sermon for Lent 4

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2015.

Snake Salvation
Numbers 21:4-9 & John 3:14-21
(Other Reading Appointed: Ephesians 2:1-10)

Some evenings at home, Kim and I will be flipping through the channel guide on our TV and come to the conclusion that, even with a couple hundred channels available, TV is full of absolutely nothing to watch.  Now, one does understand that even though one person might not find anything they are interested in, there are others who do.  And every so often, I have to admit that I get sucked into watching something that I may have generally not thought of watching, either because it was something about history (something I blame my dad for), or because it has some “religious theme”.

Such was the case as I stumbled upon a series on the National Geographic Channel titled “Snake Salvation”.  This program was a documentary of sorts following the lives and work of a couple of Pastors in Appalachian region of Kentucky and Tennessee.  In this series, Pastors Jamie Coots and Andrew Hamblin led small Pentecostal congregations and had the usual issue of keeping membership up and attracting people to their churches, as well as what might perhaps seem to us as the unusual issue of making sure that there were always enough snakes to handle during services.

Watching this program, I found myself torn between two thoughts.  On the one hand, I found myself respecting these men and their faith, practicing something that they believed the Scriptures declared as true, and willing to risk prison for breaking laws regarding the possession of poisonous snakes, and even risking their own lives through snakebite, something which happened to one of the Pastors twice, once surviving with the loss of a finger, and the second time losing his life after the taping of the documentary closed.

On the other hand, I was probably right with a lot of other people in wondering why anyone would do something so crazy and reckless, even if the Bible told them to do so.  I think that many of us are thankful that I’m not planning on breaking out any snakes or passing around strychnine to drink as was seen in the program.  Even if one might respect the convictions that their faith led them, one still has to wonder why someone would place their faith in something that could kill them.

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Sermon for Lent 3

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Third Sunday in Lent, March 8, 2015.

Suggestions or Commandments?
Exodus 20:1-17
(Other Readings Appointed: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 2:13-22)

How many people have tried to excuse actions or behaviors by quoting the often used phrase: “Rules were meant to be broken”?  Such a defense states that distain for rules that govern us justifies our doing whatever we please, however we please, and whenever we please.  With this as the case, rules cease to be rules, instead they become merely suggestions which we can choose to follow or disregard as we please.

Such is the case with the Word we have heard from the Lord today in our Old Testament Reading.  Standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, the people of Israel heard the voice of God thunder from the cloud which covered the mountaintop as God Himself spoke the words which generations to come would come to know as the Ten Commandments.  With these ten statements, the Lord laid out for His people His expectations of them, declaring to them the actions which would mark them out as those who are and live with Him as His covenant people.

These Commandments were God’s rules to His people—not only Israel, but His people of every time and place, including us today.  And as we hear the Lord’s “you shalls” and “you shall nots”, something inside of us chafes and wants to scream out against it all.  Perhaps that’s because of what many people think about rules—that someone is just trying to control us and keep us from doing that which we feel we would rather do.  Someone—in this case, God—makes the rules and expects us to follow them.  And our response to the rules is to throw a tantrum and shout: “You’re not the boss of me!”

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Sermon for Lent 2

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Second Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2015.

What Is On Your Mind?
Mark 8:27-38
(Other Readings Appointed: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 5:1-11)

There are times when we have conversations or discussions that we end up asking people to “speak their minds”.  Sometimes we are asking for someone’s opinion.  Other times we are probing to find out about what someone is thinking or feeling.  And still other times, we are just asking questions to make conversation, but aren’t really all that interested in the answer that someone would give us when we ask something like: “How are you doing?”

In all of these situations, I have often heard it said that if you are “crazy” enough to ask such questions of someone, then you need to be willing to listen to an answer that you might rather not hear.  The response you would hear might just come with news that you had rather not heard.  Or you might have heard of a request that was beyond your ability to help or do anything about.  Or you might not just want to hear someone’s soliticted opinion which, even though you asked for it, seems to be in conflict with what you have set your mind to already.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is with the Twelve in Caesarea Philippi and asks them that most famous of Scriptural questions: “Who do you say that I am?”  And Simon Peter gives the famous, and correct, answer: “You are the Christ”.  Jesus then confides this great confession of faith to the Twelve as a secret that they should tell no one about.  Which then raises the question of: Why do that?

The answer to that question is found in what Jesus does next.  After the Twelve, through Peter’s confession, say that they know Jesus’ “true identity”, Jesus goes on to declare to them what it means to be the Christ: “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And He said this plainly.”

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