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 28, 2021.

When God Writes a Lovesong
Mark 15:1-47
(Other Readings Appointed: Zechariah 9:9-12; Philippians 2:5-11)

In my college days, some of my friends thought me “a bit strange” when I answered the question, “What is your favorite season of the Church Year?”, I gave the answer, “Lent”.  It does seem strange, for who wouldn’t like, say, Christmas or Easter more?  But I do love Lent, perhaps partially because of childhood memories I have of going to Midweek Lenten Services, hearing sermons on Jesus and His passion, and the richness that is found in the prayerful services of Holy Week.

Yet there is another reason that I love Lent—the music and the hymns of the season.  Now sure, there is much to be said for the carols of Advent and Christmas and the joyful hymns of Easter.  But Lent is just filled with hymns of 100 Proof Gospel—texts that lay you and your sin bear and then throw you into the loving arms of the Savior who joyously announces that because of Him and His passion, death, and resurrection we are forgiven forever before God.

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Sermon for Lent 5

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 21, 2021.

A Secret Ambition
Mark 10:32-45
(Other Readings Appointed: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:1-10)

Ambition.  In some ways this word has almost come to express a negative quality that can be seen in a person.  Yet, to do so seems a bit unfair because, when one stops to think about it, everyone has ambition.  Everyone wants to be someone or something that they see themselves becoming, even if it doesn’t seem to be that “lofty” of a goal.

So, ambition can be a good thing.  Yet, what has probably made ambition into a negative quality is the fact that people get a little resentful about people who have what we call “blind ambition”.  This is certainly not a positive quality to have, especially as it describes people who are willing to do or say or think just about anything just to “get ahead” and promote themselves and their own goals, often at the expense of others.  Certainly, this is not something we would want to see praised and shown as the example of how to get ahead in life.  And yet, this is precisely the way that “the world works” today.

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Sermon for Lent 4

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 14, 2021.

The Sign of Love
Readings Appointed
(Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21)

At one time or another in our lives as either children or parents have we ever heard or said that memorable phrase, “This hurts me more than it does you”?  When we hear these words spoken, we know why they are being spoken.  However, the one question that always lingers in our minds when we hear it is, Is this statement really true?  We know that no one ever thinks that receiving punishment for something is a pleasant event.  But, to say that the giver of the punishment somehow is hurting more than the one receiving the punishment never seems to ring true.  Punishment hurts, and nothing, not even words, can change that fact.

Yet, when time moves on a bit, we begin to realize something about the punishment that we received.  The hurt that we felt is gone.  Yet, we find that the love that we thought might have gone from our parents was still there.  The reason they were hurting was because in their love for us they did not want us to hurt.  But, in the same love for us, they still punished us because the wrong things we may have done made it necessary.  To borrow a phrase from a seminary professor, punishment is better named “corrective love.”

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Sermon for Lent 3

A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Third Sunday in Lent, March 7, 2021

God First
Exodus 20:1-17 and John 2:13-22
(Other Reading Appointed: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

In the wild and wonderful world that is the Internet, one can find, or even create, so many great and interesting memes which one can use on one’s social media accounts to express the various deep thoughts that pass through one’s mind which one wants to share with one’s digital friends. One particular meme that I had seen occasionally came to mind as I read through today’s Gospel.  It uses a picture showing the event we heard today of Jesus cleansing the Temple.  And someone, in their wisdom, decided to impart with it this advice: “If anyone ever asks you, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’, remind them that flipping over tables and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.”

Beyond the humorous take on this event in our Lord’s life and its application to the lives of those who follow Christ in our day, there is here a point made which actually misses the point of what Jesus was actually doing that day in the Temple.  Many times in hearing and reflecting on this text, what is often taken away from it is the fury of righteous indignation which Jesus displayed as He turned over the tables of the money changers and released the animals being sold for sacrifices—all being done by people who, even with good and helpful intentions, were still there to do what business people do: make a profit.  Jesus was right in what He did, reminding the people of what the Temple was really there for; not as a marketplace, but as a house of prayer set apart for the worship of God.

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