Deadly Sins Sermon Series, 1 out of 7 — 10/16/2010 Text: selections from Jonah In the late nineties at the University of Virginia, we had a hellfire preacher who would come out every fall to verbally abuse people in the amphitheater. He sent all of us to hell, Christians and non-Christians alike. He would always wear a suit that was very wrinkled and sometimes soaking wet. He usually drew quite a crowd. The frat-boys loved him and did their best... Read more
Sermon for 10/9/2010 Text: Jeremiah 29:4-14 Exile. It’s a hard concept to get my head around. I’ve never been captured and taken somewhere I didn’t want to go. The only reason I’ve ever moved anywhere in my adult life is for a job. I imagine that most of you are the same way. So what can Jeremiah’s letter to exiles say to people who have never been exiled by anything other than the job market? And what does this have... Read more
Sermon for 9/25/2010 Text: Romans 3:21-31 My friend Rosa has seven children. Their family lives together in a small one-story house several blocks from the church where I used to serve in Durham, NC. When Rosa’s sister moved back to Durham from Colorado two years ago, she and her family spent several months in Rosa’s house. In all, there were 15 people living in about 1500 square feet of space. Most of the kids slept on the floor; others shared... Read more
Sermon for 9/18/2010 Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-7 So I decided to do my first multimedia sermon. The reason why is that the show Survivor illustrates very well how to live the opposite way from how we’re called to live in the body of Christ. In Survivor, the goal is to vote everybody else off the island so that you can win the million dollar prize for yourself. In the body of Christ, the goal is to get as many people... Read more
Sermon for 9/11/2010 Texts: Luke 24:13-35; Revelation 21:1-7 Nine years ago, on September 11th, 2001, I was working at a small NGO called the Nicaragua Network just off Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, about 8 blocks from the Capitol. When I arrived at work that morning around 9 am, everyone was gathered quietly around the television. I remember watching the towers fall on TV and hearing about the Pentagon. Then I bolted out to Pennsylvania Avenue because I needed to make sure... Read more
Sermon for 8/25/2010 Text: Luke 14:1, 7-11 Raise your hand if you like riding shotgun. When you’re out riding around with a bunch of teenagers, “Shotgun!” is the first thing they shout out when walking out of a restaurant or ice-cream parlor. Once somebody has called shotgun, the next thing that gets yelled is “Window seat!” The seat of dishonor is the middle seat. We had a name for it when I was a teenager that I can’t say in... Read more
Sermon for 8/11/2010 Texts: Matthew 18:21-35; Isaiah 1:10-20 My wife Cheryl and I have a conversation that occurs about once a year. It happens whenever I open one of those thank you cards from the K-LOVE Christian radio network for a donation that I didn’t know about. “Honey,I thought I decided last year that we weren’t going to give any more money to those people. The lyrics are shallow, the theology is wrong, every song has the same three chords,... Read more
Sermon for 8/11/2010 Texts: Matthew 18:21-35; Isaiah 1:10-20 My wife Cheryl and I have a conversation that occurs about once a year. It happens whenever I open one of those thank you cards from the K-LOVE Christian radio network for a donation that I didn’t know about. “Honey,I thought I decided last year that we weren’t going to give any more money to those people. The lyrics are shallow, the theology is wrong, every song has the same three chords,... Read more
Sermon for 7/17/2010 Text: Luke 10:38-42 Martha! Martha! It sounds kind of like “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” How many of you are old enough to have seen that famous episode of the Brady Brunch? Jan Brady is tired of people praising her perfect older sister Marcia so finally she just explodes. I didn’t see the original; I saw the parody on Saturday Night Live in the early nineties. In the story of Mary and Martha, we have another case of sibling... Read more
Sermon for 7/24/2010 Texts: Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:6-19 To say that Abraham was bold would be an understatement. How did he have the guts to nickel and dime God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah? But what’s even more remarkable is the fact that Abraham is not pleading God’s mercy for himself, his family, or even his political allies. This was Sodom and Gomorrah. For those of you who don’t know the story, two angels visited Abraham’s nephew Lot... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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