Recently in epiphany Category

And now Jesus talks about unconditional love. Do you have an enemy? You might not even know it. We're expected to love that person anyway. Wha-what?? 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

It seems like the further we get into the Sermon on the Mount, the more conditions Jesus puts on his people. But what is he really asking of them? 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Blessed can have many meanings, and the implication that "blessed" was similar to "wealthy" was not unintended, even in Jesus name. But Jesus turns it around, and the beatitudes are telling us that we are blessed when we walk in his ways.

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Following a God who died in public execution style, hanging from a cross, beaten and naked, is foolishness, no?  Not to the believer.

This is an unrehearsed homily, so there is no accompanying text!  

January 25, 2017 - Fourth Wednesday after Epiphany

"Foolishness of the Cross".  Text is from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

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The mystery of Christ not only declares that we are reconciled to God by the divine grace of God's son, Jesus Christ, but we are also reconciled to one another. 

Please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The delivered sermon is often considerably different than the sermon notes which are included for convenience below.  

Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley. 

January 3, 2016 - Epiphany Sunday 

"Revelation and Reconciliation".  Text is from Ephesians 3:1-12

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Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God. 

What bright morning star leads three foreign astrologers to the manger in which the newborn Christ lies? And what an amazing and odd story that we celebrate on the Epiphany; because these three men were not of the Jewish faith, no, in fact practitioners of acts that the devout Jew would find offensive, the divination of things to come by virtue of the skies.  So why include this story of the arrival of these three wise men from afar to bear witness to the newborn king? This is an account three pagan Gentiles bearing gifts to be witness to the one who is to come and lead all into glory and reconciliation with God. 

Greetings to you this day my sisters and brothers, saints and sinners, children of God. 

Faith story

12 step programs are a way of finding a way out of many kind of self-destructive behaviors, such as alcoholism, narcotics, gambling, and eating disorders.  The third step of any twelve step program reads as such: "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him."  Because Having a definition of God is a meaningful and important part of recovery from whatever behavior or addiction that seems to be troubling you.  

I've heard a little saying that relates to the third step that goes like this: "There are there frogs sitting and sunning themselves on a log in the middle of a flowing creek. The log seems to be starting to go faster and faster and faster, as the sound of tumbling water gets louder and louder.  The creek seems to disappear into thin air a little ways ahead of the log.  One of the frogs makes a decision to jump off the log before it finally tumbles over the waterfall.  The question is this: How many frogs tumble over the waterfall with the log?

It's kind of a trick question. The answer is three. Making a decision to jump off the log isn't good enough. How many of you can relate to this?  I can have a big plate of spaghetti and make a decision to put it aside when eaten half of it, and still wind up with an empty plate before I get up from eating. It's because making a decision isn't always good enough for us. 

I have a good friend of mine who I'll call Sam who has a decent job that he goes to each and every day. It pays a good salary and it enables him to afford his security gated $2,000 / month studio apartment in Emeryville.  But it's not a really great job. Sam is constantly under a lot of stress. It's a small office, and he isn't sure what kind of state his boss, the business owner, is going to be on a daily basis.  Sometimes his boss is easygoing, has projects in place for Sam to manage, and gives him all the resources he needs to manage them.  Sometimes his boss is aggravated, and yells at Sam, the receptionist, his other co-worker. Mistakes have been made and it's everyone's fault, no matter whose fault it is.