Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all.”
In a quote that is complementary to Spurgeon’s quote, Billy Graham is credited with saying, “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it: you’d spoil it.”
This is the tension that Paul lived in – between the creation of the world, between our own creation at our birth, and the New creation that comes with a life in Christ, and the creation of a new heaven and new earth that is made real by the return of Christ in all his glory. For Paul this reality of Christ’s return was so real that he anticipated the coming of Christ in everyday life.
And again, it is this anticipation that Advent tries to instill in us by setting the stage with these texts. The stage is set so that we can understand – even just a little bit – how people in Jesus’ time were anticipating the arrival of the Christ, the Messiah.
But that doesn’t mean that Christ’s activity has come to an end. Instead, toward the tail end of the Season after Pentecost, we begin to hear these passages that speak about the end of days, and what needs to happen before the return of the King. These passages of scripture teach us about how we are to live our lives even during the tumult and torture at the end of the world as we know it.
“God is the God of the living, and not of the dead.”
St. Iranaeus said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and the life of humanity consists in beholding God.”
Part 1 of 2 What do you think of when you hear the word “sacred?” Does it make you think of temples, idols, revered objects of some kind? Or does it make you think of people? People you know, people you respect, people you love? Sacred Spaces The truth is, the word “sacred” can apply…
The parable is concerned with how we understand justification. Now, in theological terms, to be justified means to be “righteous in God’s eyes.” And, justification is the word we use to describe how we become righteous in God’s eyes. That is, the word justification is all about what God sees when God looks at us, and this word – justification – is interested in explaining what it takes for any of us to become righteous in God’s eyes. How do we get there? How do we end up looking good to God?
In the movie, Forrest Gump, some bullies are throwing rocks at Forrest as he’s talking to his friend Jenny, and so she tells Forrest to run. But there’s a problem, because Forrest wore braces to correct a problem with his spine. And so he stumbles off, trying desperately to run, even though the leg braces…
The first thing that popped into my head when I was preparing this sermon was a scene from the old classic Princess Bride. The hero of the story has been killed, and Fezzik the Giant and Inigo Montoya take him to Miracle Max, a man who sells miracles, and gives them a giant pill to…
As many of you know, this past week I was at a conference for clergy. The name of the conference is CREDO, which is Latin for “I believe.” It’s the root of the word “creed,” as in the Apostle’s Creed, or the Nicene Creed. The conference is intended to help clergy get the various aspects…
Just this week, the country experienced the murder of a young man, a public figure, on a university campus. He was shot by another young man. People were shocked. And people are angry. In June, a man dressed as a police officer killed a politician and her husband, and attempted to kill another politician and…