Sermon Blog

Truth.  When I hear the word “truth,” the first thing that comes to mind is the movie A Few Good Men .  It’s the middle of the courtroom scene and the attorney Lt. Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, is facing off against Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson.   Lt. Kaffee is charged with defending two Marines accused of murdering another Marine in a beat-down. Lt. Kaffee is challenging that the men were just following the orders handed down from Colonel Jessup.  Kaffee accuses the colonel of ordering a “Code Red,” a command that has soldiers beat a fellow soldier, either to get him to step up his trying or to run him out.  In the court room scene, Kaffee is just grilling Jessup.  In a heated exchange, Kaffee says, “I just want the truth.”  Jessup responds, “You can’t handle the truth.”    This exchange brings to mind another court scene.  In that room, two men are facing off alone.   In this exchange the first gentleman...

We know who we are fighting, don’t we?  It is Hillary Clinton, or is it Donald Trump?  It is the LGBT Community, or is it those who oppose same-sex marriage?  It is Islam, or is it those who disparage other faiths?  It is the NRA, or is it the gun-control activists?  It is the illegal immigrants living among us, or is it the those who want stricter immigration laws?  And obviously, it is the violent criminal and the terrorist, right?  Like I said, we know who we are supposed to be fighting, right?  If we don’t, there are plenty of folks who will tell us who we are supposed to fight, aren’t there? The tragic event of last Sunday at the nightclub in Orlando Florida brought to light a lot of this—within less than 24 hours of 50 folks losing their lives and 53 others being injured, battle plans were being put together and lines in the sand were being drawn—and along each of these lines, church folks around the nation were joining in, readily atta...

The Beatles’ “Yesterday” held the number one position on Billboard’s charts for four straight weeks in October of 1965.  “Tomorrow” helped propel 1977’s “Annie” to receive Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Musical Score.  Isn’t it interesting that with the amazing popularity of those two songs, for many of us, a song entitled “Today” doesn’t readily come to mind?  In fact, I didn’t know there was such a song until a friend told me that John Denver had a song entitled “Today.”  Why haven’t many of us heard of it?  Because it is not among the forty songs that John Denver had place anywhere on the Billboard music charts.  It was not a popular song. Why would “Today” not carry the same power as “Yesterday” or “Tomorrow”?  Is it just about differences in musical style?  Not really, John Denver did have 40 other songs on the charts, including four that made it to number one. Or, is it just because today is not as popular or valued as yesterday ...