Sermon Blog

Setting:  Person sitting at a table, doing some work, having a cup of coffee. Enter:  Another person carrying a box of donuts.  Walks up to the table and sets the box of donuts on the table and gently pushes them over to the person at the table.  Person at the table slowly looks up. Lee:  What is this? Dale:  Donuts. Lee:  Okay? Dale:  Go ahead. Lee skeptically lifts the lid and looks at the donuts. Lee:  I can have one? Dale:  You can have them all. Lee:  These are for me? Dale:  Yeah. Lee:  Really? Dale:  Yeah. Lee:  Why? Dale:  I don’t know.  You just looked hungry. Lee takes out a donut and takes a bite. Lee:  That is a good donut. Lee takes another couple of bites. Dale:  Well, I’ve got to hit the road.  Do you mind if I just take one for the road? Lee kind of looks thoughtfully at the box and at the guy. Lee:  Aaahhmm. Dale:...

By now, many of you know that we are Star Wars fans.  I have to admit, that while I watched all the original Star Wars movies when they were released, I waited a long time to watch Episodes I-III.  Yet it wasn’t until Joshua took an interest in Star Wars that we truly became hooked—and it wasn’t until I watched the two trilogies together than I began to realize that my thoughts on Star Wars had been all wrong.  I always thought Star Wars was about Luke Skywalker.  If you think it is, then I’m here to tell you that it is not…at least Episodes I-VI are not. Last year Joshua declared that his favorite person in Star Wars was Darth Vader.  Last October that is who Joshua decided he was going to dress up as.  That bothered me.  Part of the reason it bothered me was that Joshua claimed his disdain for my favorite character, Han Solo, and his ship, the Millennium Falcon.  I think of Han Solo as the brother in Jesus’ parable that says he isn’t goi...

            Today we conclude the“Seaside with Jesus” series that we began three months ago.  We started at beginning of Jesus’ ministry understanding that with Jesus we have the breaking of the Kingdom of God into this world. Then we experienced the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John and the leaving of their lives of fishing in order to follow Jesus.  Today, along with the last couple of weeks, we conclude with Jesus once more calling Peter to leave fishing behind, and come follow Him.  (The idea of leaving the fishing behind in order to follow Jesus is interesting, given the number of boats I saw heading out or own the water as I walked to church this morning.) Joshua really wasn’t old enough to start it until Davey had gone off to college…however, when Davey would come home the first couple of years, we would hear it. “Joshua, it’s time to go to bed.” “But I’m not tired.” “That doesn’t matter, ...

Joe Garagiola, former major league baseball star and TV personality, tells about a time when Stan Musial came to the plate in a critical game. As a super hitter, Musial was at the peak of his career. The opposing pitcher in the game was young and nervous. Garagiola, as the catcher, called for a fastball and the pitcher shook his head; Joe signaled for a curve and again the pitcher shook him off. He then asked for one of the pitcher's specialties and still the pitcher hesitated. So Joe went out to the mound for a conference. He said, "I've called for every pitch in the book; what do you want to throw?" "Nothing," was the pitcher's shaky reply. "I just want to hold on to the ball as long as I can." Last Sunday we considered the need to fish where Jesus says fish—the importance of going into all the world, regardless of whether we have been successful in the past, regardless of the dark places we may have to go, regardless of whether the means...

You know…I had originally considered a different message for tonight.  However, sometimes there are things that are just so big, you cannot go without addressing them.  Sometimes, you just have to talk about the elephant in the room, or in this case, the maze in the yard. This maze was the talk of the town as it was going up.  Everybody wanted to know what those crazy Methodists were doing.  I liked how Brenda compared it in the children’s message to the story of Noah building the ark—because some of the looks we got as folks drove by were probably not a lot unlike the stares of Noah’s neighbors. That first night the posts were up, before the walls went up, we brought Joshua to walk it, as part of his Seafood Festival substitute.  At first he was disappointed, but then, as he followed the lines on the ground, he became very determined, going back out and starting over every time he ran into a dead end. The real trouble began, though, once those walls...

Since the beginning of Creation, there has always been the question of whether or not we are responsible for our brother or sister.  In the Fall, we see, rather than taking responsibility for failing one another, Adam through his wife under the bus saying, “God don’t look at me…it’s not my fault I ate that fruit, that woman you gave me, she made me eat it,” never once owning up the fact that he was right there with her and did nothing to discourage her from taking a bit of the fruit.  Then there was Eve, who rather than claiming to have failed to look out for her husband, blamed the serpent.  It was their son, Cain, who was questioned by God about his brother Abel’s whereabouts, who asked God (knowing that he had killed his brother), “Am I my brother’s keeper—am I responsible for my brother?” The resounding answer through the rest of Scripture is “Yes.” That was the answer that led Joseph to care for his brothers when he became Pharaoh’s right hand man, despite the fac...

Little Johnny came to Sunday School late.   His teacher knew that he was usually very prompt, so she asked him, “Is anything wrong?" Johnny replied, “No.   I was going to go fishing with my dad, but at the last minute Dad decided I needed to go to church.” The teacher was very impressed.  “Did your dad explain to you why is was more important be to in church than to go fishing?” To which Johnny replied, “Yes, he did.  Dad said that he didn’t have enough bait for both of us!” The weather has been so beautiful the last few days, I’m sure that some folks lost the battle with temptation when it came to going to church or going fishing this morning.  I’m glad to see that all of you won that battle. Someone told me about a month ago that it was time to fish when the little yellow butterflies came to the Island, and a month ago they were everywhere.  I haven’t seen as many butterflies this past week, but have seen more and more folks fishing than ...