Sermon Blog

  What would you consider to be the greatest sports comeback in history? Duke actually gets a mention in some lists.   Their comeback from twenty-one points down to Maryland in the second half to win by nine, and then go on to win the national championship two days later. Many sports enthusiasts label an event from nearly ten years ago to be the all-time greatest.   They were down by three games in the best of seven series and no one in the history of their sport had ever come from that far behind to win the championship.   Yet as they overcame injuries, including one that resulted in a now infamous (at least in the world of baseball) “bloody sock,” the Boston Red Sox shook off their 86 year old curse and defeated their archenemy New York Yankees to claim the American League Championship before going on to win the 2004 World Series. The thing about sports victories, though, is that they are temporary.   In 2002, Duke didn’t even reach the final f...

  It’s early y’all.   It’s not a lot different that it was for the women on that morning nearly two thousand years ago.   It would have been a little cool, the grass damp from the morning dew.   The birds may have been singing.   The sun was slowly breaking over the horizon.   The women, though, were probably oblivious to it all.   Their world had settled into eternal darkness on that Friday afternoon when the skies grew black, and if black can get darker, it did for them as Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus off the cross, laid it in an empty tomb, and then sealed it shut.   These women would have taken no notice of birds singing and the sun climbing into the sky.   Some of you here can relate.   You have laid a loved one to rest.   You know what it is like to be cold, numb, and blind to what is going on in the rest of the world…you just know that your world is dark.   Like many here who spend time...

How many of you remember the 1984 commercial with “Fred the Baker” as he got up day after day after day to make the donuts?   You would watch him get up, barely awake, and drag himself out the door on the way to make the donuts, then return home from making the donuts…over and over again until he finally meets himself, saying, “It’s time to make the donuts,” and responding to himself, “I made the donuts.”   While we all laughed, you could see the weariness on his face as he got up to repeat the same task he has done the previous day. Despite the humor intended, many of us could sympathize with Fred.   Most of us can think of times in our lives where we found ourselves having to repeat the same task or the same job or make the same efforts over and over again.   We may not have had to rise before dawn, but the weariness of repetition would set in, especially if the actions we were repeated were because the results of what we had done the first time were onl...

There are some things that once you see them, you can’t “unsee” them.   They become part of who you are and how you experience life from that point forward.   One that Davey introduced to me was the “Fed-Ex” arrow.   How many of you see the arrow in the Fed-Ex logo between the “E” and “x”?   Once you see it for the first time, the arrow takes a predominate place in the logo and you can’t not see it anymore.   How about the “g”/”face” combo in the Goodwill symbol? The “31” in Baskins Robins?   Or the fact that Amazon claims to have everything from “A” to “Z” for sale on their website? There are other things that are not so pleasant that folks have trouble unseeing?   Maybe it is a visit to a poverty stricken country where families scour dumps to survive from day to day?   Maybe it is a city in the wake of a natural disaster?   Maybe it is a crime scene?   Maybe it is discovering a loved one deceased?   Maybe it is a terrorist ...

  I’d like to do a survey this morning?   Is there anyone here wearing an injection needle?   An electric chair?   A rifle?   A hangman’s noose?   A guillotine?   How about a cross?   Every one of those items are instruments of execution, yet we are unwilling to adorn our necks, ears, clothing, vehicles, and homes with the needles, electric chairs, rifles, nooses, and guillotines.   When it comes to crosses, though, we often don’t pause a moment to think about wearing them or using them to decorate.   What is it about this most barbaric form of execution—because the reality of it is that all of those other means of implementing the death penalty are, comparatively speaking, quick and humane, compared to crucifixion—what is it about the cross that causes us to make an exception to the rule when displaying instruments of death?   What makes the cross beautiful while the others are things that we would rather not see? There m...

  How many of you have ever felt powerless? I imagine over the last few days quite a number of us have felt powerless…in fact, many of us may still feel powerless this morning and may have come here not only to worship but as a refuge of the cold and darkness.   Anita and I, as I am sure many of you have, have been powerless on a number of occasions.   In fact as we sat in the cold on Friday morning we debated.   We have lost power due to winter storms and hurricanes and were discussing which time of the year was the worst to lose power.   She suggested it was the winter time, because you simply get cold and it’s hard to get warm, and probably, it would seem that way to many because it is also a time of the year when it stays dark longer.   I, on the other hand, think myself more practical.   In the summer time when the power goes out, the things in your refrigerator and freezer get warm a lot quicker, and the ice you use to keep stuff cold i...