Sermon Blog

I saw the headlines on Thursday morning and part of me wanted to cry out like the Psalmist, “How long, O Lord, how long will the wicked win?”  Charleston, South Carolina—a horrendous massacre, attempts at another racial uprising.  And while this happened in Charleston, South Carolina, 290 miles from here—it truly hits a lot closer to home.  Dylann Roof walked into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and opened fire, killing nine of, not only our brothers and sisters in Christ, but our brothers and sisters within our Wesleyan Methodist heritage.  As the week moved on, I learned that it hit even closer to home, as I found out that in Roof’s confessed attempt to start a “race war,” two of those killed were the cousins of one of my colleagues and friends, Reverend Johnnie Wright, pastor of Mebane United Methodist Church, not 290 miles from here, but less than fifteen miles.  It is a heartbreaking story of a congregation living out the Gospel, welcoming the st...

This year makes my first intentional attempt at growing vegetables. When I was a student pastor we had a volunteer tomato plant come up in the back yard of the parsonage.  That experience was interesting.  Never having done any gardening before, I way over fertilized that tomato plant and it grew big enough that it would dwarf most of the shrubs around any of our homes.  It was hearty enough that it withstood the winds of Hurricane Fran while possible funnel clouds ripped the tops out of many of our neighbors’ trees and it was still producing tomatoes when the mid-November frost came in. This year I haven’t done the “over-fertilization” and we probably won’t have a repeat of that volunteer.  But, if any of you come by the parsonage, you will see our German Johnson in the pot on the front porch.  You will also see our first attempt at growing peppers as we are also raising a chocolate habanero that was given to me as a seedling by Eber, one of my friends from Bi...

The warehouse loudspeaker rings with the voice of the office secretary.  Her voice summons you to the manager’s office.  He begins with, “You have been a very dedicated employ, but we are having to make some hard decisions….” The phone rings.  You answer.  From the other end you hear, “Hello.  This is Dr. Smith’s office.  The test results are in.  The doctor would like you to come in this afternoon.” There is a knock at the door.  You open the door to be greeted by two police officers.  You barely remember hearing them say, “We’re sorry sir.  There’s been an accident.” The storm warning had come over the television.  You have taken refuge in the bathtub and pulled a mattress over you and your infant granddaughter.  You hear the winds picking up and the creaking of wood. It is Pentecost.  It is the day that as the Church universal that we celebrate God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the world, giving birth ...

The commercial was from the 1980’s and opened with a guy gluing his helmet to a steel girder and hanging there swinging with it holding all his weight.  The pitch following that stunt that I don’t know as I would try, the pitch was, “…it bonds almost anything...a plastic knob, a plastic plug, a rubber boot, a metal broach, a fishing rod, a cycle grip, model planes and model trains, a door knob screw, a flashlight case, broken trim on any car….”  What was the product?  That’s right…Krazy Glue…or, thanks to The Lego Movie, “Kra..gl….” We have experienced the Holy Spirit as the “wind of God” or the “breath of God,” bringing new life wherever it is found…with it is the birth of our world, the birth of humanity, the birth of Jesus’ ministry, the birth of the disciples’ mission, and the birth of the church…new life erupting anywhere it is present. We have experienced the Holy Spirit as water and fire…the water of our baptism binding us to Christ, removing our sin, and pl...

Who in here likes walking in an unfamiliar dark room?  We stumble through the room running into the furniture bruising our shins, stepping on toys breaking them, tripping and falling, or, worse yet, as happened to me visiting a friend during my college years, have your toes land in something a sick family pet left behind.  Nothing really good happens when we choose to walk in the dark. We’ve spending time for several weeks now considering the variety of ways we experience God’s Holy Spirit.  Today we move into the second half of our reflections leading up to Pentecost and the celebration of the outpouring of God’s Spirit and the birth of the Church. We’ve considered how we might experience the Holy Spirit as life-giving wind or breath—from the wind of God blowing over the earth at is creation, to the Breath of God being blown into the lungs of the first of humanity to Jesus breathing out His Spirit upon the disciples after the resurrection as He sent them out into ...

It’s not something that Anita and I use or even own. Anita and I didn’t even register for a set or request any when we became engaged and married.  We were moving into a mobile home and didn’t really know where we would put any.  For those of you who were here eleven years ago on my first Sunday, y’all probably already know this, remembering that I told you that if you came to the parsonage you would most likely be eating on the finest china that you can purchase at Walmart and dispose of afterwards.  I don’t know when the last time my parents used their china (they didn’t remember either).  What I do remember about china, other than so many couples registering for sets when they get married, is from my grandmother’s house.  That’s where I learned there was something special about the china.  It was not kept in the same cabinets as the other dishes.  The china was a special set of dishes, along with the special set of silverware, and the special set...

John was supposed to be getting things ready for his cousin’s ministry to start.  He was the “opening act” for God’s main show if you will.  I wonder, though, how many of us would have felt led to line up and wait for Jesus to show, after hearing John.  John was kind of a gruff, tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy. He wasn’t in the synagogue or the temple, he was out at the Jordan River. Had he been in the temple or synagogue at any point?  It’s possible.  His father was a priest, after all.  Maybe his gruff message got him run out.  For any who know Methodist history, we know that it wouldn’t be unheard of for a preacher to get run out of the church for being confrontational and being relegated to preaching outdoors. Anyways, John is out at the river preaching, confronting folks with their sinfulness, and calling them to repent—to confess that they are sinners, and to turn their life around.   People were gathering at the river, hearing hi...