Sermons from January 2016

Why Parables?

Have you ever been reading along in the gospels, thinking that you’re starting to get a good sense of what Jesus was about, when all of a sudden you ran across a parable that just really perplexed you? I sure HOPE so. It means you’re right where you should be, doing your best to unlock the secrets of and fully enjoy the great blessings of the kingdom of God.

Controversy

To me, it seems strange, standing in the midst of the modern mainline protestant Church and proclaiming that Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of controversy, a ministry about change, a ministry instituting innovation. Because that doesn’t quite sound like the Jesus we’re worshipping or sharing, does it?

A New Teaching

About two thousand years ago, a man who many now believe to be Emmanuel, God-with-us, stood in front of a crowd of people in a synagogue and taught some things that were pretty consistent with what God had been saying for thousands of years but that had also been overlooked or misunderstood or misinterpreted. Jesus said some things that should have sounded familiar to the people of God but that instead were received as “new” teachings. Jesus spread those “new” teachings through his words and his actions. But then, somewhere along the way, the people of God overlooked or misunderstood or misinterpreted those teachings again, so that now, two thousand years later, they sound new again. Church, I would submit it’s time for us to set aside our presuppositions and traditions about Jesus and instead seek to find the teachings of the Jesus we find in scripture. In the process, we will find something new, something wonderful, something life-giving and life-changing.