Sunday, May 31, 2015

Trinity Sunday

Psalm: Psalm 29
Old Testament: Isaiah 6:1-8
Gospel: John 3:1-17
Epistle: Romans 8:12-17

Well today is Trinity Sunday and it also happens to be my five year wedding anniversary. So it was a busy and fun weekend celebrating. Needless to say, I have not had much time to reflect on the nature and doctrine of the Trinity much this weekend. I do remember that last year I shared this humorous video about bad analogies for the Trinity. The video is still funny and still presents the challenges the church historically and still today has in trying to rationally explain the Trinity.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Pentecost Sunday

1st Reading
  Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14
  Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
2nd Reading
  Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21
Gospel
  John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Today is Pentecost Sunday; hopefully that doesn't come as a surprise to anybody. I know it is also Memorial Day, so that might have superseded Pentecost in some churches. In our church this morning, neither Pentecost nor Memorial Day was celebrated, although both were mentioned, and I suspect that is probably typical in Evangelic/Nazarene circles. But the fact that we don't celebrate "Memorial Day" is a shame. And by this I mean remembering our Christian heroes and saints who have gone before us. Testimony time has gone to the wayside and there is a definite lack of knowledge when it comes to church history. Remembering, or memorializing, is important not just for a country seeking to promote patriotism, but for a church hoping to keeps its story alive. It is also a shame that we don't celebrate Pentecost much. Pentecost can be a time when we reflect, celebrate and seek to understand just what the Church is--as a local entity, a denomination and as the Body of Christ across the world and throughout history from its beginning in the first century until now. I think both of these topics are underrepresented in our sermons and bible studies, but especially the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Easter Week 7 (Ascension Sunday)

Psalm: Psalm 47 or Psalm 93 
Acts: Acts 1:1-11 
Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 
Epistle: Ephesians 1:15-23

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus which occurred 40 days after the Resurrection. Traditionally, this celebration occurred on Thursday since that would actually be 40 days after Easter Sunday, but the feast has been moved since Sunday is an easier day to celebrate. The Ascension is kind of one of those weird churchy things that most evangelical churches have no idea what to do with and basically seem to ignore. This is somewhat strange because it is important to Jesus' ministry on earth and also crucial to the creeds of the Church. But the Ascension is also strange because if it were not for Luke's Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles, we wouldn't really know about the Ascension. So it is an event crucial to the life and ministry of Jesus and to the creeds of the Church, but one also that three Gospel essentially ignore.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Easter Week 6

Psalm: Psalm 98
Acts: Acts 10:44-48
Gospel: John 15:9-17
Epistle: 1 John 5:1-6

I want to continue our discussion of Acts this week especially in terms of the historical precedence set by Acts chapter 10 and the significance of where Luke places this account in his narrative of the early Church. Previously, the most notable non-Jewish convert in Acts was the Ethiopian eunuch we discussed last week who was converted to faith in Jesus by Philip. Following the account of Philip the narrative takes a turn to the conversion of Saul/Paul and the beginning of his ministry around Jerusalem and other cities in the areas of Judea and Samaria. But then beginning in chapter 10 the narrative takes a break to interject an account of Cornelius and Peter. We are probably familiar with Cornelius' and Peter's complementary dreams. Cornelius' dream tells him to find a man named Simon Peter in Joppa and invite him to your house. Peter on the other hand has a dream that tells him to kill and eat unclean and forbidden food for devout Jews. Peter was reluctant to make himself unclean, but as he woke-up Cornelius' servants arrived and invited him to visit the home of the gentile Cornelius. Although Cornelius was "one who feared God," it is unclear if he was a full proselyte--one who had converted to Judaism and followed all the Jewish customs, including circumcision. In any case some in his household, or his associates, were uncircumcised because Peter latter causes controversy by entering the house of and eating with uncircumcised Gentiles. But Peter interpreted his dream to mean that in Christ he was able to associate with unclean gentiles. (10:28)

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Easter Week 5

Psalm: Psalm 22:25-31 
Acts: Acts 8:26-40 
Gospel: John 15:1-8 
Epistle: 1 John 4:7-21

I hope you all are enjoying the start to May and the change in weather. Perhaps you also have been watching the TV show AD on NBC. Perhaps that is what is inspiring me to work with Acts in the weeks since Easter. But I am also finding the readings really interesting and learning some new things. I hope that your readings of Acts have been insightful as well. As interesting as Acts this week is, we also have to touch on our 2 readings from John and 1 John for no other reason than the importance of what they say.