Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: Lamentations 1 (NLT)

THE VALUE OF LAMENT

1. Lament is form of protest: Lament lets the world (and God) know that which is not right. To lament is to name the pain, suffering, or injustice in our lives and in the lives of others.

2. Lament offers us a chance to express emotion: Lament offers us the opportunity to express anger, frustration, disappointment to God.

3. Lament offers us a chance to express confusion: Few things cause us to question the foundation of life more than suffering. When we suffer we ask questions about God’s character, God’s existence, and how the world is set up to run.

These poems show us that biblical story doesn’t ignore suffering. In addition, these emotional poems give a sacred dignity to human suffering.

Sermon Scripture: James 5:13-19 (NRSV)

James ends his letter with a call to prayer. In the previous verses, he’s just talked about how Christians should live with patience for the day when all things will be made right. This patience should lead us to a life of faith-filled prayer.

When we pray, we stand with one foot in the world as it is; filled with sickness, sin, and trouble while the other other foot stands in God’s new creation; filled with healing, forgiveness, and hope. Prayer brings new creation to bear on creation in such a way that we can experience healing and forgiveness!

Prayer is about standing in the gap and bringing more of God’s kingdom to bear on our lives. James ends his book with prayer because to live an everyday faith, we are going to need to have one foot in heaven and one foot on earth.

May you experience new life and encouragement in your prayer life today.

Sermon Scripture: James 2:1-17 (NRSV)

How many of us, when enjoying our favorite candy, sort out our favorite flavors and ignore or trade the others?

While this practice of sorting and evaluation is harmless when it comes to candy, the unfortunate truth is we all have a tendency to do the same thing when it comes to people. We assess, evaluate, and size people up to establish a pecking order. We tend to favor those who can benefit us and ignore those who cannot. James exposes this practice as evil.

His warning shows us this truth: The Church is to demonstrate the generous, universal love of God. Our faith in Jesus, if functioning properly in our lives, should lead us to faith-filled action in the world.

Sermon Scripture: James 1:9-11 (NLT)

Money. Whether you have a lot or a little, it’s easy to obsess over money. The Bible has some important wisdom to teach us about money. Here is just a short sampling:

Prov. 22:7 says, “The borrower is slave to the lender…”

Malachi 3:10 tells us to “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse.”.

Mark 12:41-44 calls us to generosity through the story of a widow who gave two small coins, which was nearly all she had.

These are important things we need to learn about money, but there is a deeper, more foundational thing to consider. What is the Christian’s relationship to money supposed to be?

James shares harsh words for those who are rich in 1:9-11, but who are these words for? What does it mean to be rich?

Sermon Scripture: 3:12-18 (NRSV)

The rise of “fake news” has made it difficult to discern what news is legitimate and what news is just trying to confirm biases and stoke fear of the other side. It turns out, though, this kind of confusion isn’t new. Early Christians faced a similar problem regarding wisdom.

James’ letter was written to a wide audience of Christians, so he was addressing widespread problems among Christians. One of the problems was this: some Christians claimed to have wisdom, but did not; while other had wisdom, but were discredited. So, James wrote to clarify the difference between wisdom and fake wisdom.

Sermon Scripture: James 3:1-12 (NRSV)

“Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Our, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.” -Uncle Andrew from The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The keen moral insight of Lewis is clear; the moment one thinks that an action that would be wrong for others is OK for them, they have puffed themselves up with pride and are heading for disaster.

When we speak evil against one another or pass judgement, we become a judge of the law, not subject to the law. We speak ill of others from a perceived moral high ground.

For James, this makes no sense! His wisdom is this: Those who call themselves Christians are to find themselves as servants of God.

Sermon Scripture: James 1:2-4; 5:7-11

According to the logic of James, 2020 is to be considered one of the most joy-filled years because of the trials we all faced.

This isn’t coming from someone who had it nice and easy in life. James personally experienced poverty, famine, and persecution. These words are not cheap cliche from someone who has lived in the lap of luxury. They are words from someone who has suffered deeply.

I’m convinced that part of the wisdom of James is that our lives are not to be blown side to side by every trial. Rather, we are to be anchored to the immovable God; patient for the work of God to be completed.

At the beginning of the book of Exodus, the Israelite people were enslaved by the Pharaoh in Egypt. God called a man named Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand that the Israelites be freed. Moses confronted Pharaoh many times, but Pharaoh refused! After finally agreeing to let them go, Pharaoh changed his mind because he realized building and production would stop the labor of enslaved people.

Harriet Tubman became a conductor of the Underground Railroad, leading many to freedom! Just as Moses led his people to freedom, so did Harriet, which is how she became known as a kind of Moses.

Harriet’s life reveals so much of Jesus to us. She never stopped working to help others find freedom. She freed literal captives. She stood up for the oppressed. She knew God wanted all people to be free and that all people were valuable!

Today, let’s learn about the life and work of Austin Channing Brown. Austin is a Christian black woman who fights for racial justice through activism and education.

Racism is prejudice against a person or group on the basis of their ethnic or racial identity. What does the Bible say about racism and social justice? Join us as we investigate together.

"Be perfect…” Mt. 5:48 

Throughout the scriptures, there is evidence that part of the work of God in our lives is to sanctify us. But what does this mean? How are we to understand this call? These are the kinds of questions Mildred Bangs Wynkoop dedicated her life to answering. 

Join us as we investigate the life and theological heritage we have gained from Mildred Bangs Wynkoop