Judges 4.1-5 & Acts 2.14-21  

On Both Men and Women I Will Pour Out My Spirit

 

This Sunday and next, we depart from the Lectionary in order to address the matter of women in ministry here at Grace Church.  The Session has adopted a new church policy on the role of women in ministry which permits women to do any kind of ministry that any non-ordained man may do. So, while our position reserves for men, authoritative preaching from the pulpit or becoming an elder in either name or function, it permits women to teach adult Sunday School, teach Bible studies, lead small groups, serve as ushers, serve communion, lead ministries or committees, etc., just as any non-ordained man may currently do.  This is based on a careful study of Scripture recently done in our denomination, as well as by our Session.  Today’s message seeks to lay out some of the Biblical contours that lead to this conclusion, paying particular attention to Peter’s quotation from the prophet Joel regarding the outpouring of the Spirit on both men and women in the church.

"This Is My Son…Listen to Him!”

Exodus 24:12-18 & Matthew 17:1-9

 

This Sunday is the last for the season of Epiphany and it points to the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus is seen on the mountaintop as the glorious, reigning Son of God. 

Up till now the disciples had only seen Jesus as a human that God was with. Now they are seeing him in his glory as the Son of God. They hear the affirmation of his glory from the Father saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”  The Father’s voice was pointing them to the One worthy of all their attention. What Peter and the other disciples were beginning to learn is the gospel. That Jesus is God come down to man in order to bring us to God. This sermon’s focus is how loving the gospel is listening to Jesus.

It is easy for us to become distracted by other people and things and miss the glory of Jesus. Peter was distracted by the presence of Moses and Elijah, two men God used to reveal himself to his people. But now Jesus, the one to whom the Law and the Prophets point, the one who will replace the law, is in front of them. And God has to tell them to "Listen to him!”  We need to listen to him everyday all day. Don’t be distracted by the Moses’ and Elijah’s of our day. They’re only men, but Jesus is the Son!  

Listening to the Son, with whom the Father is well pleased, is what gets you through this life. Listen to him, because he is greater than Moses. Listen to him because he is the mediator of a better covenant. Listen to him because his blood speaks better things than Able’s. Listen to him because in him God dwells with us. And as we listen to him, the Father’s pleasure with him, is the pleasure the Father has with us. 

OT Reading:    Isaiah 58.1-9a         

NT Reading:    Matthew 5.13-20     

Message:   The Kind of Fasting I Have Chosen       

 

The Old Testament Reading in the Lectionary for today places before us a scripture reading from the later portion of the prophecy of Isaiah.  Here we are looking ahead, to the deliverance and restoration of Israel after God’s judgment upon her.  Israel is redeemed from Babylonian bondage, but it is not restored to its former glory.  And so, they are seeking God’s favor.  They want God to make Israel great again.  So, in Isaiah 58, we find the people seeking God’s favor and, in particular, fasting as part of their approach to God.  But God is not restoring the glory, and they are puzzled and disappointed, and they are asking him, “Why?”  And God answers forcefully!  He points to their hypocrisy … the disconnect between their religious piety and their daily life.  In particular, he addresses the hypocrisy of their fasting, then lays before them the kind of fasting for which he looks.  Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Fast this way, says God, Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear.  That is how to make Israel great again! And so it is with the church.  If the church is feeling like it is being marginalized and trampled upon, says Jesus, it is because it has lost its saltiness.  But there is a way to make the church great again! It can do the fast God has chosen!  It can pursue good deeds, and in so doing be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to the glory of God and of his church.

"Boast in the Lord”

Text: Micah 6:1-8 & I Cor. 1:18-31

Sermon Synopsis:

 

No one likes a braggart. Usually its because we want to talk about ourselves! This Sunday’s lectionary tells us that God shuts down all competing boasts through the message of the cross.

But the cross, by the world’s estimation, doesn’t make sense. That a man should die for others to live, seems foolish. That one righteous person giving his righteousness to untold millions, seems absurd. How can this message of the cross stack up with other religions and other ideas of how to get to God? There are other “boasters" that are presented to us as capable of saving. Religions, self-effort, philosophies, and science. Don’t they compare? This sermon will show the reasonableness of boasting in the Lord. 

If God hauls you into to court, as he does Israel, how can you answer his charges? What boast will you make? 

Micah calls us to consider the saving acts of the Lord, to consider what you are to bring before the Lord and what is he pleased with? He is not pleased with the offering of wealth or religious sacrifices, even the offering up of one’s firstborn! The question before us is; Can anything compete with the offering that God himself makes in his One and Only Son? It is in him the Lord makes his boasts? Whose boast counts? This message, though foolish to the world, is the message that gives power to the weak, wisdom to the foolish, righteousness to the sinner, holiness to the vile, redemption to those counted as worthless.

In a time when many believers are timid about living the message of the cross, we need to be reminded to make our boast in the Lord, who placed us in Christ.

Isaiah 9.1-4    

1 Corinthians 1.10-18 

The Epistle Reading in the Lectionary for today places Paul’s call for unity before the Corinthian Church.  The Corinthian Church was divided!  In our text, the divisions fall along the lines of various leaders in the church: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, “Christ.”  Later in this Epistle, we see the church divided along the lines of spiritual gifts and ethnicity.  Even with regard to the Lord’s Supper, the church is divided along the lines of social class and wealth.  And so, after his initial address to this congregation, and a reminder of all God’s blessings, the very first thing he addresses is this matter of unity.  “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”  Unity is of utmost priority in the church, and thus, it must be ours as well here at Grace Church.

“Honor in the Eyes of the Lord”

 Isa 49:1-7 & I Cor. 1:1-9

 

 

The season of Epiphany continues to reveal Christ to us. Epiphany has been a part of the church calendar for centuries. Each year there is an intersection of the Sanctity of Life Sunday, a recent focus within church history, and Epiphany. There is a connection between these two things that is often overlooked. Sanctity of human life is narrowly viewed as addressing abortion. While that is true, it encompasses so much more! It is increasing the awareness of the value of human life because we are made in the image of God. Epiphany is the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles for the same reason, they are made in the image of God. 

Both the sanctity of life and Epiphany are calling our attention to the same issue, the value of the Imago Dei. 

Christ is the one who lifts the gloom, enlarges the nation, increases joy, shatters yokes and bars of oppression. (Isa 9) He does it through his cross. The message of the cross is the message of how God values the lives of those made in his image. It is where he trades the life of his Son for the lives of all of us who believe. So in a similar way that abortion is the trading of a life for a life, so the message of the cross is a trading of a life for life, but with a very different meaning and outcome. 

In an abortion, the right to life of the one is denied so that the right to life of another might “thrive”. The message of the cross is the right to life of the One is voluntarily given up so that the lives of many will thrive. In this way the Imago Dei is honored and God is glorified.

For this end Christians are to always work, regardless of political leanings. Party identity is submitted to identity in Christ. (I Cor. 1) 

This sermon will make the case for the sanctity of life as seen through the manifestation of Christ in the message of the cross. 

"Because God Was With Him”

 Isa 42:1-9 & Acts 10:34-43

 

This second Sunday of Epiphany our readings continue to show us how Christ has been made manifest to the Gentiles. However, over time, it is easily lost as to what the manifestation of Christ means. From both Isaiah’s text and Peter’s sermon in Acts 10, makes clear: Jesus Christ is Lord of all and everything he does is because God was with him. (Acts 10:38) The good that Christ does, the tenderness in which he does it, is all because God is with him. Jesus is our Fixer! Everything broken about our world and us Jesus fixes.  What is made manifest in what Jesus does is the truth that God was with him. 

Because God was with Christ, he is with his people, Jew and Gentile, in the same way he was with Christ. Because God was with him, we have a Messiah, a message, and a mission with a majestic end. 

This message will show how Christ’s manifestation is the driving force behind the Christian life.

Psalm 72.1-7, 10-14 and Matthew 2.1-12 

On this Epiphany Sunday, the Lectionary places before us the narrative of the Magi searching and finding the child Jesus, in Bethlehem.  Led by the star to the house where Jesus was, the Magi bow down and worship him, then “they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense and of myrrh.”  But this privilege of presenting Jesus with gifts, is not unique to the magi!  We have the same privilege, through the giving of our Tithes and Offerings.  As we look at this new year, this account challenges us to reflect on the degree to which our giving demonstrates our view of the privilege it is to present our gifts to Jesus, and how it might increase in the coming year.

"Quiet, Please!"

Psalms 119: 147 - 148 & Mark 1: 35 - 37

"When Joseph Woke Up”

Isa 7:10-16 & Matt. 1:18-25

 

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, our Scripture reading sets before us the story of Jesus' birth. But it is no ordinary birth! His birth is the fulfillment of an ancient promise about God being with us. The way he is conceived is scandalous to the human experience. Christ the Savior’s entrance into the world comes at the climax of the long ranging plan of God to be with man. 

God’s patience and his promise culminates in God putting on skin in order to deliver us from sin. This is what Joseph woke up to.

The text says, “When Jospeh woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” God being with us is meant to wake us to being obedient to the Lord’s command.  

When Jospeh woke up, he found meaning, purpose, and reason for living, all wrapped up in the promise of a coming child. 

Perhaps you are looking for the same things too? This sermon’s intent is to help wake up every reflective person to these things they're seeking, and yet, at the same time, discovering that they were sought by God first.